I think a lot of it has to do with the collectibles, themselves. In palimpsest's first three photos, the pottery and candle holders are sculptural -- there isn't a need for a lot of up-close perusal (a la glass menagerie). It is their forms that are interesting, and that work together to make a group form a whole that is also interesting. Matte green, shell shapes, turned wood: all simple. I think the art and portraits have a similar feel to them, although those have more individual draw.

To me, the secret is having the grouping have some appeal, so it is less of a museum experience asking for a stroll from case to case and squinting at the detail. But I suppose that says more about the collector himself.

This old-fashioned room (1969 updated in 1986 or so) was pared down a bit since my parents are in their eighties. The photo does not really focus on the collections, but you can see that it functions as a relatively neutral but layered backdrop to a number of different things:

A collection of glass paperweights on the butler's table.
A collection of jars and boxes on the right lamp table
A group of brass tools and implements on the left lamp table
A set of miniature porcelain vases in a shadow box.
Ten plates on the wall
A collection of miniature capidimonte in the vitrine
A glass column filled with handblown christmas ornaments.

Behind the wingchair is a table covered with vases
Also not seen is a set of egg shaped snuff boxes

Removed was a large collection of brasses and trivets.
Also interspersed are some various pieces of staffordshire and other individual items with some personal meaning.

So there are a number of different collections but I don't think they overwhelm.

{{!gwi}}

I forgot to add that the adjacent dining room which is papered in paneled chinoiserie paper and has matching moulding to floor drapery and is rather "busy" doesn't have a single picture on the walls and with the exception of the china cabinet, is kept relatively clear.

Thanks so much for that! This room is going to be my winter project, so I'm wanting to have as many ideas as I can before I jump in and start. The collection is much larger than those shown, but the principals are the same, I suppose.

If you can put everything on shelves (of one color), then the matching wall behind them could be whatever neutral (or e.g. black) you like, allowing you to do other colors on the other walls.

Wow

I like it. Is so pretty.

Thanks for your job.

Here is a link that might be useful: Destino Mar

It is annoying enough when they spam their own threads. Shoo. Go away.

I've been told by people who know her that Margaret Keane is a wonderful woman, but I've never cared for her art. Yet hung as it is in Palimpsest's dark-walled stairway, it's riveting. Presentation is everything.

One time I was faced with the ultimate challenge--a room of high-on-the-wall shelves stuffed with Beanie Babies. I hated those things, even before a mob of BB-crazed mommies in my old town broke down the doors of McDonald's trying to be the first to get the new releases. Anyway, the original reason for the Babies' high-up location in my client's spare room was to keep them out of the kids' grubby mitts, since the plan was that said Babies were eventually going to put said kids through college.

By the time I was called in, however, the kids were old enough to have lost all interest in the Babies, and, over time, Mom herself had put away childish things & grown skeptical about the Beanies' future value. But she didn't want to get rid of them. And knowing they were poorly displayed, yet not having a better idea, she asked me what I thought she should do with them. I wanted to get paid, so I avoided a direct answer to her question & came up with an alternate solution, instead--one that didn't involve a torch.

So we sat down on the floor of the BB room & sorted them by dominant-color family, then I sent her to IKEA--which she loved, and I, again, hated--to buy a bunch of tall, skinny CD storage shelves. We spent an afternoon putting them together, spray-painted them in a dozen different high-gloss colors, then moved the Babies around till the colors made sense. I still didn't like the things, but the shelves' bright-colored stripes & regular grid pattern did two things: by organizing the chaos of colors into a coherent pattern, they made a cool, graphic statement when somebody looked into the room, and they eliminated the odd sensation of having interrupted a stuffed-animal orgy that came from too many Babies stacked on top of each other on too few horizontal shelves.

No word yet on how many Beanie Babies it takes these days to pay for college.

Basically, whether it's rare art pottery or 1950s lunchboxes or free giveaways, there's at least one good solution for displaying anything.

Magnaverde, You gave me quite a chuckle re: "an alternate solution, instead--one that didn't involve a torch." Thank you.

Magnaverde, not only did your story give me a good laugh, but it gave me hope.

My husband and I have a collection, and it's not pretty, but it means a lot to us. We have been together 10 years now, and we LOVE to travel. We have purchased snow globes from all the major destinations we have visited. They are meaningful to us, and I love picking them up and remembering all the fun we had at each place... but grouped together as they are now, they look as "kichy" as could be. My hope is that, someday, I will find a way to group them together in a way that makes them look good so that, throughout our lifetime, we can have a whole room of them to admire and remember all of the awesome places we have visited together.

Magnaverde, that is a HOOT about those Beanie Babies. Bless her heart! You know, I worked with a lady back in those days that would spend half her paycheck buying those, because she was going to strike it rich someday selling them off, pay for college, etc. I suggested that she take that money and buy some mutual funds instead, but she just scoffed at that idea. Wonder how all of that worked out?

I suspect that there will be lots of arranging and rearranging when the time comes, but I do like the idea of grouping by color.

My mother had a friend who had most of the rooms in her small house lined with glass shelves or shelves painted the wall color and covered with thousands of things. (A lot of which was near museum quality oriental artifacts, but there were other collections of ordinary things that were made interesting by sheer volume). She was the one who had a full-time collections cleaner. There was so much that you could look at it as "patterning" or wallpaper.
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I am in the camp that thinks almost anything can be beautiful,--or at least riveting or interesting-- if there is enough of it. Even the trays of "things removed from people's GI tracts" at the Mutter Museum have their own beauty. So, the tastefully arranged beer can or Beanie baby collection can make up for its banality by sheer volume, and attention to how and where it goes. I don't think the beer cans would look nice--however orderly--in my parents' living room(pictured above), but in a basement den? Why not?

In no way does this compare to the lovely collections of Pal's parents, but speaking of sheer volume, this reminds me of the cute little colorful plastic toys in the McDonald's Happy Meals that my DD collected when she was three (25 years ago). I was so tired of picking those things up, and came up with a solution one day. I looped fishing line around the bodies or heads or what ever (I promise they did not look like a noose) and kept attaching one to the other until I had a garland made out of kings and queens and princes and princesses and whatever might be the "toy of the week". I draped this lovely garland around her closet door. Instant colorful toddler decor! They looked quite tasteful with the pink and white pet net strung across the corner on the other side of the room, and yes, you guessed it - there were a few Beanie Babies in there!

Now of course, we did not keep this collection around until it became vintage, but it did hold her interest for a few months....at least until the next marketing craze geared to kids!

I spent a small fortune collecting Beanies Babies for my granddaughter during the 'craze'. The were all nicely displayed on a shelf in the playroom. one day I went to check on my 3yr old grandson and discovered he had ripped the tags off all of them.....his reason..He didn't like hearts ( all of the tags had hearts on them]. So much for paying for college! Sorry this doesn't help franksmom with her room.

makeithome, we love to travel too and I think I have you beat in the kitschy-collectible category -- we collect shot glasses. It was DH's idea and really, I swear, we're usually, well, not tacky, but I thought the shot glass thing was kinda funny and so, we have about 15 of them now. We have two large bookcases side by side in our dining room/library and I have them lined up on the very top, front edge of the bookcases. The bookcases are very traditional (dark Stickley oak) so I sort of hope they give the shotglasses an air of sophistication, ha ha.

I collect oilers,I have over 500.I have a wall shelf painted blue with off white back ground.You want to see collection,I have 8 shelves the majority are covered by oilers,copper,brass zinc.You know you pump bottom oil comes out spout.Started by accident.

Can you imagine hiring an expensive decorator to display your Beany babies. (lol!)

Makeithome did you see the movie Unfaithful? Well, in the movie the couple had a big collection of snow globes. I remember they had them all displayed, quite lovely actually. In fact, the husband killed his wife's lover with one of those snow globes.

Not sure that I have anything useful to offer but wanted to say thanks to all who shared thoughts and Magnaverde, ohmygoodness!

I used to say that I collect collections because it seems I have so many of them. I know what to do with small amounts of things but a couple of mine are quite large and I'm quite lost. One is a collection of miniature glass animals that was started in childhood. Not worth much of anything except for sentimental value. As a child I kept them in old printer trays, which I wish I still had. Those were lost in one move or another so now they are all packed up and in a closet because I can't figure out what to do with them.

The other is a collection of figurines, several hundred I'm sure, of character either reading or writing (since that's my trade.) Right now they are in a china cabinet in my office. A few are on the bookcases in the library but there are too many to have out on the shelves because then there would be no room left. I don't know that what I have is the best place for them but it's the only place I can corral them all.

MakeitHome - I have an idea for your globes, though you might think it's too "out there". I would either paint the back wall black (or dark blue), or at least cover it with some kind of dark board, etc. and the globes should really pop! Against neutral walls they probably don't look impressive, but try something more exciting.