Desperate to create the perfect vintage home but facing some resistance from a very millenial partner? Taken from Issue 5 of Judy’s Affordable Vintage Digest, Catherine McCourt of trader Lace and Liquor Vintage gives us her top tips for creating a wonderful home that appeals to both modern and vintage tastes…

Interiors are seriously important to me, probably on par – if not even more so – than with fashion or clothing. I’ve always had quite a particular style which has matured with age, and moving into our new home and knowing it would be ours, I had an exact idea in mind for how I’d like it to look and spent a few months beforehand thinking it all out. I knew I wanted to go for a 1950s meets scandinavian style with white walls, wooden floors, copper accents and lots of teak. The idea of having a home with a feature wallpapered wall and colour co-ordinated furniture brings me out in a bit of a rash; it’s nice for the majority of the population, but not something I’d ever have myself.

However, it’s not exactly all my house. I do have a boyfriend to think of whose style is pretty far away from mine. When we were painting the new home he told me if he had his own place he’d paint two walls white and two black, apparently that makes a room look bigger. He’s incredibly minimalist too, a sofa, chair, tv and xbox would do him. So trying to create an inviting, comfortable and stylish home with more than one person in mind can be a bit of a challenge, so I thought I’d put out there some of the things I’ve learnt along the way.

Talk Through Everything:

Like most people, Pinterest was my best friend when I was moving and looking for inspiration for my vintage home. It’s on there I saw a few items of furniture I loved the look of and tried to recreate myself. This can be especially handy as it’s great to see what items will look good together rather than just saying “Do you like this table?” “How about these chairs?” without really being able to see how they’re going to look. By showing him the pictures I knew he was happy with the style we’d be going for.

It’s important to talk it through before making any large purchases too, although that sort of goes without saying. It took me quite a while to try to persuade Kane to let me buy one of our new sofas (rather than keeping a hideous beige one that was left in the house, he wanted to keep that because it was so comfortable), but he gave in in the end, as he eventually began to see my point of view. Which leads me on to the next point…

Compromise:

Like most aspects of a relationship, there has to be compromise eventually on a vintage home. Our compromise is that I’ve bought most of the furniture in the house; whether it’s brand new or secondhand, it’s usually me that’s wanted it and me that wants to splash out on new things that aren’t 100% necessary, so I’m okay to pay for it. It means that Kane occasionally pays more of the bills or food shopping to even it all out a bit. Whether it’s letting him add a Marvel poster to the wall or having a little gaming section (surely my boyfriend can’t be the only xbox obsessive) you do need to compromise so it isn’t just your home, it’ll only end in him feeling uncomfortable and unhappy.

Make it Neutral:

When my boyfriend first moved in with me I was only 20 and already had the home, so as you can probably imagine there were lots of pink, florals and bright colours everywhere. He snuggled underneath a vintage crochet blanket on the sofa and went to bed underneath Cath Kidston style bedding, which you can imagine probably isn’t the greatest for a bloke. Whilst the new place isn’t the most masculine, with lots of white, grey and wood, it’s a lot more neutral and is a style that suits us both a lot more.

Get Him Involved:

In the new house we’re making a lot more changes and have changed quite a few of the rooms. So far he’s already laid some new laminate flooring and I’m going to get him to pop in some shelves in a couple rooms. It may only be small but I know it makes him feel a lot more involved and more like he’s contributing to the home too. Equal involvement – the secret to a happy couple!

Craving some home inspiration? The Vintage Furniture Flea rolls into OXFORD on November 21st and EAST LONDON on November 29th!