The Ultimate Edit: Interior Design Studios Nailing Vintage Furniture

Vintage furniture is part of cosmopolitan interior design, not an accent: 85 designers surveyed by 1stDibs in 2025 and 2026 sourced pieces from the 1920s–2000s, and 63% now specify pre-1920s antiques. The featured studios build spaces around hero vintage pieces, from Italian mid-century seating to Scandinavian dining chairs and sculptural vintage lighting, paired with contemporary architecture.

Vintage furniture is the heart of contemporary interior design projects. The reasons for the mainstream status repeat across every major forecast: sustainability, scarcity-driven character, social media trends and a hunger for interiors that feel personal rather than staged. But trend reports only tell half the story. The secret is not to source a vintage piece. It is to plan a vintage interior design project, from buying the right pieces to mixing them with different eras. 

We pulled together interior design studios doing some of the most interesting work with vintage furniture, each alongside one standout project and the specific pieces that make it work. Think of it as a working reference: bookmark it, steal ideas from it, or use it to find a designer whose eye matches your own.

How Vintage Furniture Is Defining Interior Design Right Now

• Curvy, sculptural silhouettes: Djinn chairs, Soriana sofas, and Tongue chairs are replacing boxy minimalism.

• Mid-century Italian and Scandinavian design (Gae Aulenti, Vico Magistretti, Marco Zanuso, Niels O. Møller) is the most consistently sourced category among the studios featured.

• Statement vintage lighting:  Murano glass, Akari paper lamps, and Ingo Maurer fixtures as sculpture as much as illumination.

• One hero piece per room: rather than filling a space with vintage, these studios let a single dining table, sofa or lamp carry the room's character.

• Mixing eras and price points: an 18th-century-revival mirror next to a mid-century tulip table, or Art Deco chairs beside a contemporary sofa.

We selected interior design studios with published projects that chose vintage furniture to define rooms. 

The Studios and Their Signature Vintage Piece

A quick-scan reference before the full write-ups below. Locations are approximate, based on the featured project or studio's primary market.

Interior Design Studios and the Vintage Furniture in Their Projects

1. Studio Valle de Valle

Studio Valle de Valle is a New York-based interior design studio known for layering Italian mid-century icons with warm, tactile lighting against clean architectural backdrops.

This New York townhouse pairs Italian design-icon seating with warm mid-century lighting. The palette moves from a sculptural Camaleonda sofa in the sitting room to Scandinavian dining chairs in the kitchen. Featured pieces:

• Sitting room: Camaleonda Sofa, Akari UF3-Q Floor Lamp, Kyoto Coffee Table by Gianfranco Frattini for Poltrona Frau

• Kitchen/diner: Axel Einar Hjorth Dining Chairs, Franco Albini Ceiling Light model 4023

Spotlight

Kyoto Coffee Table: This timeless coffee table by architect and designer Gianfranco Frattini for Poltrona Frau is available in different dimensions. is the perfect harmony between vision and master craftsmanship. Japanese culture and interior design concepts inspired this unique vintage piece. 

2. Elizabeth Roberts

Elizabeth Roberts is a Brooklyn-based architect and designer best known for sensitive, detail-driven renovations of historic brownstones and townhouses.

A Brooklyn brownstone built around comfortable, collected seating. Rattan and Scandinavian dining chairs give the historic shell a lived-in warmth rather than a strict period restoration. Featured pieces:

• Sitting room: Mid-century Italian rattan chair, Marenco sofa

• Dining room: Model 62 Dining Chairs by Niels O. Møller for J.L. Møllers

Spotlight

Marenco Sofa: Designed by Mario Marenco for Arflex in 1970, the cushiony Marenco sofa was one of the first modular sofas to treat comfort as a design statement.

3. Gregory Rockwell

Gregory Rockwell is a Brooklyn-based interior designer recognised for confident, era-spanning townhouse interiors featured in Architectural Digest.

An AD-featured Brooklyn townhouse with bold, era-mixing furniture choices. Pairing a postmodern Sottsass table with 1960s and 1970s seating shows how far apart two vintage pieces can sit in time and still feel cohesive. Featured pieces:

• Dining room: Ettore Sottsass dining table, 1960s brutalist pine chairs

• Sitting room: 1960s Johannes Andersen sofa, 1970s Bernard Brunier chairs

Spotlight: 

Ettore Sottsass Dining Table: Ettore Sottsass is one of postwar Italy's most influential designers; his sculptural furniture remains a touchstone for intellectually playful interiors.

4. GRT Architects

GRT Architects is a New York studio known for adaptive-reuse projects that pair architectural history with confident, design-forward furniture.

A former rectory reimagined with confident, design-forward furniture. A Camaleonda sofa and a Frank Gehry chair anchor two different rooms, showing how one hero piece per space keeps a historic building from feeling overly precious.

Featured pieces:

• Sitting room: Camaleonda Sofa, Marco Zanuso Senior Armchair

• Dining room: Frank Gehry Hat Trick chairs, Akari ceiling lamp

Spotlight

Marco Zanuso Senior Armchair: This elegant upholstery piece by Marco Zanuso was designed in the 1950s. It remains one of the most recognisable vintage armchairs, prized for its clean, simple lines.

5. Jett Projects

Jett Projects is a Brooklyn design studio recognised for personality-driven apartments featured in Architectural Digest.

Proof that vintage doesn't need to dominate a room to matter. A single vintage bar cabinet does the heavy lifting here. Featured pieces:

• Living/dining room: 1970s steel chairs, 1940s Luigi Scremin bar cabinet

Spotlight

1940s Luigi Scremin Bar Cabinet: Luigi Scremin was an Italian cabinetmaker known for finely crafted, often inlaid case pieces; a 1940s bar cabinet like this brings old-world craftsmanship into a contemporary space.

6. Josh Greene

Josh Greene is a New York-based interior designer known for polished, classic interiors that mix antique and mid-century pieces with ease.

A Park Avenue kitchen that mixes eras deliberately. Pairing a Saarinen-style tulip table with gilt Louis XV Revival chairs shows how mid-century minimalism and 18th-century ornament can share one table. Featured pieces:

• Kitchen: Tulip table, Louis XV Revival antique gilt chairs and mirror

Spotlight

Louis XV Revival Antique Gilt Chairs and Mirror: The Louis XV Revival pieces reproduce the curved lines and gilt finishes of 18th-century French design.

7. Lily Dierkes

Lily Dierkes is a design studio known for layering vintage furniture in residential projects.

A Palm Beach home layered with statement vintage across every room. From an Ingo Maurer pendant to a Pierre Paulin lounge chair, the home is a 20th-century retreat. Featured pieces:

• Living room: Pierre Paulin Orange Slice chair, Swedish Art Deco walnut table

• Kitchen: Bauer Cesca bar stools

• Dining room: Leather cab chairs, Ingo Maurer Uchiwa Shichi pendant lamp

Spotlight

Pierre Paulin Orange Slice Chair: Designed in 1960 for Artifort, the Orange Slice chair's sculpted, upholstered shell remains one of Pierre Paulin's widely reproduced designs.

8. Kelly Behun

Kelly Behun is a New York-based designer known for art-forward interiors built around rare vintage and collectible design pieces.

A widely published West Coast residence built on tactile seating. The dining and lounge chairs lean into texture and sculptural form over pattern. Featured pieces:

• Tobia and Afra Scarpa Africa dining chairs, Carl Johan Boman shearling lounge chairs.

Spotlight

Tobia and Afra Scarpa “Africa” Dining Chairs: Afra and Tobia Scarpa were among Italy's most influential 20th-century design duos.

9. Sachs Lindores

Sachs Lindores is a design studio known for building Hamptons and New York interiors around instantly recognisable, design-collector pieces.

A Hamptons home built around design-collector pieces. Mixing a Pierre Chapo table with a Djinn chair and Scandinavian and Japanese seating turns the living room into a hands-on lesson in 20th-century design history. Featured pieces:

• Living room: Pierre Chapo T22 Table, Djinn Chair by Olivier Mourgue, Arne Jacobsen Rover Chair, Spoke Chair by Kappei Toyoguchi for Tendo

Spotlight

Djinn Chair by Olivier Mourgue: Designed in 1965 for Airborne, the curving Djinn chair is one of the defining shapes of 1960s French design.

10. Argyle Design

Argyle Design is a Los Angeles studio known for restoring and furnishing homes in the city's historic hillside neighbourhoods.

The Whitley Heights home in Los Angeles sets a Mediterranean-revival backdrop for the studio's vintage sourcing.

Featured pieces:

• Full piece list documented directly on the project page — worth a click for anyone cataloguing sources room by room.

Spotlight

This project's full sourcing list lives on Argyle's own project page rather than a public piece-by-piece breakdown; it's worth clicking through directly.

11. Ashe Leandro

Ashe Leandro, founded by Ariel Ashe and Reinaldo Leandro, is a New York studio known for art- and vintage-driven interiors.

An East Hampton-area home layered with Italian design history: a Marco Zanuso armchair with Carlo Scarpa dining chairs threads a single line of mid-century Italian design through two different rooms. Featured pieces:

• Living room: Sinfonia Armchair by Marco Zanuso, Jean Prouvé modular sofa, mid-century Italian Diabolo Floor Lamp in the Stilnovo style

• Dining room: Carlo Scarpa 1934 "765" dining chairs, mid-century Italian ceiling lamp (mid-century Italian lighting used throughout, in the tradition of Stilnovo and Angelo Lelli).

Spotlight

Jean Prouvé Modular Sofa: Jean Prouvé, the French designer-engineer best known for his industrially minded furniture, brings a structural counterpoint to the home's softer Italian pieces.

12. Athena Calderone

Athena Calderone, founder of EyeSwoon, is a designer and author known for warm interiors that mix collected vintage with contemporary pieces.

Across her body of work, two pieces recur as anchor choices. The Camaleonda-and-Artifort pairing has become something of a signature. Featured pieces:

• Camaleonda sofa, F815 Lounge Chairs by Theo Ruth for Artifort

Spotlight

Camaleonda Sofa: Mario Bellini's 1970 modular design for B&B Italia is the sofa most associated with the current vintage-furniture revival.

13. Kelly Wearstler

Kelly Wearstler is a leading American designer known for bold, sculptural interiors that blend vintage, antique and custom pieces, and the author of several interior design books.

A residence that mixes eras with confidence. Mismatched dining chairs and a cognac-leather armchair set keep the room from reading as too matched, a hallmark of Wearstler's maximalist approach. Featured pieces:

• Living room: Erasmus sofa by Tobia and Afra Scarpa

• Dining room: Mismatched dining chairs, 1960s architectural cognac-leather armchairs

Spotlight

Erasmus Sofa by Tobia and Afra Scarpa: Designed by Afra and Tobia Scarpa, the boxy, Erasmus sofa is a quieter counterpoint to their more sculptural Soriana design.

14. Studio Vero

Studio Vero mixes sculptural vintage lighting with textural furniture.

A London apartment built around glass and wood. A Murano glass ceiling lamp and a mid-century rosewood sideboard set a material palette of glass, wood and leather. Featured pieces:

• Murano glass ceiling lamp, Gustavo Pulitzer "Alba" lounge chair, Snoopy table lamp.

Spotlight

Murano Glass Ceiling Lamp: Murano, the Venetian island synonymous with centuries of Italian glassmaking, produced some of the mid-century's most collectible lighting.

15. Beata Heuman

Beata Heuman is a London-based designer known for maximalist interiors. 

A London home that mixes Scandinavian and Swedish designs. A Josef Frank-upholstered armchair alongside Bruno Mathsson's curved “Pernilla” lounge chair brings two distinct strands of Swedish design into the same room. Featured pieces:

• Armchair upholstered in Josef Frank fabric for Svenskt Tenn, Eames office chair, "Pernilla 3" lounge chair by Bruno Mathsson for Karl Mathsson

Spotlight

“Pernilla 3” Lounge Chair by Bruno Mathsson: Bruno Mathsson pioneered bent-laminated wood furniture in Sweden in the 1930s and 40s; the ergonomic Pernilla chair is one of the most collectible seats in Scandinavian design history.

16. Studio Ashby

Studio Ashby is a London studio known for eclectic, art-forward interiors that mix vintage and contemporary design.

The St. James’s Park Apartment features a Gae Aulenti lamp and Bauhaus-era armchairs, letting the lighting and seating do the talking with a calmer architectural shell. Featured pieces:

• Pipistrello Table Lamp by Gae Aulenti, Marcel Breuer Bauhaus armchairs, Fontana Arte wall lamps

Spotlight

Pipistrello Table Lamp by Gae Aulenti: The mushroom-shaped Pipistrello is one of Gae Aulenti's most celebrated designs.

17. Jason Arnold

Jason Arnold is a Nashville-based interior designer known for warm, texturally rich interiors built around curved, sculptural vintage furniture.

Belle Meade is a Nashville-area home built around curved forms. A woven rope chair alongside a Pierre Paulin lounge chair mixes natural materials with pure sculptural form. Featured pieces:

• Pierre Paulin Tongue chair, burlwood Art Deco coffee table, Audoux and Minet Tripod Rope Chair

Spotlight

Pierre Paulin Tongue Chair: Designed in 1967 for Artifort, the fabric-wrapped Tongue chair was one of Pierre Paulin's most experimental seating designs.

18. Ome Dezin

Ome Dezin is a design studio that treats vintage lighting as sculpture and builds rooms around statement fixtures.

The Colony treats lighting as sculpture. An Ingo Maurer lamp and a Frank Gehry chair sit at opposite ends of design history, one poetic, the other architectural. Featured pieces:

• Ingo Maurer "Lampampe" lamp, Lounge Chair by Geoffrey Harcourt for Artifort, small cocoon table lamp, Frank Gehry Hat Trick chair

Spotlight

Ingo Maurer “Lampampe” Lamp: Ingo Maurer, often called the “poet of light,” spent decades designing fixtures that treated illumination as an art form.

19. And Studio

And Studio is a New York design studio known for grounding contemporary apartments in Art Deco and Scandinavian vintage pieces.

A New York apartment in the Upper West Side grounded in Art Deco and Scandinavian pieces. Barrel-back chairs and a wrought-iron floor lamp bring Art Deco's geometry into an otherwise pared-back Upper West Side apartment. Featured pieces:

• Art Deco barrel chairs, wrought-iron floor lamp, Armchair by Møller & Stokke

Spotlight

Art Deco Barrel Chairs: Barrel chairs were a signature silhouette of the 1920s and ’30s Art Deco movement, prized then and now for combining comfort with geometric form.

20. Fabian Freytag Studio

Fabian Freytag Studio is a European interior design practice known for restrained, materially rich apartments that let a few vintage pieces carry the room.

The Leonhardt apartment kept deliberately restrained. An Eames office chair and a rattan floor lamp are the apartment's vintage notes, each chosen to do a lot of visual work in a quiet space. Featured pieces:

• Eames office chair, Mario López rattan floor lamp

Spotlight

Eames Office Chair: Eames redefined office and task seating for Herman Miller. Their chairs remain among the most recognisable collected pieces of American mid-century design.

21. Studio Mellone

Studio Mellone is a design studio known for letting sculptural vintage lighting define a room's character.

The Soho Loft is a New York loft where lighting does the talking. Featured pieces:

• Serpente table lamp by Elio Martinelli, Artichoke pendant lamp

Spotlight

Artichoke Pendant Lamp: Designed by Poul Henningsen, the pendant hides its bulb from every angle while diffusing a warm light. It is one of Danish design's most iconic fixtures.

22. Charlap Hyman & Herrero

Charlap Hyman & Herrero, founded by Adam Charlap Hyman and Andre Herrero, is a studio known for eclectic interiors rich with design-historical references.

The Studio City Residence is a Los Angeles residence with one of the richest vintage lineups on this list. Five vintage pieces, spanning Italian, Scandinavian and German design, appear in this home. Featured pieces:

• Carimate armchairs by Vico Magistretti, Arne Jacobsen desk chair, Ingo Maurer spiral lamp, Akari floor lamp, Bonacina bamboo chairs

Spotlight

Carimate Armchairs by Vico Magistretti: Designed in 1959, the rush-seated, ladder-back Carimate chair was created for a golf clubhouse and has since become a design-world staple, prized for balancing rustic material with a refined, architectural frame.

23. Proem Studio

Proem Studio builds hillside homes around sculptural vintage lighting and seating.

The Benedict Canyon is a Los Angeles hillside home built around sculptural forms. A Dutch floor lamp and an Italian sofa anchor opposite corners of the home. Featured pieces:

• Zodiac floor lamp, model D-2080, by Ton Alberts for Raak Amsterdam, Orbit desk lamp by Ron Rezek, Soriana sofa, mid-century tree-trunk table

Spotlight

Soriana Sofa: Designed by Afra and Tobia Scarpa for Cassina in 1969, the deeply tufted Soriana remains one of the most awarded sofas in Italian design history.

24. Studio Roene

Studio Roene is a Los Angeles design studio known for furnishing Craftsman-era homes with carefully chosen 20th-century vintage pieces.

The Silverlake Craftsman home closes out the list with two standout pieces: a Czech Art Deco lounge chair and an Italian bench. Featured pieces:

• Art Deco H269 lounge chair by Jindřich Halabala, Gae Aulenti green Locus Solus bench

Spotlight

Gae Aulenti Green Locus Solus Bench: Part of Gae Aulenti's 1964 Locus Solus outdoor furniture line for Poltronova, the Locus Solus bench brought colourful Italian design to outdoor and transitional spaces.

Discover What People Are Searching for in Vintage Furniture

What is vintage interior design?

Vintage interior design uses furniture and objects from earlier design periods, typically Art Deco through late-20th-century mid-century modern. The studios featured in this article treat one or two vintage pieces per room as the anchor around which everything else is arranged.

How to mix vintage furniture with a modern interior?

Pair one vintage "hero" piece (a sofa, dining table, or statement lamp) with simpler architecture and finishes, so the vintage piece reads as intentional. Studios like GRT Architects and Studio Valle de Valle use this approach: a Camaleonda sofa or Akari lamp against a neutral shell.

What key vintage furniture pieces do interior designers source?

Italian mid-century seating (Camaleonda and Marenco sofas, Soriana sofas), Scandinavian dining chairs (Niels O. Møller, Bruno Mathsson), and sculptural vintage lighting (Akari lamps, Murano glass, Ingo Maurer fixtures) are consistently sourced categories among leading studios.

Which interior designers are known for using vintage furniture?

Designers and studios include Kelly Wearstler, Athena Calderone, Ashe Leandro, Beata Heuman, Studio Ashby, and Charlap Hyman & Herrero, alongside emerging studios like Studio Valle de Valle, GRT Architects, and Proem Studio.

Is vintage furniture more sustainable than buying new?

Vintage furniture is more sustainable than buying new because it avoids the emissions and resource use of new manufacturing (one of the top reasons designers cite for the shift toward vintage sourcing, according to 1stDibs' most recent Interior Designer Trends Survey).

What vintage lighting styles are trending in interior design?

Sculptural vintage lighting is trending strongly. Examples: Akari paper lamps by Isamu Noguchi, Murano glass fixtures, Ingo Maurer designs, and Gae Aulenti's Pipistrello lamp.

Where to buy vintage furniture like the pieces interior designers use?

Curated vintage marketplaces such as Curiouz, along with auction houses, estate sales, and dealer showrooms, are the main sources designers use for vintage pieces.

Bring the Look Home

The throughline across all interior design projects is the same: vintage furniture sets the tone. If you're starting your own vintage interior design project, browse Curiouz's vintage furniture collection for sourced, authenticated pieces across seating, lighting, tables and storage.

*All images in this article belong to the featured studios, including the commercial rights. The feature image is from the Tamarama Project by Flack Studio. Photo by Anson Smart.