Eclectic Vintage – Thrift The Look

Welcome back lovelies!  I am beyond excited to be “hanging out” with my, Thrift the Look friends again. It feels like it’s been too long since we’ve shared in this creative challenge!  This time around we are exploring, eclectic decor. Not shockingly, I am sharing my take on eclectic vintage decor. If this is your first time here, you may be wondering what, Thrift the Look is?

Thrift The Look

The concept is simple really. We collectively pick a theme, this time our theme is, Eclectic Decor.  Then, each of us find an image of the decor that inspires us and we “recreate” our versions of said image, using thrifted or up-cycled items. This wonderful challenge is hosted by my clever friend, Sarah, she blogs over at Sadie Seasongoods. Sarah is a must follow, I know you won’t want to miss any of her repurposing and upcycling projects.

Features of Eclectic Decor

Eclectic decor is not known for any hard and fast rules. Usually it’s created by mixing and matching a few types of home decor looks into one overall theme. Here are a few common aspects.

Mixed textures:  One characteristic of eclectic style is the mixing of textures.  Purposefully combining textures to create visual interest.

Mixing old and new:  Mixing old and new in an eclectic home creates a cozy and unique space one that tells a story.  The meshing of different time periods into one beautiful look is my favourite.

The unexpected: You will often find unexpected touches in eclectic decor. Think windows for cabinet doors, piano stools as side tables, a rusty spring hanging on a wall or even avon bottles as home decor.

Before we jump into how I tackled this challenge,  let’s have a peek at some of my past TTL posts.

Past Thrift The Looks

Vintage Lakehouse decor

Boho Inspired 

Garden Inspired Decor

Now on to the latest challenge.

Eclectic Inspiration

Image Source

I was completely inspired by the photography and styling in this image, when I work on these challenges I sometimes get caught up in making it the exact same look and feel. Once I set that thinking aside I start to focus on what I love about my inspiration photo. In this image, I love the textures, the muted colours and the composition. So, with that in mind here are the thrifted items I used to create my thrifted look.

My Thrifted Goodies

In this corner, I wanted to highlight the silver. The round shape of the horn and the height of the lamp. I used  a thrifted oil lamp ($5), a thrifted silver plate and two of my vintage trophies.

No taxidermy seagull on hand? No problem.  Instead I used a thrifted milk glass nesting dove, placed it on top of a wooden flea market find, then topped it all off with a glass cloche. I love the way it turned out.  The inspiration image is set against a very dark colour, I wanted to add some dark elements into my vignettes too since my shelfs are white. I did that by adding some wooden typeset trays and some drawers. The little piece of art in the inspo photo, the grid like image, I think they are rocks or acorns?  I decided to use a cubby like drawer on its side and use some felted acorns I made to recreate that grid like piece of art. The antler, from a different animal yes, the colours are so similar I had to use it.

The left hand side of the middle shelf, a vintage movie camera on top of thin stacked books. Since I didn’t have any luck finding any of those things in my picking adventures, I focused on the colours. The caramel colour in the stacked books was solved by the thrifted leather bound books I had on hand. My $1 antique camera score, while not a movie camera adds a bit of contrast and speaks to the idea of bygone photography. A mini cloche adds that glass element too, just like in the inspirational image.

The thrifted goodies in this vignette, a frame with an image from Etsy,  vintage thrifted books, a brass doorbell and a cream coloured fringed throw. All of those combined  treasures  completed this right hand side of the middle shelf.

It is rare to find flower frogs while out thrifting, I have found some during my hunting adventures over the years, thankfully. These lovely green beauties represent the green horse heads from the inspo photo.

The bottom left hand shelf evolved slowly. I looked everywhere for a reasonably priced antique stoneware foot warmer like in the inspiration image, they are usually quite expensive. So I checked my  stoneware stash and thought, why not just use this jug? I love the colour, it totally fits the palette. I’m really loving how laying the stoneware down looks. I’m also happy with the touch of brass and the blue insulator. This corner, done and done!

The bottom right-hand vignette was a bit more of a challenge for me. I decided to focus on the cubbies in the inspiration image, they are dark and have some gold and dark contrasting tones. Some of the thrifted goodies here, the yes/no brass spinner, the quail Avon bottle and the metal drawers, turned on their faces to create a cubbie of sorts.

What do you think? Did I captured the overall look and feel of my inspiration photo?

Eclectic Vignettes

One of my favourite cabinets, one that I built myself. I love how this corner and cabinet change constantly, eclectic vintage  is right at home here.

Let’s have a closer look.

The center of this cabinet is my favourite – that may be obvious by the amount of photos I took of this shelf.

The Gentleman riding on a vintage buggy is a sentimental image for our family. My Father in-law used to train horses in harness racing, flying around a track on a sulky was something special to see.

How many obsessions are too many?

This camera is one of my favourite thrifted finds.

Drawers and  thrifted goodies, paired perfectly.

I really can’t tell you how much I adore this creative challenge, I love how it pushes me outside of my comfort zone.

They just don’t make doorbells like this any more.

This challenge pushed me out of my comfort zone like I said and I’m very happy with the results.

As per usual, some of my blogging friends (aka, the Creative Vintage Darlings on Facebook), also took on their own versions of Thrift the Look: Eclectic Decor.

I hope you’ll check out their ideas, as well.

Thrift the Look Team

*****

Sadie Seasongoods | Vin’yet Etc.

One House 2 Barns | Little Vintage Cottage

Lora Bloomquist | Join “Creative Vintage Darlings” on Facebook!