As Featured in Bucks County Intelligencer 'How To" Section

Using Antiques To Enhance Home Design


For Jacquelyn Parker, the manager of Stone House Antiques Center, antiques are history, and often show detailed workmanship, and quality materials unlike anything you can buy new today. “Choosing the right antique piece is a highly personal thing, but unless you are a collector, you want to select them based on their ability to bring life to a boring room, or deliver great personal satisfaction based on beauty or intrinsic value.”


Jim Castelli, an experienced collector, dealer and our General Manager, commented, “When I view antiques, I look at them as I would pieces of art. I look for great design, remarkable shapes and forms, aged patina, priceless colors, and one-of-a-kind fabrics. The same aesthetic you get when looking deep into a painting, you should get when searching for antiques for your home, business or garden. If you find an antique piece that you really love but can't use it for its intended purpose, think of other ways and repurpose it to create a more interesting environment. The value of the piece should be in what it brings to you. If you look deep enough at the next antique piece you run into, it will silently tell you a story. You can bring a piece of history into your home and make your space your own.’


Today’s Decorating Trends

You can be a traditionalist, or mix it up with the current hot designer trends such as “Industrial” or  “Mid Century Modern. Today, whether it is Palm Beach or in Bucks County, there is a great appreciation for the clean, “modern” and timeless look of the mid-twentieth century.

It’s good to mix up styles and use unique items. You wouldn’t want everything in your home to look like you just bought everything at the same place. Browsing at a multi-dealer center is interesting, even exciting. Be careful not to get carried away.

Coming out of the dreary recent years of recession, shoppers are looking for design excitement, as well as nostalgia. Today’s hottest trends include

• Mid Century Modern, starting with Frank Lloyd Wright and continuing through the ‘60s continues as the hottest idea, bringing today’s buyers back to their early years.
  
  
• Art Nouveau, said to be the first truly modern style of the 20th century, looking forward instead of copying what happened before, using sinuous and vertical lines taken from the natural world.
  
  
• “Industrial Antiques” -who knew that repurposed gears and machine parts would look so great in your living room.
  
  
• Original Art, both “antique” as well as contemporary, for long term value appreciation
  
  
• Antique jewelry, and rare watches, are especially appreciated, even that old Swiss Bulova from the 1950s.
  
  
• The better quality traditional European and American antique furniture created by craftsmen from the dense, hard “old growth” woods including walnut, cherry, maple, etc.
  
  
• Recycled classic leather goods. Vuitton bag, anyone?
  
  
• Vintage clothing is one of the categories most sought after by the younger generation, and in New York and San Francisco, no wardrobe is complete with an accessory from an earlier period.
  
  
• Chinese Porcelain, and Asian antiques in general are every popular as the
  
  
  

A good rule to keep in mind is that function is more important than form for form’s sake. The item has to have beauty and usefulness, vs. just being “old”.  This is one reason driving the trend towards modernism - clean, functional, and utilitarian.



Where to Look, Compare and Buy

Every dealer has their own taste and specialty, so the best antique shopping may be the larger centers that house many dealers with a diversity of categories from different periods so that you can choose from a wider variety, and be able to compare.  There are two such centers in the area, and they are affiliated: the beautiful Stone House Antiques Center in Mechanicsville, PA and the legendary People’s Store in Lambertville, NJ are affiliated under the same ownership and management. They have between them over 75 dealers on multiple floors and follow the same philosophy of wide-ranging selection and friendly customer service, with first time buyers especially welcomed.


Stone House Antiques Center


Only open seven months, and after only the first few weeks already and chosen as a “Best of Bucks”. Stone House has already become a  destination that is highly regarded for its high quality antiques and design items, friendly staff, as well as the physical beauty of the manor itself.  Stone House is named after the gracious main building, also known as the Thomas Walton House - which predates 1814, and which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.  Located on State Highway 413 in the Bucks County historic crossroads village of Mechanicsville, PA, Stone House has become a premier destination for quality Antiques, Furniture, Artifacts, Art and Vintage goods. For more information, call 267-544-0574, or visit our website or on Facebook. www.stonehouse1814.com

www.facebook.com/stonehouse1814

Open daily 10-6PM