16 Ways to Showcase Your Collections | Midwest Living
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16 Ways to Showcase Your Collections

Give collectibles the spotlight they deserve by displaying them in an appropriate setting.

Tell a story

Put the past in front of you. Frame covers from your children's favorite storybooks—or your favorite playbills—and hang them for inspiration above a writing desk.

Tags:
Organizing, Home, Decorating Ideas, Quick and easy decorating

Spotlight collected pieces

An heirloom hutch (or one picked up for a song at the local flea market and revived with a coat of paint) adds an air of history to your home, especially when it holds your favorite collections. Use it like a mini gallery to evoke favorite memories and infuse a room with color. To ensure harmony, group your treasures by hue.

Vanity will out

An antique vanity is a pretty setting for vintage jewelry, perfume bottles, mirrors or any other beauty accessory.

Hang it up

Let the items in the collection determine the method of display. Here, a collection of antique street signs still hangs high, this time grouped in one frame.

Big and bright

Old game boards and folk art pieces brighten simple shelves constructed with openings large enough to accommodate these graphic elements.

Period appropriate

Bauer pottery from the 1930s-50s mingles with pieces of similarly shaded pottery on a period-perfect end table.

Suitable framing

This collection of majolica surrounds a simply framed mirror, doubling the impact of the subtle shades.

Stirring collection

Tumblers hold a vast collection of swizzle sticks. State souvenir glasses are the perfect containers for these inexpensive travel mementos.

Fun function

Rocking choppers fill an old-fashioned wood bowl on a butcher-board counter. Antique kitchen implements are a natural fit for the kitchen, especially when grouped in a period-appropriate container.

Let it shine

Blenko art vases shine in front of glass block windows. Any collection of glass looks even more lovely with sun streaming through it.

Dispense with mess

Marbles, bouncy balls, tiny kid's toys. Corral hard-to-contain items in a device sized for the job, such as this gumball dispenser.

Double impact

Shelves in front of a mirrored wall hold a horde of purses, making both sides of the pieces easy to admire.

Suitable setting

Vintage children's watering cans get a shelf along a fence in the garden. Maybe you have terra-cotta pots or birdbaths that deserve the spotlight in your yard.

Perfect placement

There is nowhere more appropriate for a collection of old oil cans than on a nice shelf in the garage! Put your collection in the room where it belongs.

Pegged it

Pegboard has always been perfect for hanging tools. Use it to display a collection of tools of your favorite craft—sewing, knitting, etc.—or, as pictured here, the signs of your hobby.

Back to nature

Duck decoys and framed leaf prints fill the wall with earthy decor in this nature-inspired room.

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