Fondue Vintage Inspired by Wallpaper

For Nicole Lewis, it all started in 2004 at a barn sale on the back roads of Vermont. That’s where she found some 1950s wallpaper sample books. The price made them impossible to leave behind, so Nicole tapped into her creativity to find a use for them. Falling in love with the colorful vintage patterns, she decided to cover the switch plates in her New Hampshire home. Her idea was so successful that the couple who bought her home required that she leave those switch plates behind. Thus her love affair with vintage wallpaper began!

When Nicole and her husband Mark moved to Centerville in Middle Tennessee in 2006, they had already begun seriously collecting vintage wallpaper by the roll. Nicole was still making colorful switch plates and had added tissue boxes to her collection. Fondue Vintage Homewares was born, and they began doing craft shows around the country. Their colorful product’s popularity landed them in magazines such as Country Living, Southern Living and InStyle Home.

Today Nicole has over 300 different vintage patterns dating from the early 1900s to the mid-1980s, with designs ranging from kitschy cowboys and ballerinas to classy florals and quaint folk prints. In her Centerville workshop, she creates custom home décor items like drum lamp shades that she matches to lamps she finds from the ‘40, ‘50s and ‘60s, and of course she hasn’t forgotten the switch plates that started it all. Last fall she worked with a Brentwood client who had Nicole decorate her entire house using vintage wallpapers. Fondue Vintage Homewares can be found online at www.fonduevintage.com. If you don’t see exactly what you need, please inquire as items are made to order. Meet Nicole Lewis and see Fondue Vintage in person at the Sweet Tea and Shopping Spring Spectacular March 28-29 in Portland, Tenn. www.facebook.com/SweetTeaAndShopping.

By April Podnar, Centerville, Tennessee