Over the last decade, we have witnessed a strong resurgence of two interior design styles: retro and vintage. Often confusion arises between the two due to the idea of "old" they inspire. In reality, the two are very different and suit distinct personality types of homeowners.
While the vintage style suits spacious houses, the retro style can be easily adapted to a small apartment. Although both styles evoke a bygone era, they are very difficult to mix, and designers do not recommend it.
Opening the Gallery: How to Recognize a Vintage Interior Design? First and foremost, we need to pay attention to the furniture. In this type of interior design, we are dealing with massive furniture with elaborate finishes, featuring sculpted patterns and details, either in dark colors or completely white.
The vintage style is one loaded with accessories and decorative objects that maintain the same line as the furniture. Paintings are poor in color but their frames are thick, gold, with patina or sculpted in geometric or floral motifs. Since we mentioned floral motifs, it's important to remember that painted furniture is a type of vintage furniture.
If you don't wish to furnish your entire home in this style, you can choose to add small accents to certain rooms, such as sepia images, silver or gold candlesticks, round mirrors with ornate frames, or porcelain sets.
We recognize a retro design primarily through its colors. Unlike the previously presented style, retro designs feature an explosion of bold colors across large surfaces. Yellow, orange, red, and electric blue are just a few of the signature hues, often presented in contrast with a bright white.
Preferred forms are straight, angular and quite primary, almost like a very well-calculated geometric game. As for accessories, leading the list is the 60s-70s poster followed by black and white photographs, postcards, model cars, motorcycles, rockets or old airplane models.
The carpets maintain the same color scheme, and the furniture is minimalist and combines various materials.
Source: pinterest.com
