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Secondhand Home Décor Styled In A Mid-Century Home

Even though my budget is extra tight this year thanks to a few surprise expenses from last year, I still love going secondhand shopping. I usually only come away with one or two things on any given shopping trip (if anything at all), but the main draw isn’t so much the shopping itself as it is the inspiration I get from seeing beautiful antique items grouped en masse. I also appreciate the styled displays at all of my favorite local antique stores. Sometimes just seeing a pretty mid-century pitcher arranged next to a stack of plates can inspire me to try a similar look using the retro pieces we already have in our own collection.

Long story long, I’m definitely still an avid antiquer, and have added some really special vintage items to our collection over the past year that I thought I’d share with you today. From floor décor, lighting, and art, to furniture and ceramics, there’s so much to tell you about! Keep scrolling for the scoop on my latest secondhand treasures.

Secondhand Home Décor Styled In A Mid-Century Home

The wooden exercise pin and vase that you see above now styled around our fireplace both came from Heyday in nearby Charlottesville, Virginia. I’ve always wanted one of those mod-looking pins for my collection (the minimalist silhouette is so striking, right?), and the vase was a perfect match to the colors in my beloved Bernard Cathelin print on the fireplace mantel. It’s almost like Cathelin painted the vase at the same time he did the painting—the colors are that spot-on-similar.

I recently changed up the furniture on our front porch to include a rustic metal and glass table and a pair of vintage metal patio chairs. The rocking chairs that I had out on the porch before were just too big to maneuver around when you wanted to walk the length of the porch, so they took much of the functionality away from that space. This new set is easy to walk around, and I love how the white metal pops against our red brick home. I’ve already spent lots of time out on the porch reading—far more than I ever did when we had the rocking chairs—so that must mean I did something right.

The secondhand light that you see above was actually purchased pretty soon after we moved into this house back in 2022. It came from Circa, and was a bit pricey, but I just couldn’t get it out of my head. We actually went back for it after I had seen it the week before, and, as luck would have it, the light was still there. Sometimes it’s worth splurging if you love a piece enough, and this light just spoke to me. I’m slowly working my way through the Dick Van Dyke show right now, and the Petrie’s have an almost identical light in the background of their 1960s living room, so I’m taking that as a sign that it was meant to be with us in our equally retro space.

I’ve been hyper-focused on finding bookcases to store my constantly growing book collection, and this is the latest addition to our inventory. The scalloped trim on both the top and bottom is so sweet, and the shelf itself really does hold a ton of books. I prefer a completely full look with bookcases like this, but I don’t have quite enough books to stretch the spines all the way across all three shelves now, so I did a bit of light styling with stacked books and decorative items. I’m not going to rush my book buying (I’m on a budget, after all!), but my goal is to have it completely full of vertical books by the end of the year.

As soon as I saw this vintage screen at an antique store in Staunton, Virginia, I knew it was the perfect piece to go behind my desk. I’m generally of the mind that oversized artwork is especially nice behind a desk that faces a wall because it allows you to hang the piece just a little bit behind the monitor (I’m personally not a fan of hanging office art extra high so it clears the monitor), and it also acts like a stand-in “window” so you have something expansive to gaze at during breaks from computer work. The one I picked needs some restoration because it looks like someone painted over a section on the left, so I plan to take care of that using paint I already have on hand in the next few months.

Finally, the last piece I wanted to introduce you to is this female portrait painting that I found at Greenwood Antiques & Uniques. I’ve had this vision of creating a gallery wall of all the portrait paintings I’ve collected or done myself over the years, and the secondhand painting of a woman that I bought from Greenwood Antiques was the perfect finishing touch. I love how she looks like she’s lit up from below, and the thick gold frame also caught my eye. I just had to have her.

So, there you have it. Eight of my most recent secondhand scores. I might not be buying at the same fevered rate that I used to, but I actually prefer this new methodology of considerate, slower collecting. I ultimately appreciate the few items that I invest in more deeply, and I have been experiencing far less buyer’s remorse, too. Tell me about your own secondhand scores in the comments below.

Gosh, I just love home décor…Even all these years later (Dream Green DIY just celebrated its 13th anniversary, by the way!), there’s nothing that excites me more than a beautifully designed room. Whenever I have free time lately I find myself turning to the following activities: flipping through interior design books, watching other people’s styled home tours on TV, and/or working on any number of the current projects we have going on around our own home. Point being that home design has been a passion of mine for literally as long as I can remember, and I don’t see myself slowing down anytime soon.

One of my favorite resources for décor inspiration is Pinterest. Hasn’t that practically been everyone’s go-to since it launched 14 years ago? If you haven’t signed up yet or if you don’t even know what I’m talking about, Pinterest offers a wealth of visual inspiration for practically anything you can think up—cooking, fitness, fashion, and, of course, home décor. I love hopping onto my Pinterest feed to browse photos and save relevant Pins to my boards, so I thought I’d share a handful of the images and designs that have been particularly inspiring to me as we work on decorating our new(ish) 1960s home. Keep scrolling for photos and my rapid fire thoughts on each featured space.

1. I’ve been a long-time fan of nearly everything Emily Henderson has designed, even as she started moving away from the mid-century aesthetic that she used to be sort of known for. Her kitchen design pictured above is more traditional than I’d probably want to go in our own home, but I still stopped in my feed-scrolling tracks when I saw this photo. I love the stained wood cabinets, blue tile, and pops of gold. That black oven is such a focal point, too, right?! What a clever use of color. (Pin It, Designer: Emily Henderson and ARCIFORM, Photos: Kaitlin Green)

2. I’ve been hanging gallery walls more and more often recently, but when I do, I hesitantly wonder if that’s a dated look. Then I spot beautiful images like this on Pinterest featuring a wall full of art, and I no longer care if it’s dated! I have too many pieces of beautiful framed art stacked in storage that I’ve collected or created myself over the years, and I love seeing them hung en masse like what you see pictured above. What do you think? Are gallery walls passé? (Pin It, Designer: @newdarlings)

3. I can’t stop pinning bookshelves these days because of my newfound love for reading. In case you missed it, I’ve been turning to books for an escape from reality since winter 2023, and so my collection of paperback and hardback books has grown exponentially. The side by side white bookcases in the photo I pinned above has inspired me to look into finding a similar long low shelving setup for our guest room. (Pin It, Designer: Ursula Rodriguez)

4. I find myself repinning Brittni’s home photos all the time (seriously, follow her here if you don’t already). I love her minimalist aesthetic, but that she still somehow manages to work in pops of retro-inspired color here and there. Every room in her home feels dynamic and balanced, and I’m desperate to figure out her formula so that I can get a similar vibe in our own home. It seems like light-colored walls may be key, with lots of wood furniture, and colorful rugs/accents. I’m planning to experiment more with this type of look in 2024, I think. (Pin It, Designer: @paperandstitch)

5. I still adore antiquing, and always gravitate toward designed spaces that incorporate rustic touches. Really, the only element that looks particularly old in this room pictured above is the wood—those beautiful wood floors and the patina-rich dining set. Without those aged elements in the space, I don’t know that I would have felt quite so inspired when looking at it. Isn’t the combination of modern elements with old just so striking?! (Pin It, Designer: Natasha Howard and architects Studio McLeod, Photos: Christopher Horwood)

6. Wood paneling is one of those things that I don’t think will ever go out of style. Maybe that’s my love for 1960s and ’70s design speaking, but you have to admit that there’s something extra special about it. It draws the eye right away, and totally negates the need for traditional hung art (aside from the few simple leaned pieces you see here). Wood paneling, when done well, acts like art on its own. Do you guys remember when I created my own faux wood paneling using nothing but paint at our old house? That’s still one of my favorite DIY projects of all time. Maybe I need to think about doing something similar—or going with the real deal—here at our current home. (Pin It, Designer: Tonia Kelly, Photos: Alisha Gore, Styling: Audrey Won.)

7. This room above is making me rethink my decision to not paint all of the walls in our new home bright white. We’re a little limited, though, since our retro painted trim is cream-colored. Bright white walls sometimes look a little too stark next to cream trim, or, in some lighting situations, it actually makes the trim look dirty. The designer of this room pictured above is lucky that they have existing bright white trim to go with their white walls. Maybe I’ll just have to stick to admiring this look from afar until I get up the motivation to repaint our own trim bright white. (Pin It, Designer: Geneva Vanderzeil)

8. Traditional Parisian style design is something I never felt like I could lean into at our old ultra modern house, but our new house has more elegant details in it, like decorative trim moulding on the walls and crown moulding at ceiling height. This means that I can finally experiment with some of the design elements I’ve always loved in Mallory’s Brooklyn, New York, apartment, pictured above. Following suit with her style, I’d love to add more trim moulding to our walls and doors, similar to the collection I added to our dining room last year, and Mallory’s antique mirror collection is another thing I’m pining (errr…“pinning”) for. (Pin It, Designer: @reserve_home)

9. Apologies for the fuzzy photo, but I couldn’t not add this one in. The vintage upholstered seating, bold patterned rug, Japanese-inspired lighting, book-filled shelves, wood console…the plants! I’m in love with everything about this photo, and can’t wait to try to get this exact look in our own space. Although, to be honest, maybe we sort of already have in our own unique way? You be the judge. (Pin It, Designer: Lucas Wearne)

10. Finally, I was really drawn to the pretty patterned wallpaper in this room pictured above. It reminds me a little of the botanical wallpaper that we have in our guest room, and that room in our house actually gets similarly bright natural light as what you see in the Pin. This photo is convincing me of a new furniture arrangement in the guest room to make the bed front and center, and it’s also proving that white painted trim really is the best. I think I need to add that mammoth task to my home projects list for 2024 or 2025. (Pin It, Designer: Ginny MacDonald, Photo: Tessa Neustadt)

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my thought process when it comes to Pinterest and my inspiration for future home projects. If you’d like to follow along with me in real time, hop over to the official Dream Green DIY Pinterest page here. I’m really close to reaching 100,000 followers on that platform, and would be so honored to have you join my home-obsessed Pinning community!

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