Something old, something new!

If you’re secretly yearning to give your home a charming new look, it’s time to hark back to the past.

Remnants of vintage fabrics, old wallpapers, a little imagination and some basic craft skills are all that’s needed to conjure the fashionable atmosphere of a bygone age, according to vintage expert Sarah Moore.

Her new book, Vintage Home, is packed with 50 handmade projects, from furniture to decorating, and all the essentials can be cheaply found in places like charity shops, car boot sales, flea markets, and house clearances.

“As you build your collection of thrifty and gorgeous vintage finds, you can customise them and decorate your entire home at a fraction of the cost of buying things new,” she says.

Here are Moore’s tips for vintage style.

Material makeover - Recycle vintage fabrics and use them to make curtains, duvet and cushion covers, or for jazzy details like a new ironing board cover or towel-edging, suggests Moore.

She advises choosing strong materials and washing them in a colour-kind detergent, then ironing them before use.

“Mix and match old fabrics with new. Striped ticking, dyed linen and calico sit really well alongside old fabrics,” she says.

Paper it pretty - Rolls of old wallpaper can work wonders pasted onto the interiors of cupboards, or to decorate the risers of wooden stairs, says Moore.

Old wallpaper used to be rolled with the pattern on the inside, and required trimming before use, so there’s a high chance you have a vintage find if you spot those signs.

Bedside tables - What you’ll need: Apple crate or bushel box; masking tape; paint and paintbrushes (optional); tape measure; fabric to make a curtain; fabric scissors; iron; pins; sewing machine; sewing thread; curtain wire and hooks.

Step one: Give the crate a good wash and dry. When dry, paint the inside, if required. Use masking tape to mask between the slats from the outside of the box so that the paint cannot leak out to the exterior. Paint the interior right up to the inside edges and allow to dry completel. Remove the tape.

Step two: Stand the crate on its end and measure its front opening. Cut a piece of fabric twice the width and about 10cm longer than the length of the opening. Turn over a hem of 1cm on all sides of the fabric, press and pin it in place before sewing all the way around.

Turn over a large hem of around 3cm on the top of the curtain to make a channel for the wire. Pin and press that, too, then sew in place, removing the pins as you go.

Screw the little hooks that come with the curtain wire in place, just behind the top edge of the box. Feed the wire through the double hem of the curtain. Stretch the wire across the box and hook the curtain in place.