Vintage on a shoestring

Elina scored a ten-grand sofa for €1,500—and furnished a 1970s home almost entirely with vintage

“The label doesn’t matter—only the style.” Elina and Pasi’s home in a 1970s apartment building is furnished to last, and as affordably as possible, with vintage. A thrifting ace, Elina shares how she scores great finds from the comfort of her sofa.

Author Elina Henttonen

Images Essi Lyytikäinen

January 8, 2026Lue suomeksi

residents Kotona’s art director Elina Henttonen, 46, IT consultant Pasi, 47, and daughter Matilda, 9.

home a 97-square-meter apartment in a 1979 apartment building in Kulosaari, Helsinki (about 1,045 square feet).

Three years ago, Elina, Pasi, and Matilda moved to a new place in Kulosaari, Helsinki, in search of a little more space. Here, the soundscape includes cruise ships’ horns, the school’s recess bell, and church chimes.

From the windows, you see gnarled old pines that hide the silhouettes of the Kalasatama district’s skyscrapers. The home is furnished as affordably as possible with vintage finds, and hardly anything has been bought new. So how do you do it, Elina?

The blue-and-white vintage tableware come out on the dining room table whenever it isn’t taken over by craft projects. Elina loves the long sightline through the living room to the sleeping area. Heavy velvet curtains wrap around two bedroom walls and can be drawn in front of the glass doors if desired.

Pasi, Elina, and Matilda feel at home surrounded by color and vintage. Elina especially appreciates the floor plan—it suits the family’s needs.

My decorating style...

is a hard-to-define mix of several styles. I love 1950s mid-century modern style, but also antiques—especially the slightly moody Victorian look. Our kitchen has a retro ’50s diner vibe.

Through my work I follow interior trends, but I try to avoid flash-in-the-pan whims and decorate affordably, sustainably, and with longevity in mind. The hardest part, I think, is adapting the styles I admire to suit the home’s era—the 1970s. I don’t want to live in a museum, so I mix styles from different decades with an open mind.

I admire minimalist homes in harmonious tones, but I have to admit there isn’t a single minimalist in our family. We love tinkering with all kinds of projects, so bits and bobs are always drifting across the tabletops.

Designer Kerstin Hörlin-Holmquist’s blue Skrindan armchairs are comfortable. Elina spotted them nearby via Facebook for a good price. The vintage china cabinet cost €30. It stores Elina’s collectible dishes. The glass-fronted apothecary cabinet holds antique curiosities and souvenirs. The Ornäs Siesta armchair was upholstered in a floral fabric when Elina bought it from the store Suomen kasarmin aarteet in Hämeenlinna. The living room walls are still waiting for paint.

“The best vintage purchases I’ve made are pieces of furniture that, with patient hunting, have saved me thousands of euros.”

The Danish Finn Juhl sofa is Elina’s best secondhand find. The Ornäs Siesta chair was reupholstered. The Palette coffee table by &Tradition is from the Tori marketplace; its perfect proportions clinched it. The photo artwork is Slim Aarons’s Poolside Gossip. Only the Kvartsi wool rug by Finarte was bought new.

At flea markets I especially look for...

charming old oil paintings. At flea markets I flip through paintings from the back first; only a frame that looks old enough makes me turn it around to see the subject. I collect blue-and-white landscape dishes—both from the Finnish brand Arabia and English ones. The label doesn’t matter to me; only style does. Patinated trays and antique tongs and flatware always find a use. Old apothecary bottles with hand-lettered labels are another weakness of mine.

The dining area goes by the name Sunday Salon. Two of the Lukki chairs by Ilmari Tapiovaara were rescued from a dumpster and three were found very affordably on Tori. They were reupholstered in faux leather. The table cost €20. The paintings were flea-market and auction finds for a few tens of euros; the jewel of the collection is a portrait by Hugo Backmansson. The wall color is AV1 Axel from Avotakka by Cover Story.

My favorite places to score finds...

are online auctions like Helander, Hagelstam, and Bukowskis, plus the Finnish online marketplace Tori, Vinted, and Facebook recycling groups—anything I can scroll through from the sofa, where speed and luck decide the outcome. We don’t own a car, so I can’t really roam far for flea markets.

In online auctions I only strike in the last minutes, and my palms sweat with excitement as I wait to see whether I’ll win what I want. I set a maximum price in advance and stick to it. Often the bids shoot too high, but that’s part of the charm. I also browse Helsinki’s flea markets, though I buy small items from them only occasionally. The precurated, pricey selections in vintage shops don’t inspire me.

The art deco shelf from the early 20th century is one of Elina’s favorite pieces; it was sourced from Roomage. On the wall hangs a poster by Laura Annala. The pendant light is a roughly €20 find on Tori—the Bumling by Ateljé Lyktan. Pasi collects guitars.

The glassed-in balcony has room for a comfy Bali sofa by Cello. Elina created a mini goth garden—she planted only reddish and inky-black houseplants in a Ferm Living Plant Box.

My best vintage buys...

are pieces of furniture that I’ve tracked down patiently, saving thousands of euros. I had been searching for a distinctive mid-century modern sofa for a long time, but nothing caught my eye. Half an hour before an online auction ended, I spotted a stunning reissued Finn Juhl sofa at Hagelstam. A quick search told me it would cost over €10,000 new! I placed a single bid and, to my great surprise, won the like-new sofa for €1,500. It felt like a winning the lottery.

I’ve bought teak furniture for €20–€70, and two Ilmari Tapiovaara Lukki chairs I picked up for free from our building’s dumpster. You can also find newer designer pieces, lightly used, at good prices on the Tori marketplace. Signs of use don’t bother me—scratches and a piece’s history are part of the charm.

When stuff starts to pile up...

I put the extras up for sale. About once a year I take lower-priced items to a self-service flea market. I sell valuable pieces on Tori and clothes on Vinted. Anything that doesn’t sell I donate to the local recycling center.

Because I buy vintage as cheaply as possible, I can often sell things on for a small profit. I clean and style the items nicely and take the most flattering photos I can. I measure everything and write thorough listings with keyword lists. Creating listings is time-consuming, so I think carefully before I buy.

Elina’s favorite artwork is a painting by Vincent Bakkum, now in pride of place; she won it at Bukowskis. The bird reliefs are souvenirs from Lisbon. The bed is new from Matri, and the red blanket is from H&M. Everything else is a secondhand find or inherited. The straw-green wall color is 030 Virginia by Cover Story.

As a child, Elina admired her grandmother’s vanity. Now the heirloom piece crowns the bedroom, topped with other treasures from Grandma’s home, like Tamara Aladin’s Carmen vase and old photographs. The drawers still hold her grandmother’s sewing supplies and a powder compact.

The combined office and guest room is called the Poet’s Chamber. The antique cabinet holds craft supplies. The old Billnäs desk from a bank came from Elina’s childhood home, and the desk chair is Alefjäll from Ikea. The rose curtain fabric is from Eurokangas; the sleeper sofa is the Aslak by Innovation Living. The wall color is 025 Oscar by Cover Story. The wedding photo shows Elina’s grandparents.

For Matilda’s room, they chose timeless pieces that grow with the child, like a Lundia shelf with a desktop and Ikea’s Ivar and Visthus cabinets. Matilda wanted Boråstapeter’s shimmering Indigo Garden wallpaper on the headwall.

The best thing about our home...

is the separate dining area that extends off the living room. I found a large oval dining table for €20. We nicknamed the room Sunday Salon, imagining we’d have Sunday dinners there and invite friends over for coffee. In reality, we mostly eat there at Christmas. The rest of the time, the table is taken over by craft projects and homework. Pasi repairs electric guitars, and Matilda and I craft and sew—usually with several projects going at once. A big table near the window is a brilliant spot for making things, and the kitchen table, in turn, stays clear.

The kitchen’s look is different from the rest of the home. Elina isn’t a fan of the black-and-white, handleless kitchen, but she’s brightened it up with red. The diner-style table-and-chair set, ordered from the United States 15 years ago, is still like new. The curtain fabric was a second-hand find.

The String coat rack in the entry is built from black and white parts bought secondhand. The lower part of the wall is painted in AV3 Helga from Avotakka by Cover Story, and the narrow stripe is Tikkurila’s M334 Kardinaali.

Elina has assembled vignettes even in the bathroom. Minimalist cosmetics jars sit on an antique silver tray, and cotton pads are stored in Ball glass jars. The String Pocket shelf holds jewelry boxes and cleaning products.

If I could change something in our home...

I’d redo the kitchen. The white cabinet doors with integrated pulls chosen by the previous residents are awkward to open, and the black laminate countertops and backsplash are impossible to keep clean. I’d like oak cabinet doors in the kitchen. In the small bedrooms I’d install oak parquet instead of the gray vinyl tiles. I’d replace all the storage cabinets, too.

In other words, I’d like to get rid of all the early-2000s renovation choices and replace them with authentic materials that better respect the building’s era. Not everything has to be original, but colors and materials typical of the period are more timeless and age better. The building is due for a plumbing renovation, so we’ll be able to redo the bathrooms then.