- Heirloom
Decorating
- by Rachel Paxton
I love to surround myself with
things from the past. To me "heirloom" doesn't necessarily
mean something really old, because memories are always in the
making, and displaying a family keepsake can be treasured whether
it's from last year or fifty years ago.
It's easy to tastefully decorate
your home with family heirlooms. Why not put them on display
rather than locking them away?
I have many crocheted afghans
that started taking up a lot of storage space. When we moved
to our new home we had room for our cedar chest off to one side
of the living room and I filled the chest with all of the blankets.
This also keeps them from being scattered all over the living
room. We take one out at a time and just fold it up and put it
back in the cedar chest when we're done using it.
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I love to decorate with family
photos. Our home has a long hallway where I can display a lot
of photographs. Instead of randomly arranging pictures I decided
to go with themes. I bought a large collage picture fame and
arranged all of our family camping photos in it. Another smaller
collage displays pictures of our daughter opening up her presents
at Christmas throughout the years. My, how she's grown!
I've also scattered picture frames
throughout our home. Black and white photos of generations past
are displayed on the piano and china hutch. |
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I don't know about you, but I love
looking at other people's family photos. Ours are definitely
a topic of conversation for visiting guests.
I love needlework. I have on
display needlework that was done by my mother, my mother-in-law,
and myself, and these masterpieces make a great addition to any
room of the home. I'm partial myself to wedding samplers. It
doesn't seem like many people take the time to make these anymore.
I made one for my husband and myself that I hope to someday pass
on to my children. Birth samplers are also really great and something
your children will surely cherish someday. The counted cross
stitch project I'm currently working on will probably take me
5 years to complete, but someday it will grace the wall above
our piano.
I like to incorporate children's
artwork wherever possible. My favorite is a poem my daughter
wrote and illustrated. One year she made several and gave them
away as Christmas gifts to family members. Our family has a lot
of books that have been handed down as many as four generations.
Those books are displayed on shelves in our entertainment center
in the living room. My heirloom cookbooks I keep in a small bookshelf
between the kitchen and the dining room. Instead of just filling
the shelves with cookbooks, I alternated shelves, arranging my
favorite knick knacks in between.
One heirloom I haven't found
a place for are hand-embroidered tea towels that have been in
our family for many years. I've read that you can make them into
kitchen curtains. I'm going to have to give that a try!
Look through your family treasures
and see what you can dig up. You never know what you might find--like
a flower your grandmother dried and framed! And remember, it's
never too late to create new family heirlooms. Your family will
treasure them someday. |
