Antique items are an investment in your home and lifestyle, and we know that you have taken great care in thoughtfully curating your collection. You have scoured antique stores for the perfect pieces, or perhaps even fallen in love with a one-of-a-kind treasure. But when it comes to displaying these gems, it’s not all about aesthetics.
Whilst placement of antique furniture, art and textiles can significantly impact the careful cultivation of your home, it is also worth noting that the choices you make also impact their condition, and even their value. Let’s dive into some of the reasons why it matters where you place your antiques.
Keeping your antiques picture perfect
Preservation
Certain materials within your antique – such as wood, fabrics and certain paints – are sensitive to the environment around them. Therefore, it’s important to talk to your antique dealer about how best to care for and preserve your items.
Typically, the best advice for antique furniture, art and textiles is to keep them out of excessive sunlight, in a cool location (think away from windows, radiators, damp and humid areas, etc.).
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Protection from accidents
Whilst your latest find may look absolutely perfect in a certain spot, it is important to consider whether that location could put your antique at risk of accidental damage.
Placing an antique piece like a textile or fabric in an area with heavy foot traffic or furniture where they are more likely to be bumped or knocked over, increases the chances of wear, damage, breakage and careless deterioration.
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Showing off your antiques
Enhancing aesthetic value
Strategic placement of antique pieces around your home can dramatically enhance their aesthetic appeal. Your curated pieces should fit within a visual theme, complementing the room’s style, era, design or overall decor.
By considering aesthetic placement when it comes to placing your antiques, you can truly allow yourself to show off their beauty, value and uniqueness.
Creating focal points
After carefully curating your antiques, the last thing you want is for the room to swallow them up. Placing antiques in prominent positions within a room can make them focal points of interest; drawing people’s attention to their unique features and beauty.
Creating focal points with antique items allows them to not only be pieces that you love, but pieces that are actively noticed and appreciated by visitors.
Giving your antiques meaning
Maintaining historical context
Alongside the beauty and uniqueness of your antiques comes a rich history, and where and how you place them can really showcase their historical context.
Placing antiques in appropriate spaces, alongside other period-related decor, helps evoke a sense of authenticity and can tie together your antiques with others of its time. This not only helps them look aesthetically pleasing within the space, but it can actually give the pieces more context and background to its history.
Value perception
Whilst you know that your antiques may have cost you a pretty penny, that can mean nothing to others viewing curated pieces around your home. However, how much an antique is valued, or even how much you value it, can be influenced by where you place it in your home.
Antiques that are displayed with care and protection, such as in a glass cabinet, will appear to be of higher value compared to items neglectfully placed around your home.
Curation and storytelling
Collecting antique furniture, art, textiles and other pieces truly is a passion for many people. As such, you want your collection to tell a story – whether it’s one about where all the pieces are from and their historical significance, or just simply why it was love at first sight when you found them.
Just like a museum or gallery does, thoughtfully placing your antiques together or around other statement pieces tells this story.
