With our Book Club series, we hand over the proverbial mic to our Experts—letting them share their work, thought process, and best tips, all in their own words. The following is an excerpt from Leanne Ford's new book, Feel Free Home, published with Abrams.

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In with the old, in with the new. I’ll take it all! But man, I love me some vintage.

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And I love what it does to new and fresh pieces. It tells a story, gives dimension, gives depth, and lends a feeling to a space. Vintage has a wise, knowing perspective that new pieces just don’t have. I don’t design a room or a space without something old in there. I have tried, but I always go back to what I know works, which is adding character with patina, adding charm with worn and weathered qualities. It brings everything together and wraps a space up in a hug. I have been known to throw down on an expensive sofa or chair, but the truth is, that’s not the telltale sign of what makes something valuable. I can find so many treasures at Goodwill, a flea market (and I mean a dumpy one, thank you very much), a garage sale, or a dumpster dive. And so can you.

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Think of everything in the larger context: How will this all work together? At the end of the design day, that’s all that really matters. Context. I look like one of the Beverly Hillbillies every time I show up for an install—with a bunch of rusty “junk” in the back of my (used- to-be-nice-before-I-started-putting-rusty-junk-in-it) black SUV. But once those pieces get out of the car, out on the front yard, and into their final home, they bring life to the space! Soul!

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Embrace the art of perspective. Something that looks like trash in the back of my car mysteriously turns into beauty when hung in the right spot of the right room. What may not be right in one space may be just right in another. How can we think of creative ways to use pieces that would otherwise hit the dumpster? How do we give them another life? Think of what a great thing that could be for the earth, for each other, for our home. Look for worn things with scratches, dents, messy parts, chips, cuts, and tears. Basically, your mom’s rejects can be your treasure trove!

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I stage every project I have done for clients exactly how I think the layout and design work best. But the client doesn’t always keep everything. In fact, more often than not—and especially on TV shows—the client doesn’t keep any of the staged pieces. Which, yes, as a creator, is a bit hard. But I get it. Admittedly, they have usually blown through their budget for the construction of the home. So leftovers and hand-me-downs go where my curated pieces once lived a happy life—or a life at least long enough to shoot pretty pictures. I learned early on not to walk back into a house once the rejected pieces had been taken out. It’s a bit creatively deflating, to say the least. But I get it, everyone is doing the best they can with what they’ve got. (And what they don’t got is that yin-yang sofa, ’cause I do!) The silver lining for me is that I can use and reuse some of my favorite and most beautiful pieces, reinvent them, and play with them again. So that part is nice!

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Time changes things—there is an art to time. And we need that art in our spaces to bring in new dimensions. When you walk into a space and feel that everything is new, fresh out of the box, you can’t quite put your finger on it, but it doesn’t feel soulful just yet. The dimension of time is missing. You can’t quite explain it, but you can feel it.

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The French call the business of antiquing, of buying and selling, métier de regret: the profession of regret. Ain’t that the truth? You live forever thinking of the ones that got away, while you’re stuck with the ones you can’t get rid of. The one you never wanted to part with? Ah, of course, that’s the one that sold first. It’s a tough business. It’s a business of finding, keeping, letting go, cleaning, and lots of dusty sneezing—not to mention physical labor and lots of junk to make room for other junk. Yet, we love it.

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As you begin to curate and collect, your own story will emerge—mixing your life with the lives of those who called this home before you. History, a present, and a future all mixing together. Hence why I love old buildings. It’s the soul stew they naturally create.

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Patina, scratches, ring stains, roughness, marks from years of use, grooves in tabletops, peeling paint, oxidized metals, turned brass—these are my favorite things. This is the art of life and time. How do we connect the past with today? And with tomorrow, if we do our job right?

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How do we update and restore pieces to use today as we need them—without destroying the beauty of what time has created? In the same way, how do we appreciate the beauty of time and patina on ourselves, the way we love them on our objects? Just saying, I like old trucks, old homes, old furniture—old, old, old—so here’s hoping I will feel the same way when I look in the mirror as time goes by! I hope I can enjoy my patina too!

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Order Leanne Ford's new book for more inspiration, or book a consultation with Leanne to get personalized advice for your space.

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