10 Home Design Crimes

Don't Allow Collections to Clutter

Collections are often meaningful to a person, so we don't recommend ridding a home completely of bric-a-brac and other memorabilia. House guests often enjoy seeing another person's collection of tea cups, antique cameras or plates, as long as they're displayed neatly. Organize a collection, and if it's large, pack up a sizable portion of the items for storage; you don't necessarily need 50 salt and pepper shaker sets crowding shelves in the corner of a kitchen, for example, but eight to 10 sets can accent a wall as a conversation piece perfectly.

Assembling a vignette is another great way to liven up a drab corner, but take our advice and limit your snow globe collection to one or two pieces to keep from cluttering a space. Consider various shapes and sizes of complementary items, like a vintage typewriter, framed sheet music, and a jar of Scrabble pieces, and make a statement of your own with a creative, decorative design.

Above all, don't let the collections in your home overwhelm a space. Try to limit yourself to one collection per room, or three to four in your entire home. You can always rotate collections to keep décor interesting; display one for several months, then pack it up for a while and display another collection in its place. If your knick-knacks begin to clutter a space, think of a creative way to neatly display them instead. If you have a collection of vintage plates, for example, search for a bare wall in your home and hang them as art.