IF you're secretly yearning to give your home a charming new look, it's time to hark back to the past.
Remnants of vintage fabrics, old wallpapers, a little imagination and some basic craft skills are all that's needed to conjure the fashionable atmosphere of a bygone age, according to vintage expert Sarah Moore.
Her new book, Vintage Home, is packed with 50 handmade projects, from furniture to decorating, and all the essentials can be cheaply found in places like charity shops, car boot sales, flea markets, house clearances and reclamation yards.
"As you build your collection of thrifty and gorgeous vintage finds, you can customise them and decorate your entire home at a fraction of the cost of buying things new," she said.
"Slot a little bit of vintage into your home, or fill it with retro finds. You can get a huge amount of pleasure from finding just the right materials to add colour, character and individuality."
Here are Sarah's tips for vintage style, and a couple of her projects to try.
Material makeover
Recycle vintage fabrics and use them to make curtains, duvet and cushion covers, or for jazzy details like a new ironing board cover or towel-edging.
Choose strong materials and washing them in a colour-kind detergent, then iron before use.
"Mix and match old fabrics with new. Striped ticking, dyed linen and calico sit really well alongside old fabrics. Use them for linings, which will allow your vintage finds to go twice as far.
Paper it pretty
Rolls of old wallpaper can work wonders pasted onto the interiors of cupboards, or to decorate the risers of wooden stairs.
Sarah said: "I have a passion for old wallpapers, from the tiniest scraps which can be made into a patchwork for walls, to the Holy Grail of wallpaper finds – rolls and rolls of one pattern of genuine vintage paper."
Beanbag project
Simple beanbags offer a great way of using up smaller pieces of fabric. You could make parts of the cover out of simple patchwork panels, too. Make the bottom panel out of a hard-wearing fabric so it can withstand wear and tear.
Bedside tables
"Old apple crates lend themselves well to being transformed into perfect bedside tables," says Sarah. "Add paint and a little curtain, or go the whole hog, adding an interior shelf and casters."
