5 Ways to Creatively (& beautifully) Display Your Vintage Pottery Collection

Ever wonder How to Display a Pottery Collection? These 5+ styling tips will help you create a stunning display with your vintage pottery collection. Perfect for charming Fall home decorating.

If you’re a thrifty, secondhand shopper like I am, you may have spotted pretty vintage pottery at your local thrift shop or estate sale. There is a wide variety available in endless colors and textures. Vintage pottery planters can be a fun collection and can be a great pairing to the hot trend of growing houseplants. If your collection has been expanding, today’s styling tips can turn your finds into a pretty focal point in your home. I hope this 5 Ways to Creatively (& beautifully) Display Your Vintage Pottery Collection will be inspiring to you!

Today’s post is part of our monthly Pinterest Challenge, organized by Cindy of County Road 407. Each month Cindy chooses a pretty photo and a talented group of bloggers design around it. If you’re visiting from A Stroll Thru Life, wasn’t Marty’s Fall vignette pretty? I’ll have the links to the rest of the inspiration at the end.

Pinterest Challenge Inspo Pic

This months inspiration pic was featured in the gorgeous pages of The Cottage Journal magazine. It is from Gloria Parker’s lovely 1830 home. You can see more of her home HERE.

Design Cues from this pic:

• Pretty pottery vase
• Fall color scheme
• Fall foliage-leaves, berries, pumpkins
• Old books
• Family photos
• Patterned china
• Metal picture frames

Now to see how I took these design cues and created a cozy corner in my home! I can’t wait to see what everyone designed with this one!

5 Ways to Creatively (& beautifully) Display Your Vintage Pottery

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A Furniture Makeover for Vignette Backdrop

Deciding where in your home to create these Pinterest Challenge vignettes is always the first task. The pottery in the pic inspired me to create a display with my ever-growing vintage pottery planter collection. The fall-colored ones are always my favorites. To display the sizeable collection, I gave an old wooden shelf a total makeover.

First I stripped the pink paint off with stripper, thinking I wanted it wood. But when I saw the orange-toned wood underneath, I decided to paint it black and just have the wood grain showing through and around the edges. I used my favorite paint for old pieces- Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. I brushed on 2 coats of the water based paint, Typewriter, which is a lovely, classic color. I hand sanded it and distressed the edges and sealed it all by rubbing it with their oil. There’s a lot of surfaces to this little shelf, so this took awhile! But I love how it turned out.

Miss Mustard Seed Products can be found HERE. Use my discount code, 10OFFLB when you order.

Color Block Your Vintage Pottery Collection

I gathered my vintage pottery planter collection in Fall colors- mossy greens, oranges, golds and browns. For a striking display, group similar colors together near each other. I love the subtle textures and colorations of each of these vessels.

Stack, Lean and Layer

Rather than displaying all your pottery right side up, vary the positions. Turn some upside down and stack others on top, angle them to the left and right. For some, have their labels showing on the bottom; I always like to see the Haeger insignia on these.

Add Old Books to Your Display

Old books add a nice different texture to a pottery or ceramics display. And they will help you get everything at pleasing levels, too. Stand some, open others, use them between planter levels and slide them underneath. For more creative ways of using old books in your decor, see HERE. You can never have enough old books for decorating! Find out what types of books I like to collect for decorating HERE.

Add Pattern to Your Vignette

These planter pots are all basically a solid color. To add a bit of pattern to the display, I took cues from the inspiration pic and placed a couple patterned china plates in the background. The lighter colored plates in the background help the Fall colored pottery to show up better in the dark hallway where this vignette is located.

Another way to incorporate pattern is to add an accessory that features a picture-a plate, a framed print or an old tin like I have here. The colors on this old tin perfectly echo the colors of the pottery.

Add Metallic Textures

In the inspo photo there are scrolly metallic picture frames with family photos. I decided this upstairs hallway spot would be a great place to feature my big kiddos’ senior pictures, which each had a touch a Fall foliage in the background. Happy Girl’s pic was also already in a scrolly gold frame which reminded me of the inspo pic.

At a recent estate sale there was a whole table of vintage copper and brass items. I realized these cute scrolly metal watering pitchers would pair well with the vintage pottery. Don’t you love how they add beautiful patina and scrolly shape to the display?

Layer on Plenty of Fall Foliage

In “Creative Ways to Display Your Collections with Style”, you can see how I displayed my pottery collection without any foliage. For this vignette, I wanted it to reflect the beautiful, somewhat chaotic Fall foliage outside the window. I snipped hydrangeas from the yard, pulled berry sprays and dried corn stalks out of my storage bins, and tucked my favorite DIY fabric pumpkins here and there. (see Fabric Pumpkin How To for a visual tutorial) I arranged a pretty bouquet in my newest pottery vessel; it reminded me of the one in the inspo photo, and it’s what inspired this whole vignette!

(for more foliage ideas, see “35+ Decorative Vase Filler Ideas for Beautiful (& easy) Fall Decor”)

Let There Be Light!

I like to incorporate light in every vignette around my home, especially in the dark seasons. But sadly, this end of a long hallway spot has never had an outlet. I’m so excited about the new, shatter-proof, rechargeable, battery powered lightbulbs they’re making now. I snipped the electric cords on these vintage pin up lights and popped in two of the new Magic bulbs. They have 3 lighting options and can be controlled by a remote control (you recharge them in a regular light socket) Find the lightbulbs HERE. It’s so wonderful to have light at the end of this long hallway!

Do you have a collection of pottery that’s hiding somewhere in storage? I hope this post inspired you to get it out and create a creative display with it as pretty decor! Maybe you’ll even pick up a few “new” pieces while you’re out thrifting to add to your collection;)

Shop vintage pottery planters HERE.

For more Pinterest Challenge fun, visit Niky at The House on Silverado next; you’re going to love her vintage Halloween vignette ideas! All the rest of the inspiration is down below.

Thanks for reading 5 Ways to Creatively (& beautifully) Display Your Vintage Pottery Collection. If you enjoyed your visit, be sure to Become an Insider, so I can send the ideas right to you! Sign up HERE.

Pin, save, & enjoy the rest of the inspiration below

Sharing at these lovely parties:

Farmhouse Friday

Home Imagined

Tuesday Turn About

Vintage Charm