Quotes with Meaning

 

 

 

What has meaning to you?

 

Inspirational quotes, like "Home is where your family lives." are becoming increasingly popular. Its nice to receive daily inspiration from a favorite quote, reminding us what is important in life, but it seems everyone believes they are 'being creative' simply by ordering pre-made wall decals or hanging a stenciled wooden sign. It is a cookie cutter style of decorating. The quote you picked out off the web site and worked hard to correctly hang, may very well be the same quote inside your neighbors house too. Is that your goal? The challenge is to inspire, while showing creativity and originality in your decorating.

 

Scrabble Letters were popular for crafts in the 80's. I remember being young girl and wearing a scrabble letter tile of my initial, hot glued on a pin, on my winter coat. I thought I was cool. More recently, it became popular to  line up the Scrabble tiles on the little wooden holders to a spell out a last name. Take the idea a step further.  Spell out the word 'Love' with Scrabble tiles and balance them on top of a photo frame. Re-purpose vintage dice, game pieces  or cards to form any favorite word. 



Does your family have an inside joke? Draw inspiration from your daily life. My family continually asks, "Does anyone know how to post videos to face book?" It makes us laugh and roll our eyes every time we hear it. I printed out the quote and framed it in the hallway by my kids room. Everyone starts the day with a smile.



Do you have a favorite number? Around my house, the number 26 appears everywhere. There is an old magnet domino with two dots on one side and six dots on the other attached to my stove. Two playing cards featuring the number two and six  are framed in the hallway. An old 26 tin number tag is tucked into my framed wedding photo. July 26 is my wedding anniversary. My husband and I have now made 26 our favorite number. We even have old locker numbers with 26 on our key chain's. It a fun hobby searching for our special number and finding creative ways to display it around our house. This can be done with birthdays, anniversaries, even your house number.



I love quotes. They inspire me to be a better person. I spend numerous hours trolling through quotes on Pintrest. Sometimes I download my favorites, storing them away in a file on my computer, then finding that I  rarely revisit these awesome quotes. Recently, I learned that Walgreens will print out Instagram photos. (Yeah!) The cool filters are maintained and the photos are printed in a 4x4 inch vintage inspired size. Finally, I have something useful to do with my quote collection! I have printed out dozens of my favorite quotes in this fun size. I have taped them inside my kitchen cabinets, tucked them inside the edges of my mirror, used them as a bookmark, and even pinned one to the inside of the visor in my car. Now these quotes catch my attention throughout the day and bring me inspiration.  Its amazing how a few words or a phrases can continually change your attitude. I love this idea so much I am now printing quotes out for family and friends.



So, I ask you, what has meaning to you? Show it to the world through your decorating!
 



Leather, Hard and Bound

Matt Bomber aka Christian Grey



Leather, Hard, and Bound sounds like something Christian Grey would do, but its really referring to book. For any reader, a favorite decorating prop is books. Books add dimension, provide elevation and/or substance to any display you are doing within your home.

(Leather, Hard and Bound.)
 

The use of leather bound or hard cover books adds substance and a sense of history to shelf. Remove the dust jacket. Most books have a beautiful colored cover and binding. Follow a room's color scheme by displaying books with covers of a similar hue. Add a few books to support your accent color. On a shelf of all blue books, the eye tends to gravitate to the yellow or green book that pops out. 

 

(Never ask her age.)
 

It doesn't matter how old a book is, its still viable. No one should ever discard a book. Ever. The worn appearance of old books can a sense of history and comfort to your home. Fill your book shelves with old books. Utilize a theme for a more organized collection.  Display old cookbooks in the kitchen, books of poems in the bathroom, or reference books in a family room. Pick an author and collect their books. Its fun to have something to search for at garage sales, thrift stores and auctions. Old books add ambiance to any office. As a realtor, collect old real estate books. As a doctor, collect old home remedy books. Its interesting to learn how professions have evolved over time.

 

(Take it off!)
 

Many retail stores, such as Anthropologie, have started the trend of tearing the cover off of paperback books. Its a creative way to display books, which can be duplicated in a home. Tear off the cover and spine cover of old paperbacks and remove the first few blank pages too. The black text and the white pages make a sort of muted and collective statement. This is a beautiful addition to a shabby chic or French cottage interior. Mix up the sizes of the books to add height and dimension. This is also a charming idea to serve as a riser on a table for a garden party or wedding.

(All wrapped up.)
 

Covering a book is a nice way to blend books with  decorating, and it doesn't without harming the book. This style has been popular in high end interiors for awhile. Wrapping the all the books on a book shelf with  one solid color paper color, most often a white or black card stock, allows the book to be displayed without competing with the décor. Its easy to do and instructions are easily located through Google. Other wraps include sheet music, newspaper, wrapping paper, and even old dictionary pages. This is a great way to show creativity.

However utilized, books are a great decorating tool. Simply having books around can serve as inspiration to start reading.

Don't Junk that Trunk



Decorating with trunks is a hot trend. Since the later part of the 18th century, trunks  have been popular. Remember grandma having one for storage at the foot of the bed? However, trunks are making a huge comeback and are reappearing in all rooms throughout the house, especially vintage trunks. They offer a touch of history, unique charm, and even promise the hope of travel.

Trunks serve as a nice way to bring a touch of history into a modern living room. Use an old trunk as a coffee table. Flipping a trunk on end transforms the trunk into a pedestal. When on its side, a lamp can be placed on the trunk to add reading light  behind a chair. It can also make a pedestal to hold for plants or a shelf for mail and keys by the front door.

 

(That junk inside your trunk.)

 

These pieces of furniture can be useful in almost any room: a family room to store board games; a kitchen to baking supplies; in the playroom  to hide the kids toys; or even the bathroom. Think of how many towels you could fit inside a trunk. Regardless of which room you decide to utilize a trunk, they serve as a wonderful storage unit.

If you are one of the lucky few to still have your great grandmothers hope chest collecting dust in the attic, make the rest of us jealous  and  bring it down from the attic. Clean it up and put it on display for the rest of the world to admire.

(Its Kismet how junk appears when you want it.) 

 

Many antique and vintage stores sell trunks. If there isn't one in stock, talk to the store manager know. There may be one in storage. Check Craigslist, Estate Sales and Auctions for vintage trunks.  Try a Facebook post to family and friends. Finding a trunk could be easier than imagined.