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Displaying your collectibles will give joy and satisfaction to both you and the viewer
Don't hide them in the closet. Look below for tips for putting a great display together
Details make the difference between a great display of collectibles or a jumbled mass of items.Take you time in setting up your displays. This is not a race and since you are a collector, the display will never be static. Set the scene as a painter would set up a still life. If you have a digital camera, take pictures as you go and you will have a record of various ideas. From these pictures, you may get a totally different viewpoint and come up with a uniquely different idea than you had originally started with.
Pay attention to the background. Does it fit the mood and strike a chord with the display? Would a red check or a blue ticking fabric bring out the mood you want to evoke? If the display is delicate teacups, would lace be more appropriate to the item? Perhaps a worn table is all you need to set up your display. Maybe a wrought iron plant stand with lace doilies would fit your Dresden Doll collection to a T.
If your item is a real treasure, place it under a glass dome for added interest and surround it with other less valuable items from the same collection.
Put your pictures aside for awhile. Go back and look at them in a few days. You may notice things you didn't see when you were involved in setting up your display. Ask the opinions of your family and friends (but only if you really want to know). They may see something you missed or have an idea you hadn't thought about.
Displaying collectibles in the bedroom
Many collectibles revolve around the ladies bedroom and dressing room. Vintage clothing, jewelry, perfume bottles, compacts and lipstick cases are all items sought for by collectors. When you add in powder boxes, vintage hats, hat pins, and jewelry boxes you can see the list is endless
Here is a list of ideas to get you thinking of some wonderful displays:
- Any glass items such as perfume bottles or other special glass toiletry containers always look great when arranged on a mirrored tray. The reflections are doubled when the display is placed in front of a mirror and if you add lighted candles to the grouping you add even more interest to the display.
- Compacts and lipstick cases could be spilling out of a sparkly vintage evening bag (You do know that a woman's favorite color is "sparkle", don't you?)
- The same could be said for costume and vintage jewelry. Collect a few antique jewelry boxes of various sizes and create a jewelry display with jewelry spilling from the antique boxes.
- If you collect vintage clothing set up a dressmaker's form in a corner of the room. Your clothing treasures can then be rotated out of storage and they can be viewed and enjoyed every day
- Hats can also be displayed on the form, on a hat stand or on a wall peg holder. They can also be hung on the walls around the dress form as a collage and form a background for your vintage clothing display. You could put some old dance cards, dried flower posies or vintage gloves in with the hats to add interest
- Wherever you display your hats, be sure to show off your hat pin collection in the same area. These can be put into pin cushions or in special hat pin containers which are collector's items in themselves. You might even find some old Sears Roebuck catalog pages or pages from Godey's Ladies magazines advertising hats and frame them to hang around your display.
- Vintage negligees could be displayed from a coat rack on scented padded hangers.
- If your windowsills are wide enough, this is a great place for showing off your cut glass and crystal toiletry containers.
Along with the bedroom, the bathroom is a natural for collections
Shells are great collectibles. Many people collect them in their travels and love to use them to decorate their baths. There are many ways shells can be incorporated into the bathroom decor:
- Hang a net of the type used to hold children's toys in a corner and fill with shells, coral and sponges
- Spread decoupage glue on a plate. Sprinkle with beach sand. Glue shells and sand dollars onto plate. Sprinkle with beach sand. Let dry overnight, shake off excess sand and it is ready to hang.
- Fill a large shell with potpourri and place on toilet back
- Make curtain tiebacks using fish net. Drill small holes in shells and sew to netting with fishing line or strong beading thread
- If you have wainscoting with a wide shelf, place your shells on it
- Construct a shell wreath using instructions you can print from the internet
- Obtain a small tin or wooden replica of a treasure chest and fill with small shells to display on sink counter
- Drill holes in shells. Attach to driftwood branches with fishing line and make a mobile to hang in a corner or in front of a window.
- Along this same idea, make a bathroom curtain by making rows of shells strung on fishing line (similar to a beaded curtain) and hang from a decorative curtain rod. If you need privacy from the window, use a double curtain rod. Hang an opaque curtain from the back rod and hang the shell rows on the forward rod.
- Frame some beach or seascape pictures and decorate the frames with small shells using craft glue.
In Decorating with Collectibles I discuss ways of arranging collections of hobbies, photos and souvenirs.
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