You just inherited all of the family heirloom furniture. You are at first excited to have such well-made, ornate furnishings. Then you unpack and place in your rooms only to realize that you are starting to look like a museum rather than a home. (I like museums) What do you do?
There are many ways to weave heirloom furniture in to a modern home. The two most effective changes in modernizing the pieces are 1) lightening up the tone of the room or 2) changing the dated hardware.
Changing hardware is an easy application as long as the new pieces align in the same spot as the old. Lightening the room could also be an easy change, and can be done in a few ways.
Dark pieces of furniture could be placed in rooms with the most natural light. If this isn’t an option, you can also add light rugs to the room or update lighting to “daylight” bulbs. If the chairs are dark upholstery and dark wood, you can add light slipcovers or have the backs reupholstered in a light or bright modern color for contrast.
For dark upholstered or leather sofas, add accent chairs in light or bright prints with pale wood accents to brighten the sitting. Add a linen white ottoman/coffee table and cotton curtain panels on the windows for a fresh look. Find pillows that match the accent chairs, and toss on the sofa.
The more you contrast from the furniture color, the more modern the look. Black lacquer furniture looks gorgeous with pale blue or bright orange upholstery. (Check out the Pantone Color of the Year, Very Peri). https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/pantone-color-of-the-year-2022. For instance, if you inherited 1960s white sofa and accent chairs, you could contrast with orange/aqua prints and art pieces to modernize.
For a monochromatic look, you could pick variations of the same color, using different intensities. For instance, take that same 1960s white sofa and chairs. To apply a monochromatic look, you would use 4-6 hues/tones of the same color. The easiest way to follow monochromatic décor, is to match the sofa color to a paint swatch. The paint swatch or chip usually has 6 darker-lighter samples of the color. Picking any of those colors on that swatch for the rugs and décor will work.
I am impressed with the ideas that come up during the purchase of vintage furniture here. I am also appreciative of the designers that select vintage pieces to take a plain room up a notch. Keep the creativity and originality going. Surround yourself with your own brand for repurposed furnishings.
Modern contrast of traditional furniture
https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/room-ideas/g84/midcentury-living-rooms/?slide=5
Monochromatic application to vintage furniture
https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/room-ideas/g84/midcentury-living-rooms/?slide=19