Are you a collection hoarder like Brad Roemer? Perhaps those small bargain antique vases that you run across at the flea market scream out to you every single time. Or maybe your love for art has a crowd of European pieces from your trips to Portugal, Spain and Italy all posed in a corner for lack of space?

The Collection Lover In You

Being an interior design shopaholic sometimes means you could have a storage room dedicated solely to your extra baubles or last season’s hardware. If you’re an art collector, you may have enough sculptures, artifacts, and paintings to fill up a museum. Think of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where the grounds were architecturally designed like an Italian Palazzo from Venice. In fact, the pieces that make up the current museum were hand-picked by Isabella and her husband from the Gothic, Renaissance, Roman and Byzantine periods. If you have the same type of effervescent spirit for collecting items, there are smart and practical ways you can adopt to show them off.

Show Off Your Collection Like In A Museum

If you’re going mainly for the minimalist look, then perhaps this approach will not suit your desires. However, if you don’t mind having one area of your home set up for a display of your artifacts, then this may be the best avenue for you. Consider purchasing a beautiful mahogany open shelving unit where you can sprinkle your vintage finds throughout. Choose the same color codes in order to avoid a cacophony to the eyes. For instance, if you have baskets and old clocks from your trip to Greece, jars and pots from your African safari, and a couple wood pipes from Jamaica, then Brad Roemer recommends that you show them off in an effortlessly cool way! Make sure that this is the only area in your home that has clusters of items together, where perhaps your living room and dining room are minimally furnished.

A Hack For Small Items

If you’ve never been big on collecting large decor items, but instead love the tiny, remote objects that can fit into a child’s hand, then consider a more discrete way of showing off your goodies. An old printer’s tray or a frame that allows you to pin or glue down the items make for an awesome DIY project whilst also working as a show-stopping art piece. Hang it up in your entrance, living room or kid’s playroom, and you’re bound to receive a ton of compliments from guests. Some of these items may be crystals–can you imagine a collection of various bright, shiny crystals right above your mantlepiece? Or perhaps you’re into miniature artifacts from every country you’ve visited. It could be something as simple as a keychain or small dolls. Don’t leave them in a dusty drawer in the attic. Make use of what you’ve got instead of venturing to the next best interior design store, scouting out the trendiest hanging piece.

Add A Tray To Slay

If you want to slay at this thing we call interior design, then you’ve got to add a tray into your life! Those antique tea pots from your grandmother’s ancestors shouldn’t be hoarded away. Give them some loving light right smack in the middle of your coffee table. As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, you always want to be as unique as possible when it comes to decorating your home. Even if you’re a realtor or real estate agent wishing to dress up a home, everyone wants to step into the door feeling like the space is unique enough for them to get ouhs and ahs froms their friends and parents-in-law.