Antique Vintage Aesthetic Bedroom

Today we are talking about an antique vintage aesthetic bedroom from how to decorate in this style to antique bedroom ideas. If you love vintage and antiques then you will love this bedroom renovation.

Recently we decided to decorate an antique vintage aesthetic bedroom for my daughter. For over a decade this antique bed, which belonged to her Mema McDonald, has sat in our attic and all this time she told me she wanted that bed in her bedroom one day.

So after her sister moved from home, she occupied her old bedroom and we brought the full-size bed into her room and then we made changes to the room to give that Cottagecore aesthetic that she has long loved even before it was given a name.

Now that you know the back story of what inspired us to decorate in this style, let me walk you through how to create an antique bedroom for your home, and antique bedroom ideas.

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Decorating a Vintage Bedroom FAQs:

What is Vintage Decorating Style?

The best way I can describe this style of design is to go back in time. Pretend you are living years ago and imagine your bedroom in that period. Watching old shows or movies that take place in another part of history helps to get you in the mood. It also helps to do a little history research. Look at the way people lived in that time period. Your bedroom is a great place to decorate with a vintage style since it's the last thing you'll see at night and the first thing you'll see in the morning. The best part about decorating a vintage bedroom is that it will be unique to your tastes and style.

How Can I Decorate my Bedroom to Look Vintage?

Now that you have painted a picture in your head here is a list of things to look for when designing a bedroom in this look.

Antique pieces or vintage furniture (you can also purchase new furniture that looks old)
New or old fabrics (if you want new fabrics look for natural materials like linen and cotton and look for patterns that fit the time period you are working towards)
Walls (Add wood to your walls either through trim like wainscot or shiplap on the wall. This will truly transform your space)
Paint colors (if you are shopping for paint at Sherwin Williams ask about their historic colors. These colors are based on different times in history. Or pick any vintage looking color that matches your main pattern). Having a color palette in mind can help focus the rest of your shopping.
Accessories (if you can only shop for one thing then look for vintage/antique accessories). Interesting vintage pieces can be found in shops like a thrift shop and online. You can also find new items that look vintage.

Now let's walk through some antique bedroom ideas to pull your room together. Remember, decorating a vintage bedroom should reflect the time but also your personal style.

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Antique Bedroom Ideas

Since the largest pieces of the room are the walls, floor, and bedding I like to start with one of those that has a pattern on it. It is much easier to match paint colors to a rug or bedspread than to match them to paint colors. So the first things we're starting with are about the bedding.

Also, in our situation, we started with the bed frame because that is what inspired the whole space. What is inspiring our bedroom? Our bed is from the early 1900's so we knew we wanted to work around this antique piece. This beautiful bed is the focal point of the room.

Now let's use the bedding as the beginning point for all our colors and create an accent wall to make this suburban house feel more like the early 1900s.

Vintage Style Bedding

There are two good ways you can approach bedding. First, you can shop for old bedspreads or you can buy something new that looks vintage. We opted for the latter because we wanted a vintage look that didn't look worn out.

So, luckily we found this comforter with a delicate pattern on it in natural colors. This felt like the perfect choice of traditional style with a vintage flair. It has that antique look we were going for in this room.

New vintage bedding with a delicate pattern

This particular bedspread is a part of the McGee line at Target. This is a good place to find different patterns available that will likely fit your personal style. Your bed is important because you spend many hours of life there so make sure your bedding is comfortable and that is why we went with Cozy Earth sheets.

We have used their sheets for over a year now and they are the best quality and soft sheets we have slept on. This bedroom may be old-fashioned and the bedding may look like it comes out of a history book but the comfort is modern and delicious.

Cozy Earth heard about me writing this post and offered a 40% discount if you use my code SUMMERHILL40. Isn't that awesome!

Last, consider natural materials for all your fabrics like linen and cotton. Remember many years ago they used all-natural materials so when you pick out accent pillows keep it more natural.

Our largest euro-style pillow is linen which adds a great texture to the bed and the main accent pillow is a windowpane pattern which is also a vintage vibe. The neutral colors also easily meshed with the vintage decor. These accent pillows also came from Target.

Natural fabrics of linen and cotton for bedding in a vintage style bedroom

Now that we have the bedding solved let's move on to the walls.

Vintage Shiplap Accent Wall

When you go into old homes you will see they used shiplap on the walls instead of sheetrock. If there is one thing that says antique vintage then it is shiplap. This is one of my favorite vintage bedroom ideas.

For this bedroom, we created a shiplap wall out of plywood to keep the cost down but not comprise the antique aesthetic. This shiplap plywood DIY requires a few certain tools, but if you don't have these tools, then try this shoestring budget faux beadboard DIY, only change the lines to a shiplap look. This is a great way to get a similar result.

Next, we wanted to add a paint color to pull together the bedding. This Sherwin Williams Escape gray color was perfect to go with the tiny design in the bedding.

Antique Furniture

Next on our agenda is the furniture. We didn't have it in the budget to buy new furniture so we stayed with our smaller scale mid-century modern pieces. Here it worked great as a bedside table, complementing the aesthetic room decor.

One good thing about mid-century modern is that it was designed for the mid 20th century smaller size home with lower ceilings. This is perfect if your vintage bedroom is small. And mid-century modern can be paired with other styles because it has a neutral appearance. However, it doesn't always work. Lucky for us it worked in this case.

Last, on our list is the accessories. This is where you can truly pull the whole room into another time period.

Vintage Wall Art

Let's start with the walls. Shop vintage, antique, and thrift stores for art. We found this precious piece and couldn't believe how well the colors in the painting matched the accent wall. And vintage wall decor is sure to be unique.

Another idea is to use printables from Etsy. There are loads and loads of vintage prints and we have many in our Etsy home decor printable shop. We used some of our vintage art next to our antique mora clock in our living room.

We also added postcards to one side of the mirror. They came from Williamsburg, Virginia when we visited historic Williamsburg. They have that old-time look.

Adding antique or vintage style mirrors is an easy way to help make a small space feel bigger, especially when arranged as a wall collage.

Vintage Style Accessories

This room is really starting to come together and if you only have money to do one thing then I would spend it on accessories. You can find some real treasures inexpensively at flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, and even your local antique store. Here are the items we found to pull off this vintage vibe.

First, we added a modern vintage retro Victrola record player on the nightstand. It has that old-fashioned look to warm up the space.

Antique vintage accessories in a bedroom

Next, my daughter picked up this milk glass lamp while picking years ago. This was a favorite vintage find. We decided to elevate it with this old wooden box. By doing this we added more tabletop space and storage space. When decorating a vintage bedroom you should be mindful about the way your accessories can work together.

Last, we added new and old accessories like an old book and new bottles with dripping used candles. Vintage bottles in different sizes, unique shapes, and colors can easily and inexpensively add to your vintage feel. Vintage finds like this will bring your own personal flair to the room.

Over on her wall shelves, we were able to add more lovely accessories to paint a picture of long ago. We added a chamber lamp, more old books, little trinkets from a time gone by. Small vintage items and vintage looking design elements can truly transform your space. Each little piece is like you time-traveled to a bedroom long ago.

Last, sprinkle more accessories around the room and you are all finished. Bonus points if you find items to do double duty. For example, vintage suitcases that are decorative and double as a storage solution. You have now created an antique aesthetic bedroom.

Conclusion

If you are like me and you have a modern suburban home adding antiques can be a challenge because they seem out of place. That doesn't mean you can't pull off this decor style, there are many different ways to bring a vintage aesthetic to your new home. Vintage bedroom design is a great place to start.

Remember adding trim to your walls like board and batten, beadboard and shiplap will start to make the home look less like a builder grade home and more like a cozy space for you and your family. It truly changes the feel of the entire room.

We love how this room turned out. It is warm and cozy with a modern vintage style. Modern in that we have all the modern conveniences but it's like we have looked through a looking glass too long-long ago. A perfect reflection of my daughter's personal style and love of vintage room decor. And that's the best part of decorating a vintage bedroom.

When helping my daughter create this room I painted a picture of her grandparent Mcdonald's early 1900s victorian style home and her great grandmother Roe's city farmhouse.

After we finished tears came to my eyes because it was like I brought back to life the homes of the family we so loved.

Now it is your turn. If you could recreate a room from long ago which time period would you do or whose home comes to mind? I'd love to hear about your vintage bedroom ideas! You can find more ideas about decorating with a vintage flair in these posts:

Happy Decorating!