displaying collections & the art wall

Love your neighborhood?  Love maps?  Love old things?

Yes.  Yup.  Definitely.

A couple of weeks ago our house's previous owner left a folder of finds at our door; landscape plans, surveys and the home's deeds, going back to when the United States owned our property in 1864.  The later is totally amazing for a history junkie like myself and you can count on a near future post displaying how cool the documents are, with real script dating to 1910 and details regarding the partitioning of our Harriet-Clarke neighborhood.

Dated 1931, a map of our neighborhood was included in the deeds.  Isn't it kind of great?  I mean, in a very nerdy, I-must-really-be-a-dork sort of way?  Well, I must say to bolster my position that old maps are very "in."  They look perfect framed, blown-up as wall decal, or underneath glass on a coffee table.  Do they make you appear smart?  Well traveled?  Well read?  I hope so!  Even if it's a front. 

I talk all.the.time about my yet-to-be-seen art wall.  I can't settle on the frames just yet but I know for sure that the map will be incorporated, as well as a design article about our wedding and sheet music for "Til There was You," a song played at the ceremony.

Peek at this slideshow of art wall ideas.  I'm really getting into collections of like things on the wall; by organizing them in a smart, edited way, quirky collections appear grown-up and thought out.

As I've posted, Sarah Richardson made an arrangement of hats.

Hanging plates of similar pattern or color with English plate hangers allows you to see your special china  floating in a sophisticated array.

Very lady-like, isn't it?

A bookcase creates a visual wall of like things within a room.  Baskets, color-coded fabrics, jars, dishes, towels, and books can make great visual impact, while be functional and temporal.

 Small displays of flower clippings beneath glass can create objects of scientific wonder out of things you find in your yard... if you have a really pretty yard that is!  Flower pressings framed are also beautiful.

 Like picture frames organized in a grid may serve as art as well as furniture; a very economical way to create a headboard worthy of adoration.

{If you know the source for these images, please let me know.  I've misplaced it.}

What do you collect?  How do you display and arrange your finds?

I keep thinking of my grandma's best friend who has shelves on all four walls of her kitchen lined with SPAM cans.  Judge, I kind of do, but they look surprisingly.... interesting!  And I believe they all still have SPAM in them.  She's 94 years old.  Interesting?