Can an appreciation for history save the future?
I’m sitting down to write in a chair made by Uncle Wally, my mom’s great uncle. He was a carpenter, among other things. It’s an unremarkable wooden chair, early 20th century, dark finish, a bit of a squeak now, simple, with considered angles. It’s actually a bit tall for me, which makes it uncomfortable to use for long periods, although the seat is nicely shaped. His name is stamped on the bottom.
Uncle Wally’s chair is almost certainly antique by now, and it has been with me through a number of moves, seeing more or less daylight depending on where I’ve lived and the available space for a not-very-comfortable chair. But it is one of my prized possessions, and I would never ever part with it.
When it comes to decorating your home, the acceptance of vintage is quite new. Secondhand was considered unfortunate, even shameful, when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s. In contrast, antiques were sought out by upper income households for centuries, and that market was fairly inaccessible for most people until the latter 20th century.
For some, antiques have always been beautiful objets d’art, or they conveyed an instant prestige - useful if you had money but not a pedigree, and needed to cultivate relationships with the aristocracy.
Now, vintage furniture and accents are totally acceptable, accessible, and coveted. So much so that secondhand is trendy, and there are vintage replicas at every price point, in every category.
According to a 2022 Bain report published, the global secondhand luxury goods market grew to €33 billion in 2021 (US$35.69 billion), up 65 percent from 2017. It is also expected to exceed 50 billion euros in 2025, according to a BCG x Comité Colbert Luxury Outlook 2022 study. (Source here.)
To me, there are two reasons you should choose vintage and antiques instead of new for your home.
One is purely objective. The other is very much subjective, and not everyone will be on board…
For starters, let’s define our terms. Vintage is considered anything made 25 years ago (or 20, depending who you talk to), up to 80 years. Antiques are 80 years, and older.
So, why should you take the time to seek out the golden oldies?
For me, it comes down to 1.) ecological impact, and 2.) provenance.
For most items, the greatest ecological impact happens during the making process itself. This is when the raw materials are extracted from an ecosystem, and energy is burned in every step necessary to turn it into a finished product. (In an earlier economy, much of that energy would have come from human effort, which presents an ethical problem on a different order of magnitude.) In recent decades, with globalized trade, shipping new products from one side of the world to the other is another huge expenditure of non-renewing fossil fuels.
When you become the new owner of anything created a generation or more ago, those resources were already “spent.” You’re further reducing its ecological costs by repairing it and keeping it in use. And holding off a final trip to the incinerator or a slow breakdown in a landfill keeps that initial extracted carbon stored in a beautiful item that enhances your home.
There are so many different design movements, materials, and styles. Part of the joy is researching all of these inputs. There’s something vintage for every taste and price point. It’s easy enough to find something that fits your aesthetic and your lifestyle.
Sure, replicas and “vintage-inspired” are universally available, and anything can be artificially aged and burnished with faux finishes. But a mass-made piece has no depth, no gravitas. It will always fall flat compared to something crafted with the attention of an earlier era.
Perhaps the highlight of the hunt is provenance - who made it, who picked it out as a wedding gift, who found it while traveling… There are so many great stories in these pieces.
There is a psychic weight to them, the history they’ve seen, the hands they’ve passed through. If you’re interested in people and history, and you’re sensitive to that, it really adds to it in a way that’s hard to describe.
It’s so much more than just the surface look of it. Anyone can figure out how to artificially age something, but you can’t replicate that sense of history.
There’s so much material history out there - anywhere that people have settled down, you can still find beautiful items in circulation. That’s the fun and joy of treasure hunting.
Use the old stuff, live with it. Don’t be too precious. Don’t just display it.
Living with these objects, keeping them in circulation - that’s how you shrink the impact of resource extraction over time.
I believe aesthetics are important. It’s a basic human need to enjoy daily life, and decorating is part of that.
It’s part of the fabric of not only how I run my business but also how I live my life.
Have you heard of slow decorating?
You can browse my Etsy shop for curated vintage accents, and add it to your favorites for shop updates.
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