Nostalgic For A Landline? Here's The Modern Way To Use A Vintage Home Phone

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Landline phones are quickly becoming a once-dated thrift store find that's making a stylish comeback as home decor. Styling an old phone can add a finishing touch to a space, especially if you are particularly nostalgic for a certain time period like the 1970s or 1990s. The great news is, you can still use the vintage phone you have on display for its original purpose — and you don't need to pay for a landline phone. If you are feeling wistful for simpler days when landlines were much more popular, you can transform your old phone with a device that works with the Bluetooth connection on your cell phone. 

Hooking up a landline phone without paying for landline phone service is possible with a CELL2JACK, which you can buy from Amazon. This device is essentially an adapter that gets plugged into your landline phone jack. Using Bluetooth connectivity, the device is able to connect wirelessly with your cell phone. After plugging it into your landline phone, go to the Bluetooth settings on your cell phone and select your CELL2JACK device to begin the pairing process. Once you have connected to your CELL2JACK, your landline phone will ring instead of your cell phone when someone calls you. When you leave your home, calls will revert back to your cell. 

You can use CELL2JACK on a large variety of different phones from different eras, whether you have an old handheld phone from the early 2000s, or you wish to decorate your home like the Brady Bunch with a classic rotary phone. With a retro-looking phone like this GPO 746 Rotary 1970s-style Retro Landline Phone, you can imagine you're Jan complaining about 'Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!'

If you are a lover of quirky vintage decor items, it's likely you know how to peruse thrift stores for the perfect old phone to match your home aesthetic. Be aware, however, that pairing certain types of landline phones to your cell phone with CELL2JACK can be trickier than others. For example, according to the CELL2JACK website, you may need to adjust a part called the bias spring in certain old rotary phones. This step is necessary to make the phone ring at a lower voltage than it was designed to. So while CELL2JACK says you can pair everything from cordless to desktop phones, you could have a little extra trouble with the initial setup before you can begin to revel in the nostalgia of using a landline phone once again.