Vintage Back To School Ideas

The “back to school” season brings back so many great childhood memories for me. I remember the smell of fresh crayons and notebooks vividly. I have enjoyed preparing my kids for ‘back to school’ over the years and I also enjoy embracing this season with vintage back to school ideas! Adding these little touches around my home makes my heart happy!

A few days ago, my youngest two boys were sorting out papers from their “at-home” cubbies. These little cubbies were filled with papers from last school year! We are now in the middle of July and school (for us here in Georgia) is just around the corner. I can not believe I am even typing that! It just isn’t fair – how fast the summer goes by.

With this in mind, I am already thinking of ALL the back to school things! Yes, I mean all the school supplies and back packs and lunch boxes for the kids … but I am also thinking about back to school decor ideas for myself. You know that I love to include some vintage touches here and there and this is the time of year when I can pull out all of the cool vintage back to school goodies that I love. Whether for my vintage booth or for my vintage loving home, I just love the vintage back to school theme – probably because it brings back a lot of memories, right!

What To Incorporate

There are so very many vintage items that you can use this time of year. Whether you are decorating a table or a mantle, or a cupboard – I feel that all of these things would be perfect options to work with! I never feel like I need to have each and every item on this list, but I do like to pull out a bunch of things out so I know what I am working with. And remember, styling is simply trail and error. When you have a lot to work with, it makes it easier to create a space you love because you have more options.

Vintage Back To School Idea “Roundup”

• Vintage Year Books
• Old Brass Apples
• Dated School Awards or Ribbons
• Class Photos
• Vintage Lunch Boxes
• Vintage Thermos
• Old Encyclopedia Sets
• Rulers
• Old boxes of staples or tacks
• Vintage Pins and Pencils
• Vintage File Boxes
• VIntage crayon boxes
• Old Wall/Desk Mount Pencil Sharpeners
• Vintage Kid Books
• Flash Cards
• pencil lead container
• Used Paint Palette
• Old report Cards
• Vintage Paint Tins
• Paint brushes
• Vintage tubes of glitter
• Vintage Globes
• Vintage Lockers
• Wire Locker Baskets
• Vintage Desks and Desk Chairs
• Vintage Teacher Bell
• VIntage Chalk Board
• Old Sheet Music
• Die Cuts
• Old clip boards
• American Flags
• Old ink bottles
• vintage eye glasses (or even just an old eye class case)

Where To Find These Vintage Back To School Pieces

So, this is an easy one for me. I usually find these vintage back to school things while out at estate sales. If you don’t know already, an estate sale is the sale of items within a home with the purpose of liquidating the home and all assets in it. Many times the homeowner has sadly past and the family will chose to have an estate sale to quickly move all of the items in the house, usually so they can put the house on the market or have a new family member move in.

Almost all of the estate sales that I have been to are inside the home and more often than not, there will be a desk or closet or drawer filled with ‘school’ type items. Think things like, old boxes of staples and tacks. I always dig around in drawers and such looking for cool old rulers (I really like the tiny ones) and old pencils or pens with cool writing or advertising. Don’t forget to also look on the bookshelves for old schoolbooks and music books as well! I have even scoured closets and have found boxes of just the sweetest pieces of ephemera – things like old report cards and school awards and class notes from long ago!

Another tip, be sure to dig through old boxes when you are at a yard sale. I have found some sweet treasures there too – think things like old globes and Encyclopedia sets. To the homeowner these types of things may seen almost worthless – but to us vintage loving people, these things are super fun to own!

If you have never been to an estate sale before then this blog post may help – What to bring to an estate sale.

How To Set It Up

Now comes the fun part! Once you have all the vintage back to school things to work with, you can begin creating a little vignette that speaks to you.  “A vignette (in terms of interior design) is a smaller, curated style statement, made up of a group of objects that are displayed on a shelf, a table, or elsewhere in the home” (source: goggle). I always try to have my vignettes tell a story, and an old back to school theme does just that. There is just something nostalgic about seeing old books and old flashcards on display around this time of year! Here are a few tips on how to create a vignette:

1. Choose objects to support your theme.
2. Use can use color in your vignette to coordinate all of the items.
3. Display objects in odd numbers.
4. Vary the height of the objects and use the power of ‘stacking’
5. Create depth – do not be afraid to put things in front of others.
6. Vary the textures of objects.

A few months back I published this blog post on how to style a vignette. You may want to reference that article too.

The good news too is that these tips can work for most any vignette you are trying to create! Just pick your theme (remember, your theme can be something as simple as a color) and run with is!

Wrap Up

Why not decorate with things that you love. Things that make you happy. Things that bring back memories. Even as a young child, I have always loved the back to school season and I love adding a little bit of ‘vintage back to school” around my home (and in my booth.) If you love that feeling too then I hope that this inspires you to get out there and begin collecting – and decorating with – the back to school items that make you smile.

Oh … I would love to hear what you use to decorate for back to school! Drop a comment below and let me know what you incorporate!

P.S.

Sometimes it can be hard to find just the right piece that you need for your vision to come to life! When that happens many times I will turn to the web! I wanted to include just a few vintage back to school items that you may want to look at on the internet. There are TONS of options out there – and usually I find this kind of thing on Etsy! Here are a few of my favs around Etsy right now. All you have to do is just click the picture to learn more about each item.

*this post contains affiliate links