Home Decor Trend: collections and how to display them

Are you a collector?  Do you love to collect items and proudly display them in your home or are your collections tucked away in a box?  Most of us collected something when we were younger.  It might have been comic books, fan magazines, gum wrappers or baseball cards.  Fortunately, a big design trend for 2011-2012 is to feature collections in your interior design plans.

It doesn’t matter what you collect.  It could be teapots, bottle caps, toy cars, ceramics from the 1950′s, crystal, or those childhood baseball cards…the list goes on and on.  What does matter is how you display your treasured items.  Here are just a couple of guidelines that will allow your collections to take center stage in your home.

• A collection can only be seen if it is grouped together.  If you spread it all over the house it loses it’s impact as a collection.
• Just because you have it does not mean you have to display it.  Too much of a good thing they say.  Determine how and where you want to feature your items and then pick those that work the best in the spot based on color, size etc.
• Don’t crowd your items.  Allow enough room between them so they can be seen and appreciated.

Check out these collections and see if these displays would work for you.

courtesy of Conspicuous Style blog

These teapots provide a spot of color to the kitchen or dining room.  Notice how they are not crowded together making it possible to enjoy the unique shape of each one.

Cecilies Lykke

Something as simple as a grouping of colored bottles has real impact, especially when placed on a windowsill to catch the light.

Designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard for Architectural Digest

If clear glass is more to your liking, these bottles with their cross shaped stoppers add a personal touch to the mantle of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne’s Los Angeles home.  A more affordable version is available from artist Artie Vanderpool if you would like to start your own collection.

courtesy of Jackie Rueda

Items found in nature such as an assortment of seashells you may have picked up on your travels adds personality and individualism to your home.  They can be a real conversation starter as well.  Toss them in a bowl or glass hurricane or glue them to the back of a shadowbox and turn them into wall art.

source unknown

Okay…if you have been collecting Pez dispensers for this long I say, display them.  They almost look like abstract art when hung on the wall this way.  Great fun for a family room, game room or casual dining space.

What do you collect?  Please share your photos of your Grandmother’s china hung on the wall or those paint by number portraits you find at garage sales.  These are the items that make your home truly unique and you should share them with all who enter. (and us)

Side note:  The US postal service just released a collection of stamps that celebrates 20th century American designers, check it out here….stamp collecting is one of the most popular hobbies around and makes a wonderful display in a family room, den or young boy’s room.