8 vintage finds that will give your cottage a retro feel

Vintage crates serve several purposes. They bring natural wood into your space and serve as storage. They'll also remind you of another era with their vintage product labels and designs. If you're having trouble finding a good shelf, you might just want to stack some crates instead.

Put a couple of snowshoes on your mantel for an instant "ski lodge" vibe.

Having a functional old typewriter will make writing letters fun again, but even a broken typewriter can be a great addition to your cottage. Old typewriters work great as decorations, bookends, centrepieces, doorstops, or even as planters.

An old trunk makes a great coffee table or side table, and it gives your living room an old-world feel. Of course, it can also fulfill its original purpose for you as well: storage.

Want to fill your home with classic old paintings, but don't have the budget for a lot of fancy art? Paint by numbers are the way to go. Old paint-by-numbers pictures look surprisingly good in a frame, and their subjects are usually very cottage-complementary: horses and birds and wooded landscapes.

If you're tired of getting all your media from one device (your computer), you might want to invest in an old analog radio. They look beautiful, and the crackly radio fuzz of yesterday will add a certain charm to the weekly top 40.

If you're looking for a cute way to store your sugar, tea, coffee, or other dry goods, vintage tin containers are the answer. You might not want to bring your entire kitchen back into an older era, but this one throwback will definitely make your space a little warmer.

Odds are you do most of your photography digitally these days. But while digital cameras might be more convenient, they definitely aren't as aesthetically pleasing as their older relatives, the analog camera. If you want a reminder of a time when your phone wasn't the only tool you needed, keep a few old cameras around. They're beautiful (and if you have the energy, so are the photos they create).