Dazzle Your Decorating with Silver

Nothing beats the luxurious glamor of sparkling silver when it comes to adding style and sophistication to your home décor. Some girls love diamonds, some gold, but it's silver that makes me weak at the knees. Especially antique silver polished to show off its high luster and glowing patina. I use silver in all our rooms here at FrenchGardenHouse, in the kitchen, in the living room, the bathrooms, the office. Silver is always chic, and not just for entertaining! Dazzle Your Decorating with Silver this year.

Here are a few tips to Dazzle Your Decorating with Silver:

Start with pieces you love.

When we were first married, I was 19, Mr. FGH 20, my taste was for antique silver from a tony antique shop but my budget was more thrift store. Lucky for me, because here in California people are fairly casual and many didn't want to polish {!!} - I could find wonderful large ornate silver trays and serving bowls at bargain prices. Mr. FGH polished them up with great care, and we used them on our coffee table to hold a little vase with flowers, our remotes, and a few designer decorating books and magazines. In our tiny first apartment, I placed a tray in our miniscule bathroom to hold little guest towels, a dish with soap, and an apothecary jar with cotton balls. An old ice bucket held our collection of wooden spoons next to our small stove in the kitchen. I thought the silver made our first little home look so elegant!

A tray set for a Valentine's Breakfast in the living room.

For years we had this little display rack in our kitchen with a part of my collection of antique silver mix and match tea spoons.

Choose a Pattern or a Collection.

Once our budget became much more flexible, I fell in love with Victorian silver plated monogrammed silver. Over the years I bought a few more trays, covered dishes, a huge silver plated tipping water pitcher on a stand which I used during the holidays to serve Christmas Eve tea to a crowd, and lots of individual tea spoons, flatware and quirky Victorian serving spoons, forks and knives. I eventually shared some of the pieces with my daughters, and friends, but some of those first exciting Victorian pieces are still my very favorites! If you’d like to build a collection of silver pieces to show off in your home, start by choosing a pattern you love, or collect a wonderful assortment of mismatched pieces like I have. It will be exciting to add a new piece once in awhile! I'm not really fussy about what silver captures my heart, it can be sterling or silver plated, as long as it has beauty and is well designed. One of my favorite collections that I have loved and used is my collection of antique silver baby cups. I've used the cups filled with roses for a wedding shower in the garden at each table, I've used them to toast a new darling baby with champagne at a "sprinkle" too. There are so many ways to use your silver if you jumpstart your imagination! Another favorite is our collection of antique silver plated and sterling napkin rings. We have all the napkin rings our parents and grandparents used in a little antique display on the wall in the living room, but the others are used to add personality to our table when we entertain. These little beauties are great ice breakers!

Mix and Match with Abandon.

I inherited my Mom's and my Grandmama's silver flatware sets {they had the same pattern!} which I love to use. But I will be honest and say that my collection of mix/match silver-plated flatware is still my favorite. Because each one is different, and has a different design, they just speak to my heart! Another Mix and match collection I have {it's a small one} is of silver sugar tongs. Tea parties have always been an ongoing way to entertain here at home. We've had big tea parties for our women at church, tea parties for baby or wedding showers, tea parties on Sundays for our family, tea parties with our little people, and tea parties on Christmas Eve afternoon. All of them have been on the "fancy" side with linens, mix and match porcelain tea cups, and silver tea spoons, and little antique silver sugar tongs. They are great fun to use {the little people LOVE them!} and are another delightful ice breaker.

Invest in Exceptional Quality.

Once in awhile, you find a piece of silver that truly takes your breath away! During my career as an antique dealer, I've seen the most glorious sterling and silver plated pieces, loved them, bought and sold them to clients. Some silver pieces are just magical, and if you fall in love with something, save up! You will never regret the purchase. Nothing makes for a more magical formal table than a piece of truly exquisite silver. Love a large silver bowl? Fill is with rolls tucked under an antique linen napkin, or create a gorgeous floral arrangement for a celebratory dinner. Fill it with Easter eggs, moss spheres, even a fern, you will see, that gorgeous bowl will make you happy each time you use it!! These antique Victorian era hand vases in silver just sparkle! The lily of the valley flowers are what made me love them on sight. One or a pair of these will always make a room special, and they are of a size that will display just a few romantic roses just perfectly. Remember that silver isn't just for tables. One of the prettiest ways to have silver add elegance to your home is on your dressing table. I can't tell you how stunning a collection of antique sterling or silver-plated perfume bottles and vanity jars look! They add instant sparkle and shine! No dressing table? A little silver tray filled with these same pieces work wonders on your bathroom counter, too.

Be playful.

I've often said that the beauty of the time we live in now is that we can enjoy our grandmother's beautiful antiques, but we are not bound by her society's rules. Go ahead, play around with your silver. Yes, your teapots can serve at a formal occasion, but they can also hold flowers, or a smaller pot van be used to serve a delicious sauce to pour over a fruit dessert! Silver pieces love it when you use them in a fun way~ one year I made individual little apple pies for the holidays, tied them each up with ribbon and added an antique silver cake fork to the top. I put several in a little basket, and delivered them to our neighbors as a gift. The little pies didn't last long, but all of them still have the collection of silver cake forks! Whether you were lucky enough to inherit silver from your grandmama or you began your silver collection in a humble way like I did, Dazzle Your Decorating with Silver! Use it. Display it. LOVE it! If you’ve got your antique sterling and silver plate pieces stashed somewhere or on display behind glass, now’s the time to take it out. Figure out how you can use it as part of your everyday decor so that you can enjoy its beauty and history on the daily.

SHOP ANTIQUE SILVER

What is your favorite silver piece you use?

A BIENTOT

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