Variety with Vignettes

If you're a clean surfaces sort of person, vignettes are probably not your style. And I absolutely respect the idea of minimalism-- nothing to move and nothing to dust.

But I've found such fun things at thrift stores, flea markets and antique malls, I do love a good sideboard vignette. It's a great way of taking many different items and connecting them together.

Today, I'll show you just a few of the nutty and colorful combos I've put together in the house.

First we'll go into my bedroom. The post is late today because I was actually doing a cleaning marathon-- trying to get some of these things tidied up as my friend Josette's coming to visit over the Fourth. This is the quirky collection that's on my 40s hamper top...

Art nouveau style frames (featuring a young Gregory Peck!) and scent bottles have been paired with a nouveau bust of Scheherezade, who's styling one of my garage sale hats. Behind her is a vintage mirror I'd painted up, to reflect light and add interest. It's weird, and way colorful, I know. But I think somehow it works.

Now this is on top of one of my dressers...


The dolls were my mother's and my great aunt's. Paired with a set of thrift store vintage figurines, and a 30s lamp, they're all from about the same time period and the colors seem to connect. That's one of the easy ways to tie different items together-- color. The right color makes all the difference.

Like here. You might remember, I got this 40s bleeding heart still-life print just a few weeks ago for a couple of bucks at a flea market. I've put it on one of the shelves of my clothes wardrobe, along with a vintage box of soaps and my grandmother's perfume bottle...


That peachy-pink connects all of them visually, I think. And so somehow they really seem to go together.

This shelf showcases a vintage dresser box I picked up at the Salvation Army, along with my great aunt's candy dish and a perfume bottle my mother had gotten me...


Again, color seems to tie in the candy dish and perfume bottle. And it's amazing what colors get brought out in a print, depending on what it's sitting next to.

The last shelf is pretty simple. Just another perfume bottle, some home-grown photography in a K-Mart frame, and a lovely little box one of my coworkers had kindly brought me from India.


Now here, this is the table I've been working on for Josette's arrival. I've been trying to work with the fairies-and-chintz theme I'd showed you a week or so ago on the mantle...


Lots of pattern here! More, actually, than I usually tend to do with things-- which is why I've gone for the shiny aluminum bowls and cups.

To tie in the chintz plates from the mantle, I fit one last plate into the centerpiece display, along with some cheery birds...


The candlesticks and central bowl, with the fairies on them, were Salvation Army and Red White and Blue finds. I'd gotten them separately over time, though they do match.


Lastly, I thought you might like to see this little vignette in the entry way. The lamp and plate seem to really go together. The colors, the general style...

I had forgotten how old the plate was... 1906! Back from when Pittsburgh didn't even have an 'h' in it!...

Well, that about wraps it up for me today. I've been working for about 7 hours straight on things here at Waterhouse and need to grab a little dinner. (Not on the plate above.)

Hope you all have a terrific remainder to your Sunday, and that I'll see you again soon!

• If you missed Wednesday's post "Ahoy, Thar Be Treasure This Wednesday" and would like a peek at my dad's unusual Father's Day gift, click here.

Otherwise, keep cool and have a great week!