16 Ways to Showcase Your Collections

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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