A ‘vintage’ look is overwhelmingly popular at this moment in time – not just for floor surfaces, but for furniture and accessories too. If you have the patience and stamina to visit and search through antique and (lets be honest!) junk emporiums, you will no doubt come across both treasure and trash. There’s something extremely appealing about a vintage look for flooring, however. It removes that angst that appears whenever a new carpet is laid, or when shiny white porcelain tiles need a good steam clean. So, if you have a busy home with lots of kids, pets, visitors and other unruliness, keep the floor stress at bay by going for a relaxed, vintage look for your floor tiles – they’ll be hardwearing, practical, and best of all, nice and easy to keep looking good!
Worn Wood Wonders
Vintage-style wood look flooring is a classic choice, blends in with the vast majority of colour schemes, and because you’re not tied to a specific colour or pattern, allows future flexibility for your paint and fabric choices. Our Arlington ceramic floor tiles come in a wood look with a hint of terracotta; these planks can also be laid in linear or brick-style pattern, as well as herringbone and chevron. They’re also suitable for walls – so that’s the ‘skirting board’ issue solved as well.
Teak, leather and brass stools by The Old Cinema | Lennox arm-chair by Cult Furniture
Oh Sit Down…
Vintage-style seating ideas from (left); These are mid-century style vintage, rather than ‘antique’ vintage … and a rather fabulous idea, as this style of teak furniture is usually confined to dining tables and chairs, and various occasional tables. Pair of teak, leather and brass stools, from an ever-changing and evolving selection at The Old Cinema. Leather upholstery will eventually develop it’s own vintage-style look, especially if it’s well-used, so try not to be too precious about it (leather looks best when it’s worn, loved and used). This Lennox chair is made to order from the range at Cult Furniture.
Perfect Patterns
These Harrogate Patterned Porcelain Floor tiles have a vintage style that could have come from many places – there’s a distinctly European country/village/farmhouse element to them, but we can also see that they would look comfortably at home in a Victorian hallway or porch. Wherever you decide to use them, Harrogate will blend with eclectic retro, antique, or country-style décor.
And with blue and white designs still on our mind, we rather liked this Delftware Vintage wallpaper, below, from an extremely varied and unusual collection by MINDTHEGAP.
Plentiful Pattern
We love this faded, past-its-best look for a country kitchen. Our gorgeous Sintra range can grace both walls and floors with an aged, rustic style. There are over twenty individual pattern designs, and each pack contains a random mixture, ensuring that every tiling project using Sintra will be completely unique and individual.
Olde-Worlde Details
The urge to keep adding decorative details is strong, which is when there is an advantage to buying smaller pieces that can be pressed into service in different rooms at different times. Perhaps consider having a shift-around of occasional pieces every few months. This is a chest of drawers from a diverse collection at Scaramanga, where you will find things you didn’t even know you wanted (after beautiful tiles, of course!). We also rather liked this industrial-look steel hanging shelf and drawer, from The Farthing. Great for a kitchen or bathroom, adding a fashionable vibe to period-style tiles.
By A Country Mile…
We can’t think of anything finer to complete a quintessential rustic country aesthetic than our Rural Distressed wood-effect ceramic tiles, which are produced using ink-jet printing methods to get the distressed timber look absolutely spot on. We love the idea of these tiles in a barn conversion or a homely, cosy kitchen. Team with well-worn pine or oak furniture, or bring some colour into the equation with some painted wood or metal pieces, such as stools or a time-worn kitchen table.
Finishing Touches
The sight of these quirky storage pieces is likely to make you want to get your walls and floors sorted out, so you have somewhere ‘finished’ to put any new furniture. So, when those walls and floors are done, if you need any storage accessories, take a look at the Dutchbone collection at Cuckooland.
Will you be jumping on the vintage bandwagon with your next interior refresh? Let us know in the comments or share your photos with us by tweeting us @TileMountainUK or tag us on Instagram!
You may also like these posts on the Tile Mountain blog…
Linda has worked as a freelance interiors writer and blogger for many years; she has written for most of the major home and design magazines, including KBB Magazine, Grand Designs, Homes & Gardens, House Beautiful, Period Homes and Good Homes. She made the break and moved from London back to her home town of Shrewsbury three years ago and has just finished renovating her house. She also works in an interior design studio, produces copy for brochures and website, tries to tame her garden, aims to finish all the home furnishing projects she has on the go … and loves walking.