The collecting bug first bit me in elementary school. By saving up my allowance money and swapping with friends, I quickly built up an enviable sticker collection!
Back in those days, all I needed to organize and display my collection was a sticker book! If only it were that easy now.
Actually, it is.
You just have to think outside the box to come up with creative and appealing ways to showcase your treasures.
The stickers are long gone, but I still love collecting. It’s kinda scary how quickly an “ooh, I like that” moment at a store or a yard sale can turn into a full-blown collection.
Like my mason jars:
Or my vintage Christmas ornaments:
I’m obsessed with collecting! And I love finding creative ways to showcase collectibles that capitalize on their function and also turn them into art.
Curating a collection of things you love is one of the best ways to bring personality to your living space. Displaying things en masse, or grouping like things together, is a great decorating trick. It gives importance to the things you love, and it makes a stunning decorative impact. Collections are meant to be displayed!
Stack Them
This technique works great for things like apple baskets, vintage crates, old suitcases, trophies, boxes, tins, picnic baskets, books, etc.
It’s a really great way to maximize space, too. You can display a lot of collectibles in a vertical column without sacrificing much floor space!
Display Them Overhead
Make use of the tops of countertops, tall pieces of furniture and even high shelves to display things like jars, vases and baskets.
You can learn how to make pallet shelves with this tutorial from the ForRent.com blog. They’d be great for a collection.
Shadowbox Them
I love turning my collections into art by putting them in shadowboxes, like I did with these vintage purses and jewelry.
And these souvenir pennies my son collects during our travels.
Contain Them
Small collections like marbles, ornaments, baseballs, toys, belt buckles, seashells and the like look great in jars, bowls, baskets, lanterns and other containers.
Use Them
Don’t let your collectibles sit on a shelf and gather dust! Use them.
Remember those mason jars I mentioned? I store some on top of my cabinets, but others I use regularly as vases and containers.
I love this idea for a mason jar herb garden from the ForRent.com blog. It’s a great functional way to use my beloved mason jars!
I also collect vintage pottery from the 1940s and 1950s.
And I use it throughout my house to store stuff …
… like pens on my desk.
Or cooking ingredients in my kitchen.
I didn’t intend to start collecting vintage seed packets, but I fell in love with the colors and graphics, so I bought a bunch at an antique store.
I decoupaged them inside a cabinet door on a piece of furniture I painted and also used some seed packets for drawer liners. That’s definitely an out-of-the-box way to showcase a collection!
Collect it. Love it. Display it. Use it. That’s my mantra.
What do you collect? What’s your trick for displaying your collection?
If you’re looking to start a collection, yard sales are one of the best places to look for hidden treasure and bargains. This post from ForRent.com will give you the scoop on how to shop secondhand sales.