Decorating With Antique Boxes

Antique boxes can provide storage.

Decorating with antique boxes is a design technique that can set the mood in a room. The variety of antique boxes available is vast. Style options include country kitsch, elegant formal boxes, traditional boxes from different countries, or folk art painted boxes, to name a few. Use antique boxes for storage or simply to add details to the room's decor.

Things You'll Need

• Antique boxes
• Fishing or picnic basket
• Cigar boxes
• Fruit crates
• Wooden boxes
• Formal boxes
• Suitcases
• Hat boxes

Instructions

1. 

   Use tins in a rustic kitchen.

   Keep it rustic and use antique boxes that are made from crude wood that has been weathered with time or old tins that once held food products. These boxes can be perfect accents for a kitchen, den or other room where the decor is informal and rustic. The boxes can be old fishing baskets, picnic baskets or wooden boxes or crates that held fruit or other food products.

2. Use cigar boxes. Antique cigar boxes can be decorative and graphic with vibrant labels. Stack the cigar boxes on a coffee table to hold the remote controls or puzzle books out of sight. To get even more creative, make a lamp and use stacked cigar boxes as the base.

3. 

   Metal boxes can add a rich look to a room.

   Stack formal antique boxes on the floor or place strategically on shelves. The look of rich colors and patterns on some antique boxes that are lacquered, metal or paper-covered adds a cohesive element to the decor. Using rich-colored classic boxes in red or gold in an otherwise neutral room adds depth and dimension.

4. Place antique boxes around similar items to bring the look together. Place wooden boxes from the same era next to a child's antique wooden horse. Set boxes under an open table or wooden ironing board. Use old wooden cheese boxes to hold sewing thread on top of an antique sewing machine.

5. Create makeshift tables with larger antique boxes. Use old suitcases or hat boxes to make small end tables or nightstands. Suitcases make perfect places to store photo albums or magazines. Store smaller items out of sight in hat boxes that are decorative and functional.

References

• HGTV: Trash to Treasure, Old Cigar Boxes
• Southern Accents: The In Box
• Hoosier Homemade: Decorating with Antiques