The Magic of Decorating With Collections

I’ve never really been a “one pumpkin on the shelf” kind of decorator.

If I love something, chances are I have more than one of it. Sometimes a lot more than one.

My fall decorating this year is a pretty good example. What started with putting a few pumpkins on the console under the TV quickly turned into an entire little pumpkin patch. I kept adding them, tucking leaves between them and layering different sizes until the whole thing felt full.

And I love it.

Sometimes More Really Is More

We hear so much about editing our homes and taking things away, but I don’t think every space needs to be minimal.

Sometimes twenty pumpkins grouped together make a much bigger statement than two pumpkins carefully placed on opposite ends of a shelf.

When you repeat the same type of object, all of those individual pieces suddenly start to read as one display. Instead of looking cluttered, they become a collection.

That’s exactly what happened on my console.

There are pumpkins in different sizes, shapes, colors and textures, but because they’re all pumpkins, they work together. Adding the leaves between them helped tie everything together and made the whole display feel a little more like an overflowing fall pumpkin patch.

Collections Don’t Have to Match

Actually, I think they’re more interesting when they don’t.

Some of my favorite collections have been gathered slowly over time. A piece found while thrifting, something I’ve had for years, something new that caught my eye and another piece I completely forgot I owned until I pulled out the seasonal bins.

They weren’t necessarily made to go together.

That’s what makes them good together.

Different heights, finishes, ages and little imperfections keep a collection from feeling like you bought the entire display in one afternoon.

Let Your Collection Grow Over Time

You don’t need twenty pumpkins to start decorating with collections.

Start with what you already have.

Maybe you have three old brass candlesticks, a handful of vintage books, several baskets or a few pieces of pottery. Put them together instead of spreading them throughout the house and see what happens.

Then let the collection grow naturally.

Part of the fun is finding another piece months or even years later and knowing exactly where it belongs.

Use Different Heights and Shapes

When I’m putting a collection together, I don’t want everything sitting in one straight line.

I like things layered.

Something tall in the back, smaller pieces tucked toward the front and objects overlapping just enough to make the display feel full. With the pumpkins on my console, the different shapes and sizes did most of that work for me.

You don’t need every piece to be visible from every angle, either.

Sometimes seeing just part of something tucked behind another piece is what makes a display feel collected rather than staged.

Give the Collection Room to Be the Star

If I’m going big with a collection, I usually don’t think the space needs much else.

The pumpkins are the whole story on my console right now.

I didn’t need to add a bunch of unrelated fall decorations around them just because I had empty spaces to fill. The repetition creates enough interest on its own.

That’s one of my favorite things about decorating this way. A collection can take something as ordinary as a console, cabinet or shelf and completely transform it for the season.

Decorate With What You Love

At the end of the day, I don’t think decorating should be about following a formula for exactly how many things should be on a shelf.

Your home should look like you live there.

It should hold the things you’ve found, the things you’ve kept and probably a few things you own far too many of simply because they make you happy.

For me this fall, apparently that means pumpkins.

A lot of pumpkins.

And I wouldn’t take a single one away.