Cherished Collections
I love a home decorated with family antiques. I also like looking at photos or other family art, such as the painting of my husband's great-great-grandmother which hangs in his mother's living room. My daughter and son-in-law prize the caricature portrait drawn by a San Francisco street artist when they were on their honeymoon, and a friend of mine displays plaster of Paris handprints of each of her three children, made in school for Mother's Day decades ago.
I also appreciate collections of natural elements. My husband, son of a geologist, has several beautiful geodes, those vaguely spherical rocks which contain a hollow cavity lined with crystals. Another friend has several prized orchids.
I have a small collection of vintage English blue and white transferware. My first piece was a Sadler Blue Willow teapot given to my mother as a wedding gift in 1959. She never used it, but I was fascinated by it for many years before she finally passed it on to me when I was in high school. I used to make and serve tea with it, but now I mainly use it as a vase since it probably contains lead.
Unfortunately, the same was probably true of the plates and bowls in various blue and white patterns which I used to mix and match with plain white dinnerware on our table. I still own several different pitchers and pots which I use for flowers, and teacups I display for their lovely floral designs, including a Kensington Balmoral teacup and saucer which I purchased in England when I studied there in 1980.
Even though I'm a minimalist, I don't think it's necessary to remove collections like these from a home. These keepsakes have personal meaning and come with stories and memories attached. A collection accumulated over many years expresses some of the collector's own nature – his interests and aesthetic preferences. These items speak from the heart.
Limit your display for the most impact.
As with anything else you use to decorate your home, a collection or treasured belonging will be most evident if it is not part of a crowd. My favorite blue and white pieces are displayed on a small shelf painted apple green, where they pop against a creamy white wall. My husband's favorite geodes are arranged on one shelf of a bookcase. Another friend hangs a shadowbox displaying sand dollars and driftwood collected on the Oregon coast where she grew up. They are part of her own natural history.
The whole point of owning collectibles or mementos is to have them catch your eye so you can appreciate them. So don't scatter items around a room or all over the house. Instead, group them together on a wall, a shelf, gathered on a tray, or (for small items like seashells or vintage marbles) in a glass bowl or jar.
To keep cherished items in the spotlight, consider a limit of one or two collections. Perhaps your kitchen features jadeite bowls, mugs, and serving pieces while your living room walls hold some of your grandfather's landscape paintings. Or you could rotate collections seasonally, bringing out your bluebird figurines in the summer, while saving your brass owls and candlesticks for winter display.
How to pare down
Collections are very personal, and usually embody memories of happy times and beloved people, so deciding to place a limit or pare down is a personal process as well. But if items are taking up what feels like too much space, time, or money, then maybe you need to reevaluate.
Choose to keep the items that hold most significance for you. It's not the monetary value of a collection that matters, or its current fashionableness. It doesn't matter if it's "always been there" or it "fills an empty spot." And the decision shouldn't be made for you by someone else, as with a collection you inherit. It may have been important to an older family member, but is it also personal and meaningful to you? If your mother's Gone With the Wind plate collection displayed her personality, but you don't care for it or want to give it space in your home, it really is okay for you to pass it on or sell it. I promise you won't forget your mom if you don't keep her plates.
Gather all the pieces of your collection in one place and ask these questions:
- How many pieces do you have?
- How many pieces do you truly love? Are there some pieces that, for whatever reason, you aren't as attached to?
- Which pieces (if any) are actually valuable?
Next, you can set a challenge for yourself:
- You could keep only the pieces you really love and/or the ones that are valuable.
- You could decide to pare the collection by one-third or one-half, or to keep a certain maximum number of pieces.
- You might decide that you would be happy with one favorite item.
Change is good.
Whatever you decide, your collections should not be a source of clutter or stress, but of enjoyment.
I reduced our huge Lego collection down to one motorhome that represents the years we lived in one traveling this country. It sits on a cabinet in our living room where it makes me smile every day. Other people are now having the pleasure of building kits we once enjoyed building. When kids visit, I allow them to disassemble the motorhome to build other things then I build it again after they leave. For me, it is a great way to store toys for the rare young visitor.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea, Linda. We also have a large Lego collection that belonged to our kids and is now played with by our grandsons. I built several houses and vehicles with the Legos and set them out as sort of a "village" on one of the bookshelves in our spare room, where the kids play when they come. Sometimes they even play with the models I made before taking them apart! A great way to store/display/use a long-loved collection.
Delete