Arrange a Collection with Humor & Whimsy

Are you stuck between a serious collection, wanting a clean look to your home and having a little fun? Allow me to show you how I arrange a collection with humor & whimsy. With a sense of humor, juxtaposition and grouping collectables, you can have both a cute & clean look.

Come along as I arrange my husband’s sweet collection of “Two Story Tudor” houses in a fresh fun way. I hope you can translate our collectables into what ever your collection may be. This is a idea that you can apply to what you have. 

SIDE NOTE.

You would think these were my collection, huh? The reason we are Two Story Tudor is because my dear hubby loves tudor architecture. And as a result of that interest, we live in one too. I have probably told you before, I could be just as happy in a symmetrical colonial. Part of my point with this blog Two Story Tudor is that you need to work with what you have. You need to look at the best features of your home & the best features of your life and use those to their best advantage. What are the best features of your life? Check out our Self Life Coach Series.

SIDE NOTE OVER.

Grouping Collections

Grouping collectables together really helps create an uncluttered look. Just putting “them” all together can “read” as one big thing vs lots of little clutter all over. Just placing all your children’s clay projects on one silver try brings them together. Now it is ONE collection vs MANY little things scattered about. I collect several things and salt & pepper shakers are one of them. They are all gathered on one wall (see below.) I think the grouping almost reads as one piece of artwork. 

SIDE NOTE.

I will find another used wood rack similar in size to the other two below and place it where the metal magnetic board is. Then I’ll paint it to be the same color as the other two. All the pairs of salt & peppers, then will have their own spot and it will be a more spacious collection

SIDE NOTE OVER.

the Collection

In the case of these sweet two story tudors, I have them displayed with bottle brush trees for the fall, holiday & winter season, on our mantle. For the rest of the year I really want to do something less cluttered and less “wintery.” I do want to display the tudors because my husband loves them so much and they really do go with our home. Thankfully we have two built-in wall shelves in our living room across the room from our fireplace and that is where they are placed.

the Humor & Whimsy

In order to add some humor and wimsey to these tudors am adding some fun other groups (not quite baby collections yet…) I own 4 hula dolls, like the kind you would see wiggling on the dash of an old Oldsmobile in a dusty western coming to age film. To me they are cute, fun and remind me of our 25 wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii. They do not at all go with these tudor houses. 

I also have several elephants that mostly came from my mom- I had no idea she even liked elephants and I don’t remember them in our home when I was growing up. I really love elephants since our mission trip to Kenya a few years back with a visit to the elephant orphanage there.  AND elephants don’t go with little tudor houses either!

So do you see where I am going with this? Isn’t it just a bit fun to think of this collection of two story tudors living on the same display shelf with elephants and hula dolls? Alone, only the hula dolls, may be considered fun but the juxtaposition of the dolls, tudors and elephants- lol, do you “get” me? Will my friends that come over get it? Maybe NO ONE WILL!

Arrange a collection with humor & whimsy to bring yourself and others joy and a chuckle. The mix makes “housing” this tudor collection less serious and stiff. What collections do you display? Do you need inspiration to add some whimsey? Leave a comment and let’s come up with something together!