Where Antiques Find a New Life
Why Sydney Budsheva took her passion for antiques and created Soul Fed Home.
How Soul Fed started is truly one of my favorite stories to tell. I actually started during the pandemic in 2020 as a means to get my husband a visa to the US from Italy. He had lost his job, and I had gotten stuck in Italy, knowing I needed to get back to my family and get to work to get him here. I flew home, not knowing when I would see him again but knew I needed to get straight to work. Right when I felt like my world was crumbling down, my mom came to me with the idea to start selling vintage and antiques on Instagram. Without question, we got started that same week I returned home. Thankfully when all else shut down, the thrift stores remained open and I started selling. I stayed consistent with my sales Monday – Friday every day for an entire year. Growing my customer base and keeping my head down at work with the goal of seeing him again. Little did I know during that time, I would become so passionate about the thrill of the hunt and learning about the history of vintage and antique pieces. A year later, we reunited and shortly after, I rebranded my shop to sell fine European antiques.
A Focus on European Style
I absolutely LOVE anything European. With a passion for traveling, I love to incorporate pieces from all around the globe into my shop! Some of my favorite styles are French and Italian. I love timeless yet elevated looks and love mixing different styles to create more of a collected feel. My husband and I will actually be sourcing directly from these places this year and can not wait to bring more of these styles into the shop!
Tips for Decorating with Antiques
Antiques are what create that cozy lived in feel within your home and are the pieces designers have been using for decades to create the sophisticated and timeless looks you see on Pinterest. There’s just something about being in a home filled with Heirloom pieces that makes you get all warm and fuzzy inside. They are what make a space interesting. Something I love about styling with antiques is that you can truly find pieces to fit within every style. Regardless if you are decorating a child’s room or a formal office space, there are pieces that will fit into every category. Some tips I have when styling with aged items is to make a vision board to take with you when shopping. It is very easy to become overwhelmed with so many options. Vision boards help me stay focused and make it easier to pinpoint the pieces I need. Another tip I use to sophisticate my space is to swap out those everyday pieces with something that offers more character. For example, your kitchen utensil holders, small wastebaskets, knobs on cabinets, dishes and more.
The beauty of antiques is they can truly be incorporated into any style of home, from modern to farmhouse to European. Antiques bring out a sense of warmth in your home and help create a more collected, curated and lived in feel. Here at Soul Fed Home, we have shoppers with every style of home. I love seeing the items come to life in their space; it may be my favorite part about this business.
Finding the Perfect Piece
Antiques take time to find, especially when you are sourcing on your own, and many people just don’t have the time with their busy schedules to go out and source for one piece for hours. This is where Soul Fed comes in. We strive to give people the same access to antiques as they do to Amazon or Target. By creating a website that can easily be shopped from the comfort of your home, we are expanding the reach to more people, helping make antiques less underrated by showing you how to style your aged items to be hip and trendy. Most of the mass producers are actually creating knockoffs of antique items; the designs you see today are reproductions of vintage and antique pieces that we sell in the shop today, and I would much rather have the real deal!
I’ll never pass up Brass. Brass is such a timeless material that looks good in every single home! I try to hunt down the most unique brass pieces I can find, from compotes, bowls, wall sconces, frames, lamps, and trinkets. I almost never pass on a good-quality brass piece!
Unusual Antiques add Uniqueness
Some of my most favorite items to find are antique busts and statues. One of the most unusual items I have come across is a set of Apollo and Diana busts made of bronze, brass, and marble! I have never seen anything like them and squealed the moment I found them at the antique mall. I love rare items that you can’t find just anywhere. The thrill of the hunt and finding pieces that are one of a kind or rare is what keeps things so fun and exciting!
Fall Styling Tips with Antiques
Some of my favorite ways to start styling for fall are to bring in items with warmth. Maroons, Burgendys, and Brown are a great place to start. I like to do this by adding in different items like handmade pottery, warm-toned paintings, candles in warm-toned vessels, throw blankets, and pillows. Fall is all about greeting a warm and cozy atmosphere. We will be bringing many of these items to the shop for you to shop!
Advice on Getting Started with Antiquing
Take things slowly! It is so easy to get so excited and purchase from the mass producers, but holding out and enjoying the process of finding those perfect pieces that really bring out who you are will make you so much happier in the end. I always tell my clients to invest in pieces that bring them true overwhelming joy when looking at them. Here at Soul Fed, we bring quality heirloom pieces that can be passed down for generations. These are investment pieces that will be passed down through your family for years to come.
More on Soul Fed Home
Soul Fed Home is a one-stop shop for all things Vintage and Antique run by a husband and wife duo. Here, you will find a variety of unique heirloom pieces, design tips, and how-tos while also coming along on our journey of remodeling our first home. We hold live sales on Instagram every Thursday at 7 PM CST while also doing regular story sales and website drops. We take you along on the journey from beginning to end. You will see us hunting and sourcing the items, sharing all about their history and story before you see them for sale! We love making things interactive for our customers and want you to feel the thrill of the hunt through the screen!
This article was originally published in our Fall 2023 magazine.
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