Having old furniture is totally normal, but letting it look super worn and dated? Nah, that’s not it according to “Home Town” host Erin Napier. As someone who’s super skilled at designing spaces with vintage vibes, Erin knows a thing or two about making old furniture look fresh and fabulous.
Even though Erin’s collected a ton of vintage pieces over the years, she makes sure they don’t look too shabby or rusty. For example, she had an old couch from her mom reupholstered and her husband Ben updated the base. “My mom bought a couch in 1999, and it was the greatest thing ever,” Erin says. “Then she wanted something different and gave it to us. We used it for years. I got it re-covered, and Ben made new feet for it. Every time she comes over, she’s like, ‘I can’t believe I gave that to y’all. I want it back.‘”
How Erin Napier breathes new life into vintage furniture
Beyond just reupholstering or re-covering old furniture, Erin’s got other tricks up her sleeve. She’s transformed an old sofa table into a storage cabinet, and she and Ben have even repurposed mahogany paneling from a featured home on their TV show into things like a record shelf and console table. But Erin says this kind of furniture makeover can be a lot of work, especially if you’re turning one big piece into multiple smaller ones.
One thing Erin’s not a fan of? Painting vintage wooden furniture with bright colors. She’s more of a wood stain kind of gal, as you can see in her own home where all the woodwork is stained to keep that natural grain. That said, she’s not opposed to using paint – she just prefers adding pops of color to walls and built-ins rather than standalone pieces.
