Top 12 Antiques and Decor Blog Posts 2013: Part 1

At the end of the year, it's fun to look back over our most popular antiques and decor blog posts of 2013. We hope you've found useful tips about antiques and vintage furniture and home decor accents. We're especially grateful to our customers who shared their home photos with us all. Their stories are a great source of decor inspiration to readers who subscribe to the blog by email or who follow us on our Facebook page. We love seeing our readers' and fans' comments too!

1. How to Clean and Wax Antique Furniture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LmetydOUYY In our series on restoration tips and tricks we showed how to clean and wax antique furniture. Folks often think they have to strip and refinish their antique furniture. We say NO! Back away from that antique treasure! Stripping and refinishing will actually decrease the furniture's value. Usually a proper clean is enough to refresh the beauty of the furniture and Greg walks you through how to clean antique furniture easily to give it the best TLC. (This series has been a real hit on our EuroLux Antiques YouTube channel too!)

2.  Heavily-Carved Antique Furniture Trend

Inspired by an article in Oprah magazine about the home decor trend for mixing heavily carved antique furniture with contemporary furnishings, I wrote this post on heavily carved antique furniture. There are many different carved furniture styles, and the post showcased ways to blend carved furniture and accents into your home as unique pieces of hand-crafted history!

3. Upcycled Chandeliers!

I wrote about upcycled chandeliers after Tupelo Honey Cafe bought one from us for one of their new restaurants. These unique light fixtures are custom-made for us by an artist. The chandelier for the restaurant was actually created out of a vintage tea service, and you can see photos of it and others in our gallery in the upcycled chandeliers post. It was one of our most popular blog posts on Pinterest - the photos got lots of repins from our Pinterest boards.

4. Renaissance Chairs & Buffet in Chateau Home

Our client spotlights showing our customers' homes always rank among our most popular antiques and decor posts! Bob H. in Illinois lives in a gorgeous French Renaissance chateau style home and we loved sharing his story. Our Renaissance Chairs in Chateau Home post shows how the antique furniture he bought from us blended with the amazing armor and other design details in Bob's home.

5. Red Renaissance Dining Room

Susan D's stunning red dining room inspired another popular client spotlight. Susan bought a set of 12 antique dining room chairs from us dating to 1900 with lion carvings and metal handles. The sturdy oak frames were in great shape but some of the chairs needed an upholstery makeover. You can see the finished effect, complete with a vintage chandelier and other great decor details in our post on Susan's Renaissance dining room.

6. Stained glass in home decor

If the words “stained glass” remind you of old church windows - think again! Our post on stained glass in home decor showed how to enjoy the luminous color of stained glass in many delightful ways. Our related Dale Tiffany Lamps article explained how the Dale Tiffany lights we carry in our gallery are hand-crafted by glass artisans using traditional Louis Comfort Tiffany techniques, including a video of the artists at work!

As a bonus, we just had to share this photo of Ozzy that we posted on our Facebook page along with other updates from our 8 furry friends who bring us so much joy in the gallery! Our cats and dogs often enjoy playing with our discarded packaging. But Ozzy, also known as Mr. Kittles, went one paw further when he found this grocery carton.  As Mr. Kittles says: "Sometimes you have to think outside the box!"

Browse the remaining six of our top 12 antiques and decor blog posts of 2013 at this link. We'd love to know which are your favorites! Meanwhile, everyone in the EuroLuxHome.com family wishes you a wonderful New Year!