This guest post is brought to you by Aubrey Boone, design enthusiast. Enjoy!

Home decorating means updating a living space and refreshing dated décor. Whether those updates focus on carpet or window treatments, adding new design elements to your home or apartment can increase value while creating a space of tranquility.

Novel interior design projects now aim to integrate mid-century vintage furniture into your modern apartment. The majority of these vintage DIY projects can be completed in a short amount of time for little to no money. The main thing needed is an imagination of how things were way back when. Here are four ways to do just that.

Collectibles
Finding nick-knacks and collectibles adds the rich history of the past into a modern theme. Consider showcasing a series of decorative porcelain vases made in the characteristic style of the 1960s, or other works from esteemed artist Yevgeny Vuchetich.

Add a small mahogany and bronze table found in apartments dating back to the 60s. The clean lines and small stature will fit easily into your modern apartment.

Lighting
Mid-century styles focused on minimalism, so creating a lighting solution is not only simple, but cost effective. Create a swing bar lamp with a few pieces of steel tubing, a flat bar, scrap wood, cloth covered wire and electrical fittings. With a few bends and welds, the lamp will perfectly adorn any corner or reading nook.

An easy solution to lighting is simply to design a lamp shade, or to add a new set of blinds. Don’t underestimate the effect a great set of window treatments can have on a room. For the lamp shade, consider a large cylindrical shade with solid colors such as off-white or light pastels.

Seating Solutions
According to R. Wesley Hurd of the McKenzie Study Center, an institute of Gutenberg College, the color pallet used during the mid-centuries focused on primary colors. Locate a distressed chair at a flea market or a local antique store and dash primary colors, while adding sharp lines and contrasting colors to create a mid-century look. With a few sprays of paint, outdoor seating is turned from modern to vintage as well. In addition, nothing says mid-century quite like the hard plastic/metallic chairs from an old lunch room.

The Outdoors
The outside serves as the window into the soul of a home. For under $100 worth of materials, individuals can construct an outdoor bench inspired by the great George Nelson, a modern design aficionado. The project does require a bit of woodworking, but the end result is a piece similar to Nelson’s vintage futuristic designs.

Mid-century furniture focused on clean lines, vibrant and primary colors, with a minimalistic approach. Recreating a vintage space requires attention to the details of the past, without losing the continuity of the present. With a bit of time and money, your apartment can be the mid-century modern living space you’ve dreamed about.