Vintage room for baby and toddler

Tallulah Jade Rainbow Hamman turned 2 on the 6th. In the past year I've been working creatively redesigning my toddler’s bedroom, to give it a vintage look. I have collected many vintage decorative and functional items for her room, and now that it's mission accomplished - it's time to share it with the world.

Hand embroidered vintage table cloth re-purposed as curtains:

Collection of vintage dolls for Tallulah:

This book shelf and a bench were made from recycled pallets, I really love their organic rough look:

I've been hunting for vintage wooden crates to create this display. More vintage dolls and toys:

Hand embroidered vintage table cloth made into curtains as well:

I store my toddler's chalk and crayons in these vintage enamel cups:

My collection of vintage fabric buttons, that I sowed into one display:

Display of many vintage findings on the wall, from thrift stores, charity shops, online shops and antique markets:

Collection of vintage cushions, dolls and hand made toys, vintage crocheted through:

This baby table and chairs are modern, but I painted them in bright colors:

I made this red stand from 3 vintage stools:

This vintage lamp was cleaned up, then buttons and tussles added:

Vintage drying rack repurposed as child's shelf/ display:

I eventually filled this display box with vintage toys bought online:

How true:

These cushions for baby's chairs I made from vintage tapestry handbag:

I rescued this Pink Panther for $1 from a pile in charity shop. Boy, she was ugly, I prettied her up with new nose, bow, skirt and shoes, all made from recycled vintage fabrics:

Tallulah's room before:

I hope you enjoyed seeing my results of vintage hunting and creative ideas. Please sign up for my blog updates at the bottom of home page and visit again.

Restoring vintage dolls

I started collecting vintage dolls for my daughter Tallulah, as I am not impressed with what's in mass production today. At first I collcted chaotically, not knowing exactly what I love the most, but eventually focused on rubber, vynil and plastic 50’s to 80’s, they are most nostalgic for me. I especially enjoyed finding an old, dirty, half ruined doll and fixing it to a gorgeous princess. Really pleased with results, and planning to sow some vintage dresses for them. I used various methods to clean them up, for most stubborn spots using permanent make-up remover - oily substance that does the job so well. Ordered some wigs and shoes from ebay.com (what a vintage heaven!), and even bid on real vintage dolls dresses, that arrived here from US. I am not planning to keep them in a display cabined behind the glass, my daughter will have them to play when she is at least 6. I love uniqueness of a vintage doll and will teach her to appreciate it too.

Up-cycled vintage cribs, I sowed all these frills and covers to decorate them, using recycled vintage linens from charity shops. My daughter is already playing with them:

Upgrading home with vintage

If to think, when adding vintage - may be you actually downgrading, not upgrading your house? To me, house looks cosier and more beautiful with well looked after items of the past. Here are my this year's house transformations and vintage additions, oh how I travelled to far far away to various places to hunt for these treasures. And I have sown all these patches on the couches, something I won't do again, cause it took like forever:

I did take 1 hour drive to another town to buy 4 of these vintage military crates from a hands of a dealer and just piled them up as side tables in my lounge. Apparently they come up only once in 3 years, I just could not miss this opportunity:

I looove this vintage scale repurposed into a pot plant holder, and adding just that bit of green into my red Christmas window. I found in at the famous Rosebank Rooftop Market shortly before it relocated to Norwood:

The moment I saw this cow online - I had to have it, and drove to the dealer's house to pick it up. What a lovely touch of cute and rustic:

Collection of vintage and modern glass jars, had to hunt around to gather them together:

Russian "Samovar", vintage tea maker, this one runs on coals and probably about 100 years old. I had to bid on it on bidorbuy.co.za, as they don't come up that often, and at $70 it was a steal, as they usually sell for $150-250. What a piece of history!

Many vintage collectors have a thing for tins, I was proud that I am not one of them, until I figured I can actually use them to store my kitchen food and they do look cute together:

I do hope I did good housekeeping job this year with all this creative home making. This vintage enamel plate was plain and scratched, I glued napkin birds on it and actually plan to turn it into a clock:

Here goes the famous trend for mismatched chair at the dining room table. Turns out I am not immune to trends. I started hunting for these vintage carved chairs, called by antique dealers either "Colonial" or "Vintage", or "Riempie". Whatever they called - they are beautiful, 6 found, 2 to go:

My husband had to make me this table out of recycled railway slippers, so I could put all my antique chairs around it:

I doubt this is true vintage, probably a replica, but still very cute and I always joke that I am in fact offering my handsome husband for sale for an hour or two...

This vintage cookie jar is huge and was packed so well when arrived in my post, that I almost could not unpack it:

I really had a vintage hunt adventure this year, gathering so much knowledge that you could not learn in any university. Love my home, filled with pieces of history.

Collecting, Upcycling, Repurposing vintage

Almost end of the year. I've been really into vintage this past year and collected a lot of it for various purposes: repurposing for home, arts and crafts, upcycling, restoring and simply collecting vintage for the sake of loving it. That included painting and upholstering, sowing, fixing, mending and creating. I bought this antique cabinet, painted it red and inserted floral curtains to give it a cottage look. Then filled it with my massive collection of vintage doilies, hankies, embroideries, tray cloths, tea cosies and aprons:

Upcycled chairs in my studio, painted them red and reupholstered, adding a cute touch of sewn hearts. This one was truly a fun projects and easier than it seems! This is my vintage sowing machine cover on the background: red and white, decorated with flamboyant lace, found it in a charity shop:

Bought few old travelling suitcases, to create some kind of side tables out of them, and filled them with my getting huge collection of hand embroidered table cloths:

From my collection of hand embroidered vintage table cloths. I find them in charity shops or order online from vintage dealers. I adore hand made things of olden days, especially embroideries, this is a dying art, many hours of work and love went into it, these days we have no time, nor patience to do things like that:

Converted old metal bench into a day bed filled with vintage cushions from charity shops:

Added vintage touch to various parts of my house: lounge, kitchen, bedroom. Collected many vintage tripods and several framed bird tapestries:

I did a fair amount of sowing projects with my acquired vintage textiles: here is red and white doily blanket, redesigned and repurposed. I finished it right on time for Christmas. I basically took two old blankets, sandwiched batting in between of them and sowed vintage doilies on top of one side:

I feel I was really blessed this past year with discovering passion for vintage, everything handmade and full of history. I have so many more findings and will share them in my other blog posts. Thank you for coming by, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!