Stylist Spotlight: Helen’s Vintage Styling Tips

Our Stylist Spotlight will feature our stylist’s favourite styling projects and even their own homes, as well as their unique styling tips. We want to help you get to know The Home Stylist better and to give you an insight into our stylists’ eye for design and talent for creating stunning spaces made for living. 

This month we are chatting to Hong Kong stylist Helen who will tell us about vintage styling in a modern home, ways to use colour in your home and about a vintage table she found in an auction.

Helen, we absolutely love the vintage table you styled above. Where did you get it and how did you style it?

This vintage table is a very battered, old desk which is possibly Edwardian. I bought it with the chair from an auction in the UK – just £40 for both!

I didn’t realise how battered it was until I got it home and started stripping it. It was then, through the layers of white paint, that the gorgeous green paint appeared. I had intended to strip it right down and paint it, but I loved the mishmash of colours that appeared so left it as it was!

I don’t actually use it as a desk, as it’s rather rickety. But, it sits perfectly in our glass extension off of the kitchen here in HK.

The colour is amazing and we love how you’ve combined other colours and shades with the details. What are your top tips for styling with colour in mind?

I love colour and definitely have a fetish for greens, blues and aqua. I like to try and use different shades of those colours, but also like to add another colour to break it up, hence the yellow here.

I think the important thing is to stick to the same hue of a colour, but vary the shade to add depth by using lighter and darker shades.

I like to use pattern as well to introduce colour so that it’s not one solid block.

While the table is certainly vintage, you’ve managed to make the look quite contemporary. How do you use vintage pieces in an otherwise modern home?

I think a vintage cabinet, side table or dresser can look great in a lounge or dining area alongside more modern furniture – sofas etc.

I dream of having a lovely modern kitchen with a huge glass fronted dresser to house my vintage pottery collection.  It is currently hidden in our loft in the UK!

If you don’t have space for vintage furniture, a vintage vase, pottery or trinket can look great displayed on a modern side table, or coffee table.

Another amazing vintage find I had were a collection of old church chairs from eBay. I repainted them and paired with my modern table!

Jan Showers famously said that “every room needs a touch of black, just as it needs at least one antique piece” – do you agree? Why should everyone have something vintage on their home?

Yes, I absolutely would agree! I love a mix of old and new. Vintage pieces always have a history behind them as well as their unique look.

I always wonder what their story is and where they have lived before, and it is the same with most people. There’s much more of a talking point with vintage furniture and decor and that is exactly what you want from your home – for it to create intrigue!