Helpful Tips: How to Decorate with Antique Furniture

People might think that antiques are old-fashioned.

But they can't imagine the touch of personality they can bring to your home if you use them well in your decor.

After living with my antique dealer husband for over 25 years, I've learned the secrets of how to use antique pieces in your home.

When clients come to the store and I tell them about my husband, they think my house is full of antique fans hanging on the walls!!

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I live in a very modern house where antique pieces must be scarce, unique, and of quality to give our home character and personality.

It hasn't been easy, but here's how to do it:

Decorating with antique and modern furniture:

Today, it's about finding a balance between the old world and the modern world.

Use the 80/20 rule here: 80% modern and 20% antique or vice versa.

Just as we dress entirely in Zara with a luxury brand handbag, we should do the same with antiques.

If you live in a house with strikingly contemporary architecture, the counterbalance of an antique piece will greatly benefit your decor, lending warmth and personalizing your home.

If, on the contrary, you live in an apartment with architecture where the setting is already antique, you should still choose a piece from the first half of the 20th century to achieve that balance. You will lighten the atmosphere and avoid a too-traditional result.

Dare to! Put an antique piece in its most extreme state of decay.

Don't be afraid to use a mirror with its mercury-backed glass so worn that you can barely see yourself.

Or a frame with its gilding largely chipped off.

This way you will achieve the desired contrast and take the seriousness out of your decor.

A tip I recommend is that if you have an antique piece, try to update it. Always with the utmost respect for the history of the furniture.

Sometimes clients come to my shop with beautiful antique lamps, and we look for a modern fabric to make the shade simply casual, modern, and elegant.

The result is superb.

If you put an antique chest of drawers in a living room and place a modern art painting on top, the mix is perfect.

Here's an example from my husband's shop:

Having an antique dealer husband has its good side and its bad side.

The good side is that he has the ability to provide us with some very unique and attractive pieces.

The bad side is that he often confronts us, because he sees decoration in a very different way.

When I'm not looking, he'll put something I call "the dead woman's hand" on the living room table (an arm that belonged to a polychrome carving so realistic it sends chills down your spine, and I gave it that nickname).

When he leaves the house, I take it off and put it in the closet!!

Another anecdote is that when my children were born, I wanted to set up a nursery with teddy bears, and my husband wanted to put a Louis XVI chest of drawers in there.

The clients in the store crack up laughing!!

By the way, to all of you who have antique tables, don't forget to put a table protector under your tablecloth to protect it.