Four Ways to Master the 'Grandmillennial' Style on a Budget
Grandmillennial is timeless and trendy - but did you know it can be done sustainably on a budget? Here’s how.
Grandmillennial is the newest interior design trend of this year. The aesthetic incorporates elements of French country antiques and rustic brass complemented with charming modern finishes to create a vintage, nostalgic, and homey feel.
Due to its timeless aesthetic, this style feels most authentic when pieces are purchased from the secondhand market rather than replicated by modern fast furniture sellers - creating the perfect opportunity for trendy decorators with an environmental conscience.
Here are four easy ways you can incorporate this nostalgic (yet chic!) aesthetic in your home on the cheap and sustainably. (I will be sharing how much it cost me to purchase all these pieces in the caption of my images.)
Add some brass
Vintage brass and cane weaved ‘Cesca’ chair: free (I got this from my grandma’s basement)
Brass is that friend that doesn’t need to try too hard to look cool. It is old-school, timeless, and brings this nostalgic “cool factor” to your space in an effortless way.
While gold is too sharp and silver cools down the look of your space, brass is just muted enough to look understated but warm enough to add a subtle cozy accent to your decor.
Its off-gold, rustic tones are synonymous with your favourite museums artifacts and art nouveau door handles on every Victorian-styled building in your city.
Due to the history of this finish and how long it’s been circulating the world of home decor, it’s fortunately super easy to find brass pieces secondhand from antique shops, thrift stores, and even online from Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Etsy, and Kijiji.
As I’ve said - brass is timeless so the pieces you find today can last you for decades.
Vintage brass mirror: $50 from Facebook Marketplace
Brass antique lamp: $25 from Kijiji
Brass bar cart: $50 from Facebook Marketplace
“Brass is easily paired with a number of different textures and colours, meaning if you feel the need to redecorate in the future, you wouldn’t need to invest in new accessories, as brass will continue to complement any given interior choice.”
Think mahogany and teak
Mid-century modern high-quality veneer shelf/ tv stand: $90 from Facebook Marketplace
Okay, I get it! Mahogany and teak are pretty hard to find and even secondhand pieces are not necessarily always affordable. However, in the rare case that you do find a piece that’s within your budget, these quality pieces are worth the investment and can last a lifetime.
But this is about creating the grandmillenial style on a budget - so what do you do if you can’t find any mahogany or teak pieces at all? Go with any kind of solid wood furniture!
In my experience, I’ve used other hardwoods and even high-quality veneer pieces in a matching darkened wood tone to easily fit the theme seamlessly.
The trick is to find wood pieces that match.
Antique cherry wood bedside table: $30 from Facebook Marketplace
Antique hardwood coffee table: $40 from Kijiji
Go for floral walls
Floral walls are quintessential to the grandmillennial aesthetic.
Not only does it add an interesting botanical touch to your space, but it also instantly transforms boring solid coloured rooms into antique boudoirs.
Although floral walls can be daunting, it makes adopting the grandmillennial style so much easier because it removes the need to create the same look using multiple art pieces, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Due to recent innovation in wallpaper technology, easy-to-apply removable wallpapers are now very affordable. The York Wallcoverings ‘Sure Strip’ removable wallpaper is one that I recommend for beginners and renters because it can be installed and removed with water.
Alternatively, an even easier version of this look can be recreated with vinyl wall stickers. I love the IKEA “Kinnared’ wall stickers in botanical prints.
Top: York Wallcoverings 'Sure Strip' Removable wallpaper - $0.68/sq ft (on sale)
Bottom: IKEA 'Kinnared' Decorative Stickers - $9.99 to $14.99
Tell a story with a vintage gallery wall
Assorted vintage wall gallery pieces: ($10-25/each) from Facebook Marketplace
As they say: a picture is worth a thousand words - so the art in your space needs to convey the story you want to tell with your decor.
Like we learn in marketing class, create a “buyers persona”. For my apartment, I created Samantha:
Samantha is a stylish grandma from the 1960’s that collects beautiful art nouveau souvenirs from her many vacations on the French countryside. A retired runway model, she reminisces on her many Parisian rendezvous during the booming ‘les années folles’ in the 1920’s. She is charming, warm, and romantic.
With her story in mind, I envisioned this character in the art I collected over time to create a wall gallery that stayed true to this visage. Although gallery walls can be expensive to create, the trick to achieving this affordably is to gather each piece of art over time to build your collection. Start small and grow your collection gradually.
Vintage frames can be found for cheap on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, and are often sold in bulk at out of town antique markets. In a pinch, picture frames from the dollar store can mimic the look with a coat of brass paint.
Antique prints can be printed at home or even purchased secondhand from your local thrift shop. In one of my finds, I scored a set of framed vintage French posters from the 1970s for only $50 from Facebook Marketplace.
Keep in mind: the beauty of a gallery wall is variety - so its aesthetic is best achieved through mixing expensive pieces of art with their cheaper counterparts.
Vintage framed prints: $18 for the set from Facebook Marketplace
Good luck with building your grandmillennial style
About home & interiors
home & interiors is a category on Sam’s Edit where Sammi shares her inspiration for interior design, decor pieces that she loves, and everything to do with making a space a home. Sam’s Edit believes the most charming spaces are lived in and tell a story through a sum of its parts. home & interiors explores the little things that make a place magical.
About sustainable living
sustainable living is a category on Sam’s Edit that explores ways to create sustainable lifestyles through food, fashion, home, and more. Sam’s Edit believes sustainability should be at the forefront for all consumer decisions and focuses on consumption around high-quality, secondhand pieces that prolong its lifespan. Breathing life through reuse and recycling, and creating cradle-to-cradle lifecycles for products is what sustainable living is all about.
