5 Display Style Tips: Using Your Collections to Decorate Like a Pro Interior Designer

I run a vintage selling business from an apartment that doubles as a backdrop for creative photography; frequent re-arranging to maximize efficiency is a must. It's (happily, I say) made me pedantic about balance in a home design. I've slowly researched and applied rules that whipped my crazy 'collector's style' into balance. When you're decorating on a budget, the ultimate way to make impact on a budget is to display your collections creatively. Rules are meant to be broken, I don't follow everything on this list to a 'T', but these professional designer rules are a great way to harmonize your home. Try them out and see which ones like:

1. Group Your Collections Creatively: By Subject, Style, Object, Etc.

Do you have your childhood toys, souvenirs, or stamp collections in a box somewhere? These are the details that make a home unique, and they're great conversation pieces. Frame your favorites (the dollar store is a great place for frames) and group other objects into collections around your home for interest.

2. Use the 1, 3, 5 Rule

This is a rule designers in all fields follow for compositions. Using a stand alone item, grouping by 3, or 5 is a great shortcut for creating balance when you're stuck. This number pattern occurs in nature, how often have you seen a 2 pronged leaf? Now how about 3 and 5?

There's a deliberate use of 1, 3, 5 rule all up in this composition. That's how I roll. It's innate now. Save me, I'm crazy. I'll be in an asylum drawing "1, 3, 5" in my own blood on the walls one day. I kid. OR-DO-I?!

3. Use the "Gallery Height" Hanging Rule

Covered in detail here, hanging everything in your home at "Gallery Height" will create visual harmony throughout your home and allow guests to view your artwork without straining their necks or kneeling on the ground. Unless that was your intended affect for artistic merit. Write that in your 'home design thesis': "For this series on...mole...Pokémon...I hung the artwork near the floor board, prompting viewers to crawl along the ground and get into the mind of this battle monster..."

4. Create or Use an "Anchor"

It's tricky to create "rooms" in open concept or small spaces. Sometimes you need an "anchor" that frames or defines your space. You can use large mirrors or area rugs. My favorite anchor is #5 below, gallery walls. Also, always incorporate some black or dark wood elements into a space!

Gallery Wall Example. This one will be changing ASAP, not pleased with the balance here. Too much. Did I mention I'm crazy? 1,3,5,1,3,5,13,5 allworkandnoplaymakesvanadull...

5. Use Gallery Walls

It's the visual innate design-whore in me, my walls must be covered in stimulation or I can't work. Have you seen my crazy cubicle from my office days with a rainbow explosion of fabric all over every square inch of it? Anyway, as a patient person with a limited budget and freshly purged furniture this is my favorite way to anchor a space. Frame and hang some of your old favorites and get creative.

I love interior design as a creative outlet, it satisfies design kicks while improving my space for maximum efficiency! Try some of these design rules on some of your own projects and watch harmony emerge from the chaos. Then play The Jackson's magnificent Can You Feel It and dance in triumph. Required final step.

Got anymore tips for arranging a home artfully (and resourcefully)? I'd love to hear 'em in the comments. I'll write about it more but I'm challenging myself to use only second-hand finds to furnish my space. Limitations force creativity. (And it saves money! Win/Win.)

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Vintage Walls of Curiosities: Your Exotic... and Erotic Trinket Display Muses

Beautiful woman, stylish men, sexy dens and shelves stocked with exotic trifles- for erotic trifles; these advertisements selling the swinging sixties bachelor life are my main muse at the moment. Discovered in a batch of commercial furnishing magazines from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The styling combines careful minimalism with collector's style, it's warm and inviting. Stimulating and inspiring.

"Oh, the Tribal Masks? Acquired on my last African Safari..along with 'Darlene' here and this dandy ruffled shirt. She's just a mannequin, but I don't mind."

These installations epitomize cozy. They're a warm mug of tea on a rainy day, an afternoon with a pile of your magazines in an over-stuffed book store. Organized wunderkammer clutter feels personal and safe, I'm excited to bring this vibe to my expanded antique mall booth and different corners of my apartment.

Actual Ad Copy: The Whaling Wall... it houses the collection of nautical objects d'art, belonging to Captain H.J. (He's the swinging scion of a notable shipbuilding family that dates back to the great whaling days of yore. Most of the items in his collection are quite old and costly.... Except for Stehanie. She's not old.) It fulfills all (or, at least most of) the good captain's needs...includes a planning guide to help you get your clients started on collecting their own objects d'art. Both old and young. 

More Scandalous Ad Copy. Who Wrote This, Rodger Sterling?: (Mr. Wu is the young swinger-about-town and heir apparent to a chain of elegant Chinese bistros. He's also a noted collector of Chinese objects d' art. And a connoisseur of delicious Chinese dishes. Like the one draped over his left shoulder.)

I enjoy the hilarious implication that successful bachelors only collect and display objects d' art to attract tasty young dishes, but beyond that I enjoy what a home with meaningful objects on display says about the owner at-a-glance. Ample wood paneling doesn't hurt, either. Hey, I've got a house loaded with stuff, where's my arm candy? Oh, can't have one because I don't have sleek installations by System Cado? Well, damn...

You know you want these sexy shelves, every thrifter/collector needs them! It's a lifelong hunter's dream to find/make my own like 'em...

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House Tour: Goodbye My Quirky, Thrifty, Vintage Apartment

One bedroom, one bathroom. A cozy 700 square feet. Five closets, 14 (!) huge windows, black and white checkered kitchen tile, green and aqua walls, french doors, and all the quirks that come with historic apartments. This was my charming Riverside, Jacksonville apartment. It was filled with local art, toys, and vintage treasures and furnished entirely second-hand.

A new space kick-starts creative juices. When I moved in I knew Thrift Core and my business efforts would take off. I've grown here. My craft, photography, and blogging skills improved. I began to work here. This home has seen tears and drama, but more importantly, tears from laughing so hard with my friends.

I'm  in the middle of a chaotic move to a new space. It's time for another inspiring clean slate. I'll show you my new apartment when I'm settled in, but first I wanted to give the former Thrift Core Headquarters a proper Goodbye.

Goodbye Quirky kitchen. You had no counter space and a frustrating old sink, but the vintage built-in China cabinet and messy cooking adventures will be missed.

Goodbye never-finished bedroom. The "curtains" were thumb-tacked fabric and your plaster walls were impenetrable, but you were always dark and cozy like a proper bear's den should be.

What are the special qualities that make your proprietary shelter of wood and plaster a home? Of course, expect photos of the apartment and thrifty DIY as I settle in :)

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