Vase Display and the Rule of Three

Collecting vases is a wonderfully tactile experience, they are meant to be touched.  Sometimes I think I should own a vase shop.  I adore arranging them, and I can contemplate their shapes endlessly.  I prefer simple shapes and solid colors.  When I am arranging vases, I have found that an odd number of pieces looks more interesting to me.  I also tend to prefer asymmetry to symmetry.  I discovered the rule of three when I first started collecting, and it works for me.  Here's a little guide to arranging your vases on a shelf or table. I seem to be collecting more glass than ceramics these days.  Don't feel scared to mix the two.  The only thing to remember is to find shapes or colors that seem to go together.  What goes together is simply what you love, trust your intuition.  Remember to have fun with it!

Using the rule of three, your vases are arranged in a triangle with either the tallest in the middle, or the shortest in the middle.  Lately, I am preferring the shortest in the middle.  I know this is a huge decorating faux pas - but I use silk flowers from the craft store.  They are much more beautiful than they used to be.  It makes me too sad when flowers die.  I prefer a single, simple stem.

 

Here's is a variation on the shortest in the middle scheme, when you are going for asymmetry.  I like placing the short vase in front of the tall vase.

Another variation.  I saw these beautiful vases at Target the other day.  Whenever I see vases in a shop, I just can't help but arrange them.  I'm sure the workers think I am crazy.   In this scheme the tallest vase - which is also the odd color - is in the front.  Now we are ready to move on to the rule of five, but that's a post for another day.  I love seeing how people display their vases.  Send me a picture, and I may feature you here.  xxoo

Inspiration

Dear readers, I constantly fantasize about decorating a new place.  For some reason I'm never satisfied.  As you know, I've been living in old buildings for the last several years and I crave clean and modern.  Some days I dream of a peaceful monochromatic home in aqua and turquoise.  Other days it's all white with pops of hot pink.  Here are some of my favorites from around the web this week.  Hope you enjoy!

 

Ahh.  Very peaceful and clean.  Love the aqua.  Image via House to Home.

Beautiful painting.  Beautiful still life of vases on the dresser.  Image via Lonny.

 Love this glass collection.  Image via Shelter Pop.

Love the mid-century vibe of this wallpaper.  Love how it is surrounding the mantel.  Image via House to Home.

 

I really crave simplicity.  I adore this simple painting.  Image via Apartment Therapy.

Love these lamps.  Love them against the red wall.  I'd probably paint that cabinet white.  Image via House of Turquoise.

And speaking of red, white and blue - how fabulous is this roomroom!  The furniture and lamps pop off that white wall.  Love the monochrome of the white painting against the white wall.  Image via House to Home.  Can you tell that's my new favorite website?

I suppose this gorgeous bedroom doesn't really fit here, except that I love it!  Love the white headboard.  But even more than that, I adore the windows, and how the outside is part of the decor.  The pink panel is too fab.  I love the light it casts.  Would be amazing to watch how the light changes throughout the day.  Image via Desire to Inspire.

Collecting Art Glass - Jewelry for Your Room

We are all curators, our homes reflect what we find beautiful and useful.  Accessories are the jewelry of a home.  Not sure how to accessorize your room?  How about some lovely glass vases?  Did you see the May 2011 edition of Martha Stewart Living?  There's a wonderful spread on mid-century glass.  They feature American, Italian and Scandinavian glass.  If you stick to simple shapes, glass vases fit perfectly in a modern, minimal home.  Here's a look at some lovely pieces, some expensive, some not.

Beautiful decanters featured in Martha Stewart Living.  Sometimes vintage decanters are missing their stoppers.  If you are lucky enough to find one with its stopper, snatch it up.  I love all these shapes and colors.  Beautiful pieces clustered together look like sculpture.  I like grouping glass by color. 

It's good feng shui to have a pop of red in your room.  You can do that with a beautiful glass vase.  Here's a couple of mod red pieces that are reasonably priced.  Left:  Modnique;  Right:  Linea72.

I'd like to have this beautiful pink vase.  My guess would be that this is recycled Spanish glass, but I'm not sure.  Image from Rue Magazine.  If you know the source of this vase, please contact me.

 

Left, beautiful Italian cased glass from Vintage4Vintage.  Right is a beautiful satin glass vase. I'd guess this is Fenton, but I'm not really sure.  The shape looks like Fenton, but I was not aware that Fenton did gradations in color like this one.  This piece is very reasonably priced.   Available at Scentsiblescents.

Perhaps you need a pop of yellow.  Yellow glass vases are perfect for that.  Left:  Moonbeam vases from Cyan Design.  Right:  VintageModernandMore.

Or blue.  There are lots of examples of beautiful blue art glass, such as this lovely frosted glass bar set from Kypeep.

Probably my favorite vase of all time.  I've been coveting it for a long time.  That's right it's vintage Holmegaard from the Carnaby Series, double gourd shape.  And it's expensive.  I'm always searching for Holmegaard at flea markets and garage sales, but I haven't been successful.  A girl can dream right?  This one is available from Etsy seller Modernspecific.

Here's a whole collection of blue Holmegaard from The End of History.  Looks so fab clustered together.  Love the baby blue color. 

Of course, you can always mix colors, as this lovely Blenko collection demonstrates.  Image Glasshouse (this also links to a very fine article on displaying your glass collection).

Are you a lover of neutrals?  A collection of rare gray cased glass also from The End of History.

This beautiful Italian vase in Oyster is available at Linea72.  She has such a great shop!

I can never get enough white.  I think these vases would look great together.  Left is Holmegaard from BModern.  Right is vintage Finnish cased glass designed by Tapio Wirkkala.  Available at Observation.  Such a beautiful minimalist shape.

Don't fret if you can't afford expensive pieces.  There are plenty of modern, reasonably priced pieces that are beautiful, such as these Sultan canisters from Z Gallerie.  I'm thinking of order the white ones.

Here's the latest piece to my collection.  A very fine piece of Polish cased glass.  It's absolutely perfect, there are no flaws.  I love its minimalist shape.  I got it for $9.00 from Home Goods.  What about you dear readers, are you a lover of art glass?  How do you display your glass? 

Feeling Blue

I've been obsessing about blue lately. I love cobalt blue, periwinkle, navy and turquoise! They look great together.

I would love to do a monochromatic room. Blue can be so calming and ethereal. For a gorgeous all blue living room, click here. For more of my studies in blue, click here.

All images by Peggy.

Blue Bottles

At a loss for how to accessorize your place on the cheap? How about some blue bottles?

Using a simple object in multiples really gives it impact. A simple but beautiful display. Scott Sanders via Desire to Inspire.

Amy Butler.

Desire to Inspire.

Design Milk.
George Seper via Desire to Inspire.
Landon Collis via Desire to Inspire.
The Style Files. If you are a lover blue glass, you must check out this flickr group.

Want...

The Kate Spade Camelia Avenue Posy vase by Lenox, has me drooling. You already know that I love hot pink, and it's so hard to find pink vases that also look modern. Most have frilly details. I like a simple vase, in a simple shape (although the gold lip is a bit frilly, wish it didn't have that). The only problem with this one is its size. Only 3 1/2 inches tall. Wish it were larger. Still thinking about ordering though...

A trip to Crate and Barrel

Omigosh, have you seen the new Spring collection at Crate and Barrel? It's gorgeous! SNL and I went there Friday and I saw so many beautiful things. Good thing I'm not buying. What's a girl to do? You guessed it - add the stuff to my virtual collection. Ahh. Virtual collections. They cost nothing, take up no room, you don't have to dust them and if you move you don't have to pack them.

These yellow glass vases were very tempting. Aren't they gorgeous! So sunny. I especially love the one in the middle.


And look at this! Turquoise dishes! As you know, that's my color for Spring.

SNL got creative and made sculptures out of square bowls. Aren't they fab? I think they'd be cool with floating candles or flowers. We concurred that she had to have these. I can't wait to see them in her home.

Beautiful Asian-inspired bowl with floating orchids. SNL loves orchids so this gave her an idea how to use her new sculpture.
I love these vases. I also love the organic touches.

Cool wall sculpture based on a mid-century painting. Dear readers, I can't remember the artist who did the painting this is based on. Please contact me if you know. Thanks!

Beautiful print on canvas. I'm amazed at the prints on canvas I'm seeing everywhere. They look like real paintings. Amazing. Hope you enjoyed this tour of Crate and Barrel as much as I did!

A study in blue

Where once all I could think of were the many permutations of pink, now I am preoccupied with blue. Here are blue items in my home.

All images by Peggy.