Your walls shouldn’t just be filled—they should tell a story. If you’ve ever dreamed of creating a home that feels soulful, collected, and full of charm, vintage art wall decor just might be your secret weapon.
“Collect things you love, that are authentic to you, and your house becomes your story” -Erin Flett
If you’re a vintage and antique lover or if you’re interested in just making your home more special and story-telling, let’s look at some ideas to use special antique wall pieces to do just that! It’s not always for everyone, but those of you that want to bring some “character” or a sense of nostalgia to your home, you can use these ideas to get started easily.
Let’s jump into some types of antique wall decor, places to find them and some good ‘ol ideas to inspire you!
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What “Counts” as Vintage Art Wall Decor?
What classifies something as vintage? How about antique? Believe it or not, there is a difference!
Antique items are only actual antiques if they are over 100 years old. While the term vintage is a lot more cloudy. There isn’t a set age for what’s considered vintage because it can be used pretty loosely for “older” and not made recently. An article from The Spruce breaks it down really simply.
Crazy there’s actually a concrete difference there!
Types of Vintage Wall Decor to Look For
This is just a small list compared to what you can find out there in the wild. Which honestly, makes it that much more fun trying to see what you can find!
Here are some vintage wall pieces to get you on the right track and give you some ideas:
- Framed vintage paintings
- Mora Clocks
- Mirrors
- Botanical and scientific prints
- Old maps or architectural drawings
- Embroidery hoops, cross-stitch samplers
- Vintage advertising signs or posters
- Plates and trays hung gallery-style
- Framed sheet music or handwritten letters
- Retro mirrors with ornate or brass frames
If you decide you want, say, a vintage gallery wall, using several different types of vintage wall decor is key.
It gives your space that collected look even more.
Where to Find Vintage Art Wall Decor
You might have browsed Goodwill or the second hand shop and saw some cool treasures. But depending on if you’re just browsing to see what you find or if you’re looking for something specific or rare, that can change where you should be looking.
Here is a small list of some really great places to look for vintage wall decor or vintage in general:
- Thrift stores and flea markets
- Estate sales and auctions
- Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist- Check the FREE section too!
- Etsy and Chairish (especially for curated or hard-to-find styles)
- Local vintage or antique stores
- Reclaimed pieces from family or friends (sentimental + sustainable)
Pro Tip: A fun idea would be to get a group of some of your family or some friends that love vintage together for a “swap party”. I mentioned this as one of the ways to decorate your home for free previously.
If you can score some free decor you love AND have it be vintage, then cue the party music!
Styling Ideas for Vintage Wall Decor at Home
If you have a space you want to use your vintage wall decor in, there are different ways of styling them to add some variety and pizazz.
Gallery Walls
Gallery walls are perfect for larger areas on a wall and can display different kinds of pieces in a cool way. If you’re going to create a type of gallery wall, my advice would be to plan it out first. Meaning, don’t start blindly nailing a piece of decor to the wall without first knowing where everything should go as a set.
Look through what you have or you could even go over to Etsy and search specifically for a vintage art collection for the whole gallery wall. These types of listings will let you make a small purchase for several vintage art printables that work well together on a gallery wall.
Pro Tip: One of my favorite tips for this would be to lay out your wall art and decor on the floor first and arrange it all how you want it on your wall. Then you can nail one at a time.
Use Large Scale Art
It’s pretty simple sounding but depending on the spot in your home, just using one wall art item that is pretty large works perfectly.
For instance, find some focal points in your home such as your living room, maybe where there are some bare walls. You can try a few vintage pieces that are larger but still fit the area you’re working with nicely and let it be simple.
Look around for some pretty vintage landscapes or an abstract oil painting as these can be perfect for this!
Check out these examples:
Layering Small Pieces
Ever seen someone use pretty small wall decor NOT nailed on the wall?
The idea of using several smaller but differing sizes of vintage wall decor on a mantle or a shelf can look just right if you’re not wanting to nail anything and create any nail holes in the wall.
Hanging Art in Unexpected Places
This isn’t for everyone, but there are ideas out there for hanging vintage art in places that, well, aren’t expected.
Like these altered vintage art pieces that are in a bathroom:
Click the photos to shop!
It’s your home, so be creative and try different things out in different rooms to see what you like.
Even if it isn’t “conventional”.
Honestly doing this can really give your home that unique style!
Mixing Vintage and Modern
You can opt to have your home house decor that is all considered vintage or even antique or you can decide to do a mix of some modern pieces with your vintage too.
This can mean using one wall decor piece that is vintage and another that is more modern style. Another idea would be to use a more modern print (love some botanical illustrations) inside of a beautiful ornate frame for some timeless charm.
It depends on you and your personal style really. If you’re not sure what your personal decorating style is, it’s helpful to get somewhat of an idea first.
Here are some great examples of mixing modern and vintage in the home:
Conclusion
Using vintage wall decor or vintage in general for your home can be great when you want to bring some history, originality, and even personality in. I harp on the importance of focusing on making your home right for you and you only. Using vintage or antique pieces and getting some ideas for using them can actually make your space more unique to you which really can help you feel that belonging at home.
We need that!
It’s more than okay just use modern, just use vintage, or do a mix. But sometimes at least having some pieces in your home that are more original, things that not alot of other people have, can really make home feel personal to you. Not to mention vintage pieces seem to be standing the test of time and most likely will even longer too.
Tell me in the comments below:
What’s your favorite vintage wall decor item?
I love hearing what you think and read them all!