joie de vivre no. 4

As purveyors of fine European goods, we learn quickly the value of small illustrations of life, or a visual vignette if you will. A well-planned, stylish vignette can give life to a room or piece of furniture. It showcases your personality and interests making your home yours. While some might think creating visual vignettes in your home is a daunting task, we believe that anyone can do it. 

Here is our go-to guide to creating visual vignettes:

1. Start with a blank canvas.

   Find the area in your home you wish to highlight. Clear everything out of the way so you can start with a blank canvas. This gives you a fresh perspective for you to start creating your visual vignette.

2. Create a theme.

   Decide what you want your vignette to be about. Some examples could be spring, gardening, mushrooms, mercury glass, etc. This allows you to display special collections you might have tucked back in a closet.

3. Collect your items.

   Once you have your theme, pull together the items that define the theme or relate to the it. For example, maybe you have some decorative moss that would look good with your ceramic mushrooms. Make sure everything varies in texture, height, and size. Our favorite rule-of-thumb is that everything works better in odd numbers, so create groups of 3, 5, etc. Lastly, use similar colors or complimentary colors to have a consistent grouping.

4. Assemble your vignette.

   Choose one piece to be the main attraction and start layering the remaining items around the it. Use rises such as books, wooden boxes, inverted drawers, and other flat items of varying heights to assist when you need more hieght. When you look at your finished vignette, you should be able to see everything.

Share your visual vignettes with us! We can't wait to show you our vignettes at High Point Market!

Images via: 1. here, 2. here, 3. here, 4. here, 5. here, 6. here, 7. here, 8. here, 9. here, 10. here