Using Architectural Antiques to Decorate Your Home

Do you own a period home or wish you did? Architectural salvage has become a unique way to enhance the period you are trying to accomplish in your decorating. In the past only shabby chic or cottage style used architectural findings to decorate and the result was often less than finished. Now you can use clever groupings or a re-purposed antique to finish a room and highlight the age of your home.

What Are They?
When thinking of architectural antiques you may focus on something as simple as a window and window frame re-purposed to frame a picture or a mirror. Much more to the point would be a balustrade, column or pediment, even from an exterior, moved interior and used either to refinish the interior or highlight is by being used as a plant or sculpture stand. Similarly, people re-purpose wrought iron fixtures, lampposts, court room benches, and even tin ceilings and Tiffany chandeliers.

How to Use Them 
These elements do not have to be purposed to your specific period. It all depends on the look you are trying to accomplish. For instance, you may live in a modern house but wish for a gingerbread type Victorian. In your living room, you have Victorian furniture. A grouping of porch posts, corbels and other gingerbread, hung artfully on the wall, perhaps a framed Victorian window with a landscape of a Victorian house behind it, and you have accomplished your look.

Where to Look
Salvage houses sell pieces found in breaking down homes, and antique stores even sell windows and shutters in addition to valuable pieces like fountains and wrought iron. With the internet, many more options are available on eBay and through search engines. It can be part of the fun of using architectural antiques to go on a search of flea markets and yard sales to find your elements.

The delight of using these elements is the unique ability to design for your own home in a way that will not be replicated in another place.