We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Melinda Trembly, the Founder of Rincon Road, to discuss her perspective on incorporating vintage into design and the styling of your home. We always love sitting down with our most talented friends to discuss beautiful design, what is currently inspiring their creative process, as well as any thoughtful and helpful tips they might have for us to share with our readers.
Enjoy our conversation with Melinda and then head to the online shop to peruse the carefully curated edit of her top selections from our most recent container.
How do you select where to incorporate a vintage piece and where a new piece might be better?
I think about vintage as punctuation, not the whole sentence. A room built entirely of new pieces can feel assembled all at once, as though it arrived in a truck on a Tuesday. What vintage does is slow things down. It introduces a sense of time. So I tend to place vintage where a room needs to feel like it belongs to someone, not something just purchased. Upholstered seating, case goods, a light fixture with patina, a rug that has lived somewhere before. Where I'll choose new: anything structural that needs to carry a lot of weight practically, or where the scale is very specific and unforgiving.
In the article you state that an item 40 years old qualifies as vintage. What's your favoritestyle from the 70s or 80s?
The 70s had a warmth that I find genuinely underrated. The use of natural materials, rattan, cane, earthenware, warm wood tones, that era understood texture in a way that some of the more minimal decades have not. There's a relaxed quality to 70s interiors that doesn't feel retro to me. It feels relevant. A well-made rattan chair from that period reads as quietly beautiful in almost any room.
How do you feel about reproductions? Is there ever a scenario where a vintage reproduction might be better than an original?
I'm honest with my clients about this. A reproduction is not a moral failure. What I care about is quality of material and quality of craft. If a reproduction is beautifully made, in natural materials, and built to last, it can earn its place. Where I resist reproduction is when it's chasing the look of age without any of the substance, when it's trying to suggest provenance it doesn't have. The original piece has a life behind it. That matters to me, and it tends to matter to my clients.
Art: the more imperfect a piece, the more we like it. Where do you find the best examples?
Honestly, I find the most interesting art the way I find most things, slowly and without a plan. Antique shows, estate sales, small regional galleries, the back room of a dealer who knows you're not going to flinch at something with a crack or a foxed edge. I'm also drawn to work by living artists who are making things with their hands in a material way, ceramics, works on paper, small sculpture. Imperfection in art signals that a human being made it. That's what makes a room feel inhabited rather than installed.
Vintage upholstery: how do you select the best pieces and inspect for hidden damage?
Structure first, always. I'm looking at the frame. Is it solid? Does it wobble? Is the joinery intact? The bones of a piece tell me whether it's worth the investment of reupholstery. Then I check the seat depth and cushion proportions because vintage scale is often better, more generous, more human, than what's being manufactured today. For hidden damage, I press into every corner of the seat deck, check underneath for moisture damage or pest evidence, and look at the underside of the frame. A beautiful exterior on a compromised frame is a costly mistake.
Where do clients tend to be open to vintage, and where do they insist on new?
Almost universally, clients want new upholstered seating, which makes sense. Comfort is a practical concern, not just an aesthetic one. Where I find clients are often more open than they expect: case goods, light fixtures, rugs, art, and decorative objects. The conversation shifts when I show them the difference in scale, quality of material, and craftsmanship between a vintage piece and its contemporary equivalent. Most of my clients are not trying to collect vintage for its own sake. They want a home that feels real. Vintage tends to be the most direct path there.
Where do you feel shoppers abandon vintage pieces too soon?
Upholstery and art. Both categories reward patience. People encounter a frame with bad fabric and can't see past it, or they find a painting that isn't quite their color palette and walk away. What I try to remember, and to remind clients, is that fabric is replaceable and art grows on you. The underlying thing, the frame, the composition, the hand, is what actually matters.
We gave you a peek into our new container of vintage finds. Please give us your edit of your favorite things.
Village with Walking Figures Watercolor Painting
Still Life with Melon and Wine Oil Painting
Dieulefit Stoneware Mug Set of 6
We always like to finish with a recommendation. Even if it’s not related to vintage furniture, please share a recommendation for our readers.
Take a long walk through a neighborhood you've never been in with your phone in your pocket. I've found more ideas for rooms, for materials, for color combinations, just paying attention to old garden walls and front doors and the way light falls on stucco than I have from any design publication. The eye needs to wander without a feed.
