Whether it’s your first visit or your hundredth, stepping into an antique mall is always an adventure. With hundreds of booths, showcases, and shelves to explore, you’re never quite sure what you’ll find! Amongst the sturdy vintage furniture, beautiful collectible figurines, and tasty handmade treats, there are endless options for vintage home décor—it’s just a matter of taking a look!
To help you through your next visit to America’s Antique Mall, we’ve compiled some tips, tricks, and inside information from some of our most trusted Highland vendors. Get inspired by their passionate words, discover the popular eras and types of vintage home décor, and get excited to hunt for new treasures.
Define Vintage Home Décor
In the world of antiquing, the term “vintage home décor” refers to items older than 20 years old that can be used to decorate the interior of a house. Anything, from sophisticated wall art to nostalgic stuffed animals displayed on a bookshelf, can qualify as home décor. With different style eras to choose from and a never-ending rotation of stock, our vendor mall near Chicago has a wide array of options to explore.
Popular Types of Vintage Home Décor
Trinkets
Lights
Wall art
Mirrors
Clocks
… and so many more!
Who Sells Vintage Home Décor?
When you shop at an antique mall or visit a Highland vintage event, you’ll come across vintage décor vendors from all walks of life. With a wide range of experiences and style tastes, our vendors have been collecting for anywhere from under a year to decades. When asked, we found that many of our vendors have been interested in their niches for their entire lives—making the leap to join our vendor mall was just the icing on the cake! And just as anyone can sell it, anyone can buy it!
5 Vendor Tips for Shopping for Vintage Home Décor
Our collectors love belonging to America’s Antique Mall for a variety of reasons, from “working with a team of dedicated employees and nice vendors” to having the ability to display items in any way they want. When we asked our trusted vendors what tips they’d give to interested décor shoppers at the Highland vendor mall location, they laid out some sage advice:
1. “Buy what makes you happy!” – Bells & Whistles
2. “Come often and check out all the great things the vendors have to offer” – Renae’s Porch Treasures
3. “Don’t hesitate to have a friendly staff member open the showcase to get a better look!” – Collectible Fiesta Showcase
4. “We always regret the vintage we didn’t buy. Once you see it, you may never see it again.” – The Crazy Dish Lady
5. “Always feel free to make an offer.” – Pixie Dust Dezigns
Why Decorate with Vintage?
Your home is a reflection of you, your style, and your interests—so why settle for anything cookie-cutter? When you decorate with vintage home décor, you can curate each room of the house with one-of-a-kind items. Skip the same-old posters, blankets, rugs, and more, and consider unique options found at your local vendor mall so your home décor stands out.
Vintage home décor is also a great way to show off a collection you’re passionate about. Display your favorite Funko Pops on a mantle, frame your beginner coin collection in a shadow box in your office, or rotate your elegant vintage linens for every season.
Our Vendors Are Passionate
When you shop booths from vendors who love what they do, you’ll feel good buying the items you love. We asked our vendors why they chose to sell their specific items, and between their nostalgic connections of passed-down passions, you may feel inspired to stop by and experience it yourself. The various home décor found in the Highland location would not be possible without the brilliant minds of our vendors.
Good Energy Finds says they “enjoy finding items out in the wild and giving them a new life for someone that likes them just as much as I do—if not more!” Another vendor, I Need That, explains that selling vintage décor helps “to reduce the carbon footprint and preserve items from the past.” Every vendor in our antique mall is passionate about the collections they sell, whether they’ve been interested in that merchandise their whole life or get excited by the idea of introducing the items of decades past to a new generation of vintage lovers.
Eras of Vintage Home Décor
As you start your search for the home décor of your dreams, slow down and discover the different eras of items that typically live in the vendor mall:
Art Deco
Victorian
Retro
‘70s
How to Shop for Vintage Home Décor
As you start your vintage décor shopping journey, keep a few things in mind. First, think about your goal for the antique mall trip. Are you searching for a specific piece? Or browsing in general, hoping inspiration strikes? If you have a general idea of what you’re looking for, our kind staff can help you.
When you find an item you love, consider where you would put it in your home and how it would look with your existing décor. Will the colors match? Will you need to rearrange your gallery wall or furniture to make it fit? We suggest bringing a tape measure (and measuring the potential places in your home before you come) to get a smart idea of how it would fit into your home.
And last but not least, shop with an open mind! Decorating with vintage décor can be a slow process, so take your time and stop by the store often. As many of our vendors reminded us, there’s always something new and exciting in the store, so don’t be afraid to branch out to different styles, eras, or designs to help create a completely unique home!
Shopping for vintage home décor can seem quite daunting. So, who better to listen to than the experts behind the collections? With tips and tricks from our vendors and an inside look at available items and eras, you're sure to find décor you love at every visit. Stop by our Highland store to see the stylish collections for yourself!
