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- Written by Dr. Lori Verderame Dr. Lori Verderame
There is an overwhelming abundance of home-makeover TV shows and online blogs about redecorating, redesigning, and reconsidering the objects with which we live.
Antiques and family heirlooms are front and center when it comes to innovative design. Here are some decorating tips that might prove fun and interesting.
Arrange Collections
Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was onto something when he said, “Less is more.” Even large collections can look organized if they are arranged well.
Put antique collections together by size, material, color, or texture. This method shows both a collection’s similarities and differences.
Organization of a collection shows that you have given some thought to your collection and its arrangement.
The Front is Foremost
When you enter any room in your home, there is one wall that is right in front of you or one wall that you focus on the most.
This wall is the starting point for any design concept, and in museums it is called the confrontation wall—aptly named as it is the first wall you confront. This wall shouts out for something important, big, colorful, or bright.
This is a statement wall. Put your best object right there with pride.
Family Friendly
If you have an object that has been handed down in the family over the years, consider designing a room around it.
If you have your grandmother’s Regina music box dating back to the early 1900s, feature it proudly where everyone can admire it.
Is that antique parlor chair from the Victorian period or cut-glass punch bowl looking for a new space to show its stuff? Take it out of the living room where it may get lost in the array of other furnishings and make it the featured antique object in a guest room, powder room, or foyer entryway.
Feature a single antique object with family significance, like Grandma’s 19th-century ironstone mixing bowl, in a prominent area of your home.
Use objects to let your family history shine. For instance, I have my father’s war medals proudly displayed in my home library along with World War II literature and military scrapbooks.
Talk about the origin of these special old pieces and let your history speak through heirloom objects throughout your home.
Ph.D. antique appraiser and award-winning TV expert Dr. Lori Verderame is the star appraiser on Discovery channel’s international hit TV show Auction Kings and appears on FOX Business Network’s Strange Inheritance. Visit www.DrLoriV.com or call (888) 431-1010.