It rained most of the Memorial Day weekend here and we did try camping but I can only spend so much time in a camper cooped up before I cry ENOUGH! So what did I do when we came home? I re-styled my china cabinet.
Well I tried to anyway.
I inherited this from my maternal Grandmother, it goes with the buffet with the broken leg and a smaller buffet my Grandmother called a 'server'. It is a mini version of the 6 foot long buffet. Also the table and 6 chairs. I don't use the chairs because none of this furniture has nails, it is all dovetail, tonged and groove; not a nail to be found. Out here in the dry west the chairs have gotten a bit rickety and I'm just afraid they will break so I have them stored but everything else gets a lot of use.
This is the finished product.
As you can see I need to repair the drawer, heck the entire thing is in need of a good cleaning or something. I've thought about painting the inside white and the outside a color but I'm really afraid to, what if I don't like it? I don't want to mess up a 100 year old piece of furniture.
This is what the cabinet started out like.
I read online that the rule of thumb is to make triangle patterns in your display. This is to make it more appealing to the eye. You are also supposed to elevate things and make sure things are at different heights to keep your eye moving. The same would apply to any surface you decorate. Keep things in odd number groups, vary the heights and keep that triangle pattern.
I tried.
The 'after' is on the left and before is on the right.... I think I did well at elevating things, I even brought in a natural element of the wood on the top shelf.
What do you think? Be honest I need some help here! I think I've just got too much stuff.
The problem is that all these things mean something. Take the red teapot with the gold on it. This was my maternal Great-Grandmothers and is from England. The white teapot and cups with the green pattern (it is bamboo) my Uncle brought this tea set back from Japan PIOR to WW 2. It says 'Nippon' on the bottom. He also brought back those blue and white teacup and saucers on the little stands. If you look close you will see a dragon, it is raised and inside the teacups are carvings. The china on these two teacups and saucers are paper thin, you can see through them!
The gold rimmed plate is from Russia, I got that from my Aunt, it was her Mother-in-Law's. Those little red books you see in the after photo I got from another Aunt and they are real books.
Well after that disaster! But I always promise that I will share when things go well and when they don't. How else will we all learn if we don't make mistakes? I just need some real guidance here!
Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back next week with a door craft, thinking outside the box or wreath!
Until then, Stay Safe!
Victoria
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I like where you're going with the restaging. I agree that you have too much stuff out at once. What I'd suggest is that you take it all out, start with a theme vignette, like tea pots on the middle shelf, (maybe even make little cards that have some info on them like a museum), then tea cups on the bottom shelf and serving plates/tea plates on the top. Or stemware, only your stemware spread over the 3 shelves. Then switch out your vignettes ever month or 2, so you can enjoy all of your treasures, but you get to actually see them to enjoy them in the hutch. Doing this type of thing helps me keep thing fresh because as you know our eye gets bored with the same old same old, so having a collection of favorite pieces on hand makes it super easy and fun to change it out as soon as your eye gets bored. Makes old treasures seem new again :) Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteMy sister helped me deal with this same issue....She suggested some of the beautiful decorative boxes to hold the items not on display....and like the previous comment create little pleasing groups based on....color...or function or what every floats your boat....also look around and add a book or picture...small basket or silk flowers....maybe something fun and unexpected like one of the little fairies you find now in garden shops peaking out of a cup....do you have any material things from these relatives...like a hankie or dollies? The other thing this accomplished...in Colorado's dust bowl ...it was easier to keep thing dusted....sprinkling glitter on the dust was not as effective as I had hoped...lol. love your blog and oh...the rain is coming back.....
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