By Pamela Cole Harris
If you are like me, you are always finding some treasure in a
thrift shop or garage sale. A frame, a postcard, a pillow, a
quilt, or some other knick-knack that catches your eye or
touches your heart. But no matter how much you like the objects
you find, they can become an all-consuming avalanche of *stuff!*
But there are ways to use those objects to add style to your
home without overwhelming your space! Here's how:
1. Bring together seemingly unrelated objects by finding ways to connect them by theme, shape, color or vintage. Group the connected items on the walls, in a special cabinet, on a shelf, or on a coffee or side table.
2. Group glass objects of differing colors and shapes together on a glass shelf, in a display cabinet or in front of a window. Find ways to have light shining through the collection. You can use candles, clear small Christmas
lights, larger bulbs or lamps.
3. Find ways to display collections in unusual or unused space:
a. Collections of teapots can be displayed on a wooden shelf installed
high on a wall.
b. Picture collections can be displayed in halls or mount three smaller ones
on the front of closet doors (be
sure to secure them well!).
c. Hats can be displayed around the walls of a room just below the ceiling
(more original than wallpaper
border!)
d. Collections of bowls can be used to hold collections of other
smaller objects like buttons, door pulls, or
small bottles.
4. Find unusual ways to make the objects relate. If there are
objects of small size, but irregular shape, try mounting
them in frames of the same size or color. If all of the objects are the same shape, try frames of different shapes and colors.
5. An old cabinet or medicine chest with the door removed can be made into a coffee table with recycled legs. Put small objects in the spaces made by the shelves. Have glass cut to cover the objects and to act as the table surface.
As you can see, there are many ways to organize and display
the objects you love. But the secret is - you have to be able to
find the objects you need to organize! Just look in the Yellow
Pages under Cleaning Services. or Bulldozers!
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Pamela Cole Harris is a writer, eco-decorator and author of
*100+ Wildly Imaginative Ways to Make Your Own Coffee Table -
a Handbook for Creatively Deficient Decorators.* Visit her
website,
http://www.homeandgardenmakeover.com for her unique
decorating and remodeling style (and a free newsletter!) Or for
unique content for your website, written especially for your
keywords and audience, visit
http://www.pamelacoleharris.com.