Repurposing Vintage Silver as Home Decor

One thing I strive to do in my home is to make even mundane things pretty. It doesn't always happen, but this year, there's a whole lot of mundane and so more than ever, I am looking for ways to make the everyday feel special and nice. 

One of the ways I do this is to use vintage items in our home. This can be from antique furniture, but toda I'm talking about the little things. Like old crystal ash trays or butter pat dishes or wine coasters. 

I shared on Instastories the other day that I use silver wine coasters to hold my candles whenever I am burning them. I think it makes them look even prettier and also helps them to blend more into the decor and look like they belong in the vignette. I got a lot of DM's asking for the source. You can see the exact wine coaster I used for this candle, here. It's actually not even vintage but was a gift and is a true wine coaster. 

However, I have a few more that I love and are a bit more intricate that I have found at consignment shops and estate sales. You can find a lot of this kind of stuff on eBay and Etsy, too! It doesn't have to be silver either. It could be brass or crystal or even bone china! Here are some key words to search: 

- Ash Tray 

- Baby Bowl

- Trinket Dish

- Wine Coaster

- Coaster 

- Coin dish

- Soap dish

- Butter Pat 

- Champagne Coaster

You'll obviously want to specify 'silver' or 'brass' or whatever it is you are looking for. It also helps to add in vintage if you are not getting the results you are looking for. 

Besides using these little vintage trinket holders for candles, I also use them to hold things like matchbooks or cocktail nuts when I am hosting people at our house. In the photo at the top of this post, the 'match holder' that you see is actually a vintage Mikasa ash tray that I repurposed to hold matches! I use them on my desk to hold stamps and SD cards. My fiancé has a crystal wine coaster on his nighstand that acts as a catchall. I have one in our bathroom that I use to place jewelry on when I'm washing my hands and same for our powder room! The uses are truly endless. Honestly, if I found a cyrstal bowl in the right size and shape, I'd have Henry eat his food out of it everday- kidding! 

I have to admit as soon as I wrote that sentence, I just had to go see if a crystal dog bowl exists and what do you know, IT DOES! 

Anyway, I thought I would share a big roundup of some of the pieces I found and really liked that are on Etsy and eBay.