Renovating your kitchen? A trip to the flea market or antique store should be near the top of your to-do list. No, not to find your dining table, but to unearth gorgeous fixtures and architectural details. When everything else in the space is going to be shiny and new, some oldies but goodies are just what you'll need to warm it up. Sweeten , a free service that plays matchmaker for home owners and contractors, has seen an uptick in the use of vintage sinks, doors, and windows in their clients' remodels, and they've shared a few of them with us to spark ideas for your own renovation. Now, onto perfecting those bargaining skills. . .

For his 1940s-era New York bathroom , architect Brian Kaplan crafted a one-of-a-kind sink pedestal by pairing a vintage wood table with a modern sink basin from Kraus, which fit right in next to the reclaimed tub. "We found the basin table online and delivered it home from Hudson, New York, ourselves after a weekend camping and picked up the several-hundred-pound clawfoot tub at the UPS depot under the Kosciuszko Bridge in Brooklyn!" he writes.

When fashion designer Christine Yao was renovating her New York apartment's bath , she needed a door that would let in light without taking up a lot of space. On a visit to Big Reuse in Gowanus, Brooklyn, she discovered an old office door, which her Sweeten general contractor cut down to fit the doorway and then painted.

Interior designer Meredith incorporated vintage finds throughout her newly remodeled New York townhouse . "I snagged a vintage enamel sink from BIG, and paired it with the restaurant-style sprayer faucet of my dreams from Signature Hardware," she writes of her kitchen fixtures. In the home's powder room, she installed a window from Olde Good Things and a vintage pedestal sink.

After salvaging a 1948 Kohler slop sink from an old steel warehouse, a couple asked their Sweeten contractor to build a custom vanity beneath it and a mirror above it for the bathroom of their Brooklyn home.

Sweeten is a free service in New York and Philadelphia that personally matches renovation projects with vetted general contractors, helping until project completion. Follow the blog for renovation ideas and and when you’re ready to remodel, start your renovation on Sweeten.