Using Unexpected Finds in Decor

I love a good collection. Usually while I’m collecting, I have a distinct idea of where my burgeoning collection will go in our home.

But when Rob started collecting fun vintage wood levels earlier this fall, I was especially stumped on how to use them.

I already had two red levels hanging above my sink that I bought years ago because I loved the color.

But wall space is sort of a premium around here, and I didn’t think I wanted to add any more levels to my walls. At least not in the traditional sense.

For my fall mantel, I was looking for a pop of brown to tone down some of the color I had going on in my fall decor. And then it came to me: Rob’s wooden levels.

I wasn’t really sure what I would do with them; I just know that collections always look best together. So I rounded them all up and shoved them inside a crock to give the display a bit of height.

And I actually loved it!

I even had a friend ask me how I thought to use them there, and the honest answer is that sometimes unexpected inspiration just strikes while I’m working in an area.

When I took everything down off my fall mantel, I challenged myself to come up with some fresh way to use them in my Christmas decorating.

And then another idea hit me: What if I made a Christmas tree display with the levels.

I talked with Rob about my idea, and of course, he came up with the actual nuts and bolts ideas for putting it all together.

My only rule was that I wanted it framed out to actually look like art. But traveled up to our loft to see if I could scrounge up a frame big enough, I was out of luck. However, the huge mirror I’ve used the past few Christmases as my mantel focal point was actually the perfect size.

Rob set to work cutting a piece of wood that was the same size as the inset mirror. Then, he covered it with a piece of linen we recycled from another project. We both figured that huge nails would be strong enough to hold the levels in place, so Rob was able to hammer those in fairly quickly.

We attempted to add an old wooden tri-fold ruler to function as the top of the tree, but it was too big and weirdly shaped, so I told him to leave that area blank for inspiration to hit me.

When we tried to place the new art piece inside the frame and just rest it on the mantel, we found out it was too heavy to just sit up there. Rob to the rescue again! He grabbed some silicone and said we could silicone the board to the existing mirror to provide additional support. He assures me that the piece will come off if I ever decide to revert its use back to just a mirror.

I was inspired to place the particular green ornament at the top as a sort of tree topper when my son wanted to use it on our family Christmas tree. It says “Merry Christmas” and is just too pretty to tuck away somewhere.

In the coming year, I want to challenge myself to get more creative about how to use those unexpected antique and vintage finds in new and artistic ways in my home. There will always be fun vintage finds to be found in our thrifting and estate sale adventures, and coming up with something cool to do with a very utilitarian object has inspired me to see what other objects I can find and display in an outside-of-the-box way.