On the way back from NYC a couple of weeks ago, we stopped in Hoboken to have dinner at a friend's place. Displayed throughout their apartment were the loveliest collections of vintage items. One cabinet held a collection of 1939 Worlds Fair memorabilia, another housed an army of vintage wedding cake toppers while still another held a set of Fire King Jadeite dishes. Seeing all of these pieces displayed so nicely got me thinking that it would be fun to start collecting. Not that I don't already collect all sorts of odds and ends from thrift stores and flea markets. Certainly, I do. But I would like to start concentrating on building a collection of similar items. The big question is: What to collect?
To help in my decision, I used some of my hard earned birthday money to purchase a couple of books from Amazon, Found Style and Flea Market Style. Both books are filled with page after page of rooms I could only dream of living in. Each is filled with odds and ends collected by their owners over the years and eclectically displayed amongst rooms of perfectly worn in vintage furniture. I haven't been able to stop looking at them.
Above are a few pages from Found Style. One of my favorite ideas from the books is the collection of vintage vanity mirrors. The workspace pictured is one of a hat-maker but it would also be the perfect sewing room.
Where as I got more ideas for specific collections from Found Style, I like Flea Market Style for showing ways of putting those collections together. I wish I could crawl right into the book and live in those rooms!
Here are a few ideas that have made the short list of things to collect.