Contemporary home decor is yielding a little this season to a more traditional style evocative of the Edwardian and Victorian eras.
We’re seeing steamer trunks used as tables, Victorian illustrative prints and wallpapers, and new versions of period furniture.
If you’re interested in e
xperimenting with this look, consider vintage linens.
The craftsmanship and uniqueness of fine old linens draw collectors, as well as decorators who like to mix old and new: a vintage quilt on a modern slab bed, for example, or an antique lace tablecloth dressed with chic tableware.
Vintage cotton and damask napery, bed and bath linens are often wonderful examples of the loom and needle arts.
Textile weaving, lace tatting and embroidery could take craftspeople hundreds of hours; the resulting pieces were treasured, loved and passed along through families.
English-born Anna Redgrave of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, owns Highland Lace, a vintage linens web shop. Her lifelong passion for antique textiles was nurtured by her grandmother, a member of the Royal Needlework Society and a seamstress at Buckingham Palace.
“She was responsible for finding and sewing all the embellishments on the ball gowns,” Redgrave says. The Society was the same group that, 60 years later, made the overlay of lace on Kate Middleton’s dress.
Jane Nicholson (www.mrsnicholson.com) is a designer and decorator, also in Annapolis Royal, who has created elegant yet welcoming spaces in Ottawa and Montreal that meld modern and traditional styles.
She began her textile collection with a 90-year-old set of lace-trimmed bed linens passed down from her great aunt. They were made by an order of nuns for her aunt’s trousseau in her small village in Belgium.
“But she never married.” Nicholson says. “Her fiance was killed in World War I, and she never used them. They passed to my aunt who also never used them. Finally they came to me, and I have them on my two mahogany guest beds.”
Caring for old linens: Redgrave soaks yellowed or spotted pieces in warm, slightly soapy water overnight, then mixes up ¼ cup Oxiclean, a stain remover, with 1½ gallons of water.
After a few hours of steeping the garment in that mixture, she rinses it with warm water, pats it with towels and lays it flat in bright sunshine.
Nicholson is also a fan of sunshine to naturally bleach and dry linens, but she uses Sunlight bar soap to gently rub soiled areas, then pours hot water through the stain before laying the garment out to dry.
Storing: Redgrave recommends an old practice of rolling linens around a tube, often covered with a cotton print, to deter moths from nesting in creases.
Nicholson rolls hers in soft white cotton sheets. Place lavender sachets in the tubes or between the layers. You can also store pieces in acid-free tissue, available at craft stores. Never store linens in plastic, which encourages mold.
Learn more
“The Book of Fine Linen,” Francoise de Bonneville’s in-depth look at the history and range of household linens, was recently republished in English by Flammarion. Full of lively stories, information and images.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
