I feel like I've been sharing a lot of "new" decor items lately. All the "newness" makes sense because we've basically been putting together and furnishing a whole new house for the past (almost) year, but today I wanted to share a specific collection of older items I've decorated with for years and give you guys some ideas about how I use them.
Blue and white...anything. Mostly where ceramics are concerned.
It's actually a pretty traditional decor theme, however, it's been popping up all over the place lately. It's sort of genius (and incredibly easy) because you can add a few pieces into any room and instantly make it feel more collected and put-together.
You can seriously put a blue and white piece in ANY room and it works. Seriously.
Also (and this is probably the coolest thing about it), you can sort of pull-together your ENTIRE house with a few blue and white pieces. I like every room to have it's own "feel". While rooms may feel completely different, you can throw in a bit of blue and white in different rooms and instantly make your entire house feel more cohesive.
I've been collecting mine for years and years. I started my collection about 8 or so years ago. My mom gave me a tea set and some candle sticks. To this day I cannot find those candlesticks. I have no idea what happened to them. I think between a move years and years back, I packed them up and now, well, they're gone...haha. Funny how that happens....
Anyway, I mostly have vases and ginger jars.
I didn't realize just how many pieces I have! So I'm definitely not showing you every single blue and white thing I own (I actually have quite a bit of it put away because I don't want it to look a ceramic explosion up in here), I just want to give you some ideas and show you how I used these pieces in our home.
See how it gives a bit of personality to my office / sitting room above? I like how this room feels light and airy, but still a little fun, feminine, and collected with different pieces I love.
Here's what I recently did in our foyer with some more of my blue and white.
I like to collect mine from antique stores. I've found some of the prettiest blue and white pieces at them. Stores like TJ Maxx and Homegoods can be awesome for finding affordable vases and ginger jars too. I prefer mine to look a bit faded and more antiqued. So sometimes, that can be a bit hard to find at TJ or Homegoods because the mass-produced ones can tend look a bit too dark and cartoon-y. But that can be pretty too! I just like to mix it up.
So let's talk about this new round foyer table...
Haha, ok so something new did work it's way in. I found it at an antique store, along with the two matching ginger jars beneath it.
I had been keeping an eye out for a round table for this area of our foyer for a while now. I like the mirrored chest we had there before, but I felt like with all the white and light colors in this space, a different piece that wasn't so... reflective (especially with the mirror above it).... would look much better.
And it does. I'm so happy with it!
I took those photos of the foyer at sunset so the lighting definitely got a bit weird for a minute there...haha.
One more recent blue and white find...
This gorgeous "garden seat". It's huge! Super heavy and unique. It actually seems like it could be really old. I also got it for a crazy-good price at an antique store.
I put it in front of my great-grandfather's "library table" (more on that here). I think it works perfectly there! It also adds a bit of (soft) color and further balances that side of the room.
Here's some more ideas from around my house!
A pretty, simple centerpiece...
Oh, and they hold pink flowers beautifully!
A cute little umbrella/whatever holder in our foyer...
These have flanked our sink for years. I just love these little topiaries. Adding some symmetry with blue and white is one of my favorite things to do.
It's just simple and subtle.
So like I said, check out antique stores for unique blue and white finds. If you're looking for a lot of pieces to group together and you'd like them to be somewhat similar, you can sometimes luck out at antique stores, but you may find more similar pieces at places like TJ Maxx and Homegoods. Even Pier1! I'd say to stay away from big catalog stores or specialty "catalog" stores/websites. Lots of their blue and white pieces are crazy overpriced and that's never a good look. Don't go broke starting a collection! If you love it like I do or want to start a collection of your own, make it fun! Gradually hunt for unique pieces at good prices rather than settling for every blue and white thing you find or randomly searching for and buying up a ton of it to get an insta-collection of the stuff. Let's face it, that's no fun.
So I hope you all enjoyed this week's little home decor break! Do any of you collect blue and white too?
Oh and for more inspiration... This is one of my FAVORITE decor books. TONS of blue and white gorgeous-ness. Mine lives on my coffee table in my office. ;)
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