Vintage globes are making a big comeback in home décor and design. These antique wall maps add an instant sense of wanderlust and old-world charm to any space. While globes have always been popular as accents, designers today are finding new creative ways to give the vintage globe trend a fresh, modern spin.
Embrace Imperfection
Part of what makes old globes so appealing is their worn, weathered appearance. Rather than seeking out pristine condition, embrace imperfections. Look for globes with rich patinas, faded colors, peeling laminate, or other signs of age. Displaying a well-loved, aged globe adds character and a sense of history. The imperfections tell a story and add authenticity.
Unexpected Color Palettes
Traditional antique globes were often done in standard color schemes, but don’t be afraid to try bolder, more unexpected palettes. A vivid turquoise ocean, tomato red continents, or sunflower yellow borders breathe new life into a vintage piece. This injection of color modernizes the look while retaining the nostalgic form.
Inventive Mounting Solutions
Rather than just placing a globe on an accent table or bookshelf, get creative with unique mounting solutions. Attach a brass arm to display the globe floating in space. Use nautical rope to suspend it like a ship’s wheel. Mount individual hemispheres together on the wall to form abstract art. The options are endless for showcasing these spheres in eye-catching ways.
Contemporary Contexts
Vintage globes can feel stuffy or old-fashioned, but placing them in more modern, minimalist environments gives an appealing juxtaposition of classic and contemporary. The globes bring a welcome dose of warmth and texture to sleek, pared-down rooms dominated by straight lines and neutral hues. Adding a dash of history grounds the space.
Illuminated Accents
Lighting takes any décor element to the next level. Illuminate mounted vintage globes from the interior or shine spotlights on spheres resting on surfaces. The glow not only highlights intricate details, but creates lovely ambiance. For customizable lighting effects, use smart bulbs that can be adjusted from warm sunset tones to cool midnight hues.
Unexpected Materials
Antique globes are traditionally made of paper and wood, but modern takes feature more unusual materials like metal, glass, or acrylic. A brushed brass globe pairs nicely with industrial interiors while thick blown glass makes a sculptural statement. Applied textures like bumpy molded plastic or etched topographical lines provide tactile depth.
Artistic Alterations
Transform vintage globes into one-of-a-kind art objects by altering the original surface. Sand away the equator to expose underlying layers or use white paint to add poetic lines of longitude and latitude. Cut a globe in half to display cross-sections of the core. The nostalgic form becomes the canvas for artistic expression.
Whimsical Accents
Inject fanciful accents into a vintage globe to spark imagination and convey your personal sense of style. Adorn the oceans with painted sea creatures, fill the interior with fluttering paper ships, or surround the sphere with circling model airplanes. Add playful pedestals resembling stacks of old books or steamer trunks.
Inventive Cartography
Antique globes reflect how geography and geo-politics have changed over time. Create updated versions with imagined continents, creative place names, or anachronistic borders. Produce fantasy realms, steampunk planets, or maps of fictional lands from favorite stories. The sky’s the limit with re-inventing the cartography.
Vintage globes have an enduring, worldwide appeal. But you don’t have to display them in a traditional way. With creative presentations and personal flourishes, give the vintage globe trend a new spin that reflects your own signature style. Let your imagination wander across fresh takes on this timeless accent.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some tips for styling vintage globes?
Some tips for styling vintage globes include embracing imperfections like faded colors or peeling laminate, using bold unexpected color palettes, creatively mounting globes on walls or from the ceiling, placing them in modern minimalist rooms, illuminating them with smart lighting, altering the material like glass or metal, artistically changing the map surface, adding whimsical accents, and reinventing the cartography.
Where are the best places to buy antique globes?
Great places to find vintage globes include antique stores, flea markets, estate sales, online auctions like eBay, retailers specializing in maps and globes, geographic societies, museum gift shops, and even large antique malls. You may have to hunt around a bit to find the perfect globe with the right aesthetics, price, and condition.
What are innovative ways to mount a globe?
Innovative globe mounting ideas include using long sweeping brass arms, suspended ropes reminiscent of ship wheels, attaching individual hemispheres to walls in abstract patterns, displaying in floating wire frames, incorporating into bookshelf ladders, placing in gimbal frames allowing rotation, and configuring small planets around one large central globe.
How can you creatively alter the surface of a vintage globe?
Creative alterations to a globe’s surface include sanding away the equator or edges to reveal inner layers, painting on new lines of latitude and longitude, applying textures like bumpy molds or etchings, adding painted sea creatures, ships or planes, filling the oceans with shredded paper or beads, covering areas with gold leaf, and attaching found object collages with meaningful keepsakes.
What are good contemporary spaces to display old globes?
Vintage globes look right at home in modern environments like sparse Scandinavian spaces, urban rustic lofts, mid-century modern rooms, industrial warehouses, black and white minimalist settings, and sleek eclectic spaces. The globes provide cozy vintage contrast against stark contemporary backdrops.
What are fun thematic styles for decorating with globes?
Some fun thematic décor styles featuring globes include nautical themes with ships, maps, and rope accents; aviation motifs with planes, navigation tools, and luggage; adventure themes with compasses, cameras, and specimen jars; fantasy realms with mythical sea creatures and invented place names; and vintage travel vibes with steamer trunks, postcards, and souvenirs.
Conclusion
Old world globes continue to fascinate with their beauty and nostalgic allure. But they need not be displayed in stodgy traditional ways. Let your creativity run wild and give the vintage globe trend a breathtaking new spin. With bold colors, inventive materials, artistic alterations, and thematic décor, globes can become the centerpiece of any stylish, imaginative space. So unleash your inner Magellan and travel to uncharted territory in the world of globe design and décor. The vintage revival has never looked so fresh and modern.
