When planning to redecorate your home, one of the best ways to give your home a new look is using antiques and pre-owned décor. Today, most interior design products have an impact on the environment. Practicing sustainable design in your home is not only beneficial but also a great way to save money. It also helps to reduce the carbon footprint.


How to Create Sustainable Design with Antiques & Pre-owned Decor


Pre-owned pieces are cheap, durable, and repairable, which makes them a great alternative, unlike the disposable designs of today. However, the importance of keeping a balance in terms of style, texture, shape, and color is vital. A perfect blend will enable you to achieve the sustainable design you desire in your home.

Using antique and pre-owned furnishings in your design implies blending items with different aesthetic appeal, and that can be several years apart. Even if they belong to the same period, you need to ensure that they don’t seem derivative. You should be careful in styling and sourcing antique objects that fit in your space and still look original and appealing. To ensure that the item you buy is a unique antique, only work with reputable vendors and dealers that you can trust.

Placement of Antiques and Pre-owned Items

antiques and pre-owned decor for sustainable design
Photo by Taylor Simpson on Unsplash

Creativity during placement is an essential factor when decorating your room with pre-owned items and antiques. A great technique is making the antique the point of focus in the room. This means placing the antiques in easily visible areas such as the floating shelf. Alternatively, you can place the antiques on the bookshelf. The goal when placing old items and antiques is not to make them stick out but to bring out the memories of a past era.

Use Antiques with Timeless Look

antiques with timeless appeal for sustainable design
Photo by Taylor Simpson on Unsplash

If you have plenty of antiques to use in the design, you can pick only those that exhibit a timeless appeal. Using antiques with the timeless appeal will ensure that your rooms look stylish and fresh and it will cost you less time and money spent on upkeep. Insert the pre-owned stuff and antiques in a modern design. One of the most popular options is to place the photos on the shelf or hang them on the walls. Keep your family history alive by using modern frames from 1stDibs without interfering with the design. Antiques with everlasting look perfectly blend with modern-curio. It allows them to look updated on display.

black velvet chaise with a pleated and curved back - millicent chaise by koket

Use Rustic Pieces

Making use of vintage craft projects or rustic pieces is another way to decorate your home with antiques. Rustic pieces match well with old photos. A good way of doing this is combing your cowboy photos with the rustic windowsill. Alternatively, house antiques using rustic shelves and blend them with pre-owned furniture.

rustic decor in sustainable design
Source: Photo by Julie Aagaard via Pexels

You can also arrange the pre-owned items in a shadowbox and then place them on the wall or table. A shadowbox allows you to have all your antiques in an appealing vintage display that will match with various room designs.

Picking Furniture for Your Sustainable Design

living room with antiques by jordan carlyle carlyle design
Interior design by Jordan Carlyle / Carlyle Designs

Green furniture companies are emerging in response to the increasing demand for eco-friendly and sustainable furniture demands. Sustainable furniture is beneficial because they are reusable. The goal of the furniture is to deliver the comfort you need in your home while reducing the environmental impacts. With many Eco-friendly furniture options, you can easily find those that match your wall color or flooring.

When redesigning your home, make use of furniture made from bamboo plants or any other natural wood. You can still use furniture made using recycled materials such as water bottles. Another alternative is buying pre-owned items since they offer environment-friendly alternatives; blend them with new items from Sotheby’s Home to get that great look. The good thing is that you don’t need to hire experts since there are plenty of resources online that guide you to achieve the interior look you need in your home.

Eco-friendly Flooring Design

living room with cork flooring

Flooring your home has to be at the center of the designing process. It gives you a great way to introduce sustainable products as you start from the ground and go upwards. Today, there are several eco-friendly flooring materials that you can use thanks to the step-up by manufacturers providing environmentally friendly solutions.

Cork is one of the natural products that you can use for flooring. Getting the bark which makes the corks from trees is possible without necessarily cutting them down. You can finish this fire-resistant and anti-microbial wood with a variety of paints to match your design. What’s impressive about this material is its durability and can last up to 30 years depending on its quality.

Bamboo is also another building material that is increasingly becoming popular due to its quick regrowth and zero impact on the environment. Rubber, concrete, glass tiles and wool carpet are other flooring materials you can use.

Conclusion

Everyone likes a beautiful home environment. As an environmentalist, you need to have beautiful fittings and objects that make you happy around to achieve this. Making your home eco-friendly doesn’t have to cost you a fortune, you only need some creativity and make use of antiques, and pre-owned items for your interior design. You can then enhance the revamp with some modern fixtures, fittings, and electronics from reputable dealers. Make sure you conceal exposed electrical cord, if any, to enhance the aesthetic appeal of your newly renovated house.

Don’t use anything made from plastic or not eco-friendly to achieve your goals. Trends are not long-lasting, but keep in mind that classic design elements can look appealing for a long time. Once the items reach the antique status, there is a high chance that they will have the same look in 100 years. This is why it is important to redecorate your room with a blend of modern and old items.


Sustainable Architecture: How to Combine Luxury & Eco-friendliness