How to Mix Vintage and Heirloom Furniture in a Modern Home
Updated: 4 days ago
To mix vintage and heirloom furniture into a modern home, choose the few pieces that truly matter, give each one a central place, refresh them where needed with new upholstery, and build a calm, consistent design around them, so they look chosen rather than left over.
By Maya Sheinberger | 05.07.25
Vintage means a piece from an earlier design period; an heirloom is a piece with a family story. The H apartment has both.
Almost every renovation starts with the same question: what do we keep? Some clients want to start from scratch, others can't imagine their home without a certain sofa. In my experience, one or two pieces with a story make a new home feel like yours from the first day.
Key takeaways
Keep only the pieces you love or that carry a real story.
Give a key piece a central spot, and design the room around it.
Reupholster in a color that fits the new palette.
Keep the rest of the design calm, so old and new don't compete.
Use art and collected objects to set the shelf heights and the walls.
Which old furniture is worth keeping?
The pieces that carry a memory or a design value. In the H apartment in Hod Hasharon, apart from a few items and a varied art collection, all the furniture and accessories were designed and bought new. One of the items that moved with the couple from their previous home was an original vintage sofa designed by the well-known Israeli furniture makers Kastiel.
How do you give a vintage piece a modern look?
Reupholster it and place it at the center. The Kastiel sofa was reupholstered in a deep chocolate brown and placed in the middle of the living room. Around it, I added new pieces: a warm gray armchair, a pair of matching armchairs, round black iron coffee tables on a modern rug with a fine grid pattern, and a minimalist concrete TV unit with a walnut section that hides the audio and video systems.
The result is a home in a minimalist, restrained style, with natural materials like iron, concrete, walnut and leather, and one sofa with a past at its heart.
Can a sentimental piece go in the bedroom?
Yes, and sometimes that's the best place for it. In the master bedroom of H, two original vintage lamps in a gold finish, which the owners had before the renovation, stand on the nightstands beside a new bed. In the S apartment in Hod Hasharon, all the furniture was replaced except for one sentimental armchair from the old home. It was reupholstered in pink velvet and found its place in the bedroom, where it fits the palette of gray, smoked oak and soft pink.
Piece | What we did | Project |
Original Kastiel sofa | Reupholstered in chocolate brown, center of the living room | H apartment |
Vintage gold lamps | On the new nightstands in the master bedroom | H apartment |
Sentimental armchair | Reupholstered in pink velvet, placed in the bedroom | S apartment |
Art objects and paintings | Set the library shelf heights, hung across the home | S apartment |
Vintage pendant | Above the dining table, in black, white and brass | RA apartment |
How do you mix classic, vintage and modern furniture?
Repeat materials and colors, so different periods share a language. In the RA apartment in Tel Aviv, the design combines classic and modern furniture with slightly industrial items, all in natural wood, iron and stone and soft colors. Above the dark oak dining table hangs a vintage light fixture in black, white and brass.
The same mix continues in the living room. A wooden armchair and a glass coffee table with a black wooden base sit beside a modular bookcase of hexagonal iron columns, iron shelves and blackened oak, so classic shapes stand next to industrial iron in one calm palette.
How do art and collections fit in?
Plan them from the start. In S, the art objects the owner placed in the custom steel, brass and glass library set the heights of its shelves, and her collection of paintings was hung across the home. In H, artworks collected over the years hang throughout the apartment.
For help choosing the new pieces around your heirlooms, see my guide to choosing furniture for your home. And if you're moving to a smaller home, my post on designing an apartment after 60 shows how H and S were planned.
Frequently asked questions
Should I keep my old sofa when I renovate?
Keep it if you love it and it's comfortable. A good frame can be reupholstered in a color that fits the new design, as we did with the Kastiel sofa in the H apartment.
How do I make heirloom furniture look modern?
Reupholster it, give it space, and surround it with clean, simple pieces and natural materials.
How many vintage pieces can one room take?
Usually one or two strong pieces per room. More than that, and the room starts to look like a collection instead of a home.
Where should a sentimental armchair go?
Wherever you'll use it. In the S apartment, a reupholstered armchair from the old home found its place in the bedroom.
Renovating and not sure what to keep? I'd love to hear about your project.
Maya Sheinberger is an interior designer with more than 17 years of experience. After five years at a leading architecture firm, she founded her independent studio in 2012. She holds a B.Des with honors from the College of Management. Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications in Israel and abroad, including eight Archilovers Best Project awards, and one of her apartments features in the book The New Minimalist Style.
Photography @itaybenitphotographer · Styling @maya_livnat_harush
