You are your home and, if you’re lucky, your home is you. One way to make your house look amazing and reflect your personality is to decorate with family heirlooms. Chances are, you’ve inherited the 1940s Fiesta dinnerware and the old black-sea globe because you love them - and feel a connection. The globe sat on your grandmother’s piano for 50 years, and you ate tin-roof sundaes out of the colorful dishes as a kid. So pull them out of the cupboard and the attic. Let those things and others fill your home with interest, color, texture and, well, you. Here are a few simple ideas to make your favorite heirlooms work for you.

1. Collections: If you love the little brass alarm clock from your grandfather, go with it. Pick up another old ticker at a garage sale or second-hand store - working or not - and another with vintage feel on clearance at your favorite department store. Before you know it, a collection is born. And any collection of objects can become an eye-catching display. Whether it’s snow globes or 1930s chrome staplers, items arranged in groups scream “look at me.” Remember this: Groups of odd numbers - three, five, seven - are more interesting than two, four or six of anything.

2. Photos: If your family photos are stuck in a drawer, overflowing from the album or hanging on the fridge, pick up a few similar frames with mats from a discount store. Find a prominent wall in need of help and hang your photos in a group. Staircase walls work well. If you don’t have enough to fill a wall, frame just a few and find homes for them on the fireplace mantel or an end table. If you want to spend a bit more money, have your old black-and-white photos reprinted in sepia tone for added warmth and interest.

3. Arrangements: An old green mixing bowl from your great aunt doesn’t have to sit in the cupboard until you need to make scrambled eggs. It can occupy a kitchen shelf or ledge surrounded by a few other collectibles from the same era. You can also stack a few small books from your childhood on an end table along with a tin toy or an old dog figurine. Small groupings lend big pop.

4. Furniture: Big or small, heirloom furniture has great potential to transform a room. Clearly, a four-poster in the bedroom is an instant focal point, but smaller pieces can steal the show in any room. So let your nana’s little oak washstand become a modern-day martini bar in the dining room. You can also mix and match end tables of like wood tones to create added interest or fill a nook.

5. Walls: Artists are everywhere, so chances are good your family has a few through the generations - even if they never knew it. Do you have a crayon drawing your dad created when he was 7? How about hanging it (framed) with something similar you drew as a kid, right along side the masterpiece your 6-year-old brought home from school last week. If you’re lucky, you also have paintings done by grown-up relatives that will lend even more interest to your beautiful home. Find that corner, and hang it.

source : www.lsj.com