How do you marry antiques, contemporary, and vintage while keeping the vibe modern?
Homes that have real heart and soul are decorated with real flair, often featuring a mix of contemporary, vintage, and antique pieces.
It lends them a sense of individualism.
It’s the same reason celebrities now choose vintage garments to walk the red carpet, secure in the knowledge that no one else will be papped in their look.
While you can try on a slew of dresses to find the right look with relative ease, finding furniture to fit your home is less straightforward.
Admiring something in a showroom, where the proportions and scale of the space are different from those at home, can make it hard to visualise.
If the antique or vintage dealer knows you, they might let you take a piece home to see if it suits before you commit. Many decorators have this privilege.
Without those kinds of connections, you will have to note the measures and take a chance that the piece works.
Some designers skillfully weave eras together to make it look effortless.
But there is a methodology to it, says Eoin Lyons, of architectural and design practice Lyons Kelly.
They buy a lot of vintage furniture and use several pieces in every room they complete.
“Mostly we use lamps, smaller upholstery items, and tables because it is more important that the larger items are new and function very well.”
He says they give a one-off element to a room and something unique.
“The vintage pieces cancel the sense of ‘just-installed’ a room can have when everything has been recently bought.”
How they put a look together is not a formula, he explains.
“It really is on instinct - from the start of a complete house project, we have a look or atmosphere we are trying to create, and we start to visit vintage shops and galleries with our clients to find pieces that fit with this idea.
"Then it is really choosing things that stand out and that appeal to the client.
"Sometimes we don't have a location in mind, we buy because we like them and work the rest out later.”
“Art and antiques bring depth to a scheme,” agrees Jackie Treacy, interior designer and proprietor of new décor store Jaqui.
She’s populated the showroom with a series of antique finds and is also collaborating with several art galleries to give her clients access to all in one space.
Functionality has to come into the mix, adds Martin Fennelly, whose eponymous shop is on Francis Street, Dublin 8.
The global nature of shopping has brought a new breed of buyers.
“They don’t need to see it and touch it before making a purchase. If what they’re looking for is what they want, they buy it.”
One recently purchased a neat, five-piece rosewood dining set, four chairs and a table, circa 1950 by Paolo Buffa, for €4,950.
Size-wise, it is modest enough to fit in a small apartment and is presently in is in his lock-up waiting to be shipped to a designer in New York.
Fennelly is no longer just an antique dealer.
He now stocks a mix of contemporary pieces alongside his art deco, art nouveau, Victorian, Georgian, mid-century, and mid-century modern finds.
Fifty per cent of what he sells is contemporary, and the rest is art deco and mid-century, where the demand is in antique and vintage trends.
He’s got a M199 bar cabinet in bands of pale oak and eucalyptus veneer, a modern piece that has an art deco-inspired design, €4,990.00, from Amsterdam-based Eicholtz.
He feels it will work well with more historic furniture.
When buying lighting, Fennelly counsels buyers to choose clear glass options. “It is more timeless.”
Michael Mortell, who also has a shop on Francis Street, says the practice of mixing eras and epochs “gives a sense of history to the room, like it was created over time, not out of the box.”
Lyons shops at Michael Mortell and Killian McNulty on Dublin’s Francis Street. Visits to London begin at Dorian on Church Street for general furniture, Carlton Davidson for lighting, and Fiona MacDonald for mirrors.
"When we go to Paris, the first stop is the Paul Bert market in Saint-Ouen. It is only open at weekends, and two of the best stands are Simonet and Palazzo Lexcellent. A new source we found is Brunswick Art + Design for 1950s-70s design, and we buy a lot from Galerie Paradis, a large space in the 2nd."
