Vintage style in a contemporary room
I’m having a disagreement with my friend about a tufted armchair. I love the vintage style, but will it fit into a contemporary room setting? I trust your judgment, and you mix styles with abandon.
Vintage style looks amazing in a contemporary setting as long as it’s one or two pieces. They become a focal point, a conversation piece, like a piece of artwork.
Tufted furnishings provide a feeling of comfort and luxury that is timeless.
The character of the piece is defined by its shape, and also the colour and type of fabric that is tufted. For example, a chocolate brown leather armchair is rich and supple and has a masculine look, whereas a camelback sofa tufted in silk or satin shimmering in soft pastels produces a more feminine appearance.
The beauty of tufting is the manner in which it showcases the fabric. The tufts, which are generally made by buttons pressed into the billowy upholstery, create shadows and highlights that show off the texture and graduate the colour of the material.
On one of my television shows, we transformed an old headboard that was in good shape but a bit dated.
Rather than going to the trouble and expense of having the headboard upholstered, we produced the look of tufting with paint.
Decide where to place the buttons and use a right-angle ruler to ensure that the buttons are in a straight line and evenly spaced. Draw a “+” to mark off where each button will go. Extend the lines to about five centimetres from the centre of the “+”. Place a penny on the centre spot and trace around it. This headboard has a white basecoat.
We used cobalt blue artist’s acrylic and put a small blob of blue and white paint on a plate. Outline the button and lines in blue. Fill in shadows by lightening the blue with white. The shadows should be placed in the same place around each button and at the edges of the headboard to give the appearance of rounded corners. Tip: Shading is applied according to the position of the light source in the room. If the window is on the left side of the bed, then the right side of the button will be lighter.