New Uses or Repurposing Vintage Items

[momsretro]

I'd like to start a few ideas floating around with my fellow vintage/collectible sellers for ways to reuse vintage items.
Sometimes it helps to post a use for the items you are listing..

I have three examples;

If you write down your passwords and have collected a lot of them, a nice vintage Address Book looks great and keeps you organized.

Train Cases and Small Suitcases can be decorative and also used for storage or stacked for use as unique side tables.

Advertising Tins from spices, teas, cookies, soaps, etc make nice storage for a desk and/or add a retro feel to kitchens.

Let's think out of the box (and help our customers find something fun in our stores). Please add your own ideas!

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

Turn old calendar tea towels into framed pictures or pillows. Personalize them by
adding glitter or embroidery to the date and month of someone's birth and give them as gifts.

Vintage tablecloths mostly get stained in the middle while most of the decor is in a deep panel around the border. Forget stain removal. Turn the rest into coordinates for the kitchen. You should be able to get a tea cozy, a couple of potholders, appliance covers, an apron and even some placemats and tea towels if the tablecloth is quite large.

If you work in an environment where collections for baby gifts are routine, pass a mid century nursery planter in the shape of a lamb, teddy, etc. to collect the money and present it to the mom to be.

[sandysgingham]

Oh, I think you're right.

It isn't really vintage. But I've found a whole new world with plain colored t-shirts and my handy heat-gun for sparklies!

I can't remember what you call it. someone help me.... lol

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

Some scarves are worthy of a frame. I've never understood why such beautiful items were worn all bunched up around the neck or head. So if you have a beauty but don't want to wear it, frame it or if it is really large like over 30 inches square, use it as a table topper on a lamp or end table.

Nate Berkus recommends using them to cover dining chair or occasional chair seats. The kind that pop out. It would have to be a very heavy weight silk scarf or else a chair no one sits on for that to be very practical.

[cosmicray]

[Butteseedcompany]

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

[TyreeTrading]

Frame it and use it as a wall decoration

Old postcards, movie posters, broadway show bills, old music, colorful seed packets, stamps

For ages people have been using hardcover books as decorative objects - especially without the dust jacket.

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

I've seen old hardbacks or oversize books stacked and used as pedastals under glass tops to make coffee and end tables. I certainly have enough books but wonder about having to dismantle it all every few days to dust and vacuum.

[momsretro]

cosmicray LOL! -- and they lock!

Butteseedcompany I meant thinking out of the box as in;
it's not an Address Book, it's an Analogue Password Organizer.

Maggie - I too wonder why more scarves and beautiful fabric isn't framed. Some really are works of art!

[TyreeTrading]

At the local flea market I have seen handkerchiefs framed as decorative items. And some vintage crochet pieces.

[StoneWyre]

Cutting the center pages out of a book to create a secret compartment is very popular. I can't bring myself to desecrate a book lilke that, however.

[theartsandlettersofmaggiethecat]

[momsretro]

[StoneWyre]

I get your point: (a) you're probably right about books which should never have been written and (b) who would grab one of those off the shelf to peruse? They'd be ESPECIALLY safe for valuables!

Incidentally, these modified books apparently sell well..so if you have a scroll saw (or scissors, plus a lot of time and patience) and some glue....

I would, however, NEVER desecrate a book on artichokes, momsretro! hehehe