a summer table scene with lemons in an antique bowl, cutting board, yellow and white checked tablecloth, and lemon napkins

How I decorate for Summer Without Spending a Dime

Summer decorating doesn’t have to cost a thing. In fact, some of my favorite seasonal touches come from using what I already have. Here’s how I refresh my home each summer without spending a single dime.

1. Seashells and Natural Finds

A collection of shells from past beach trips is all it takes to bring that breezy coastal feeling indoors. I display mine in antique bowls, baskets, and even old jars.

an antique blue willow bowl filled with collected seashells, the lid to an antique cracker jack tin, a small american flag

2. Shop Your House by Color

Red, white, and blue is a classic combo that’s easy to work with if you start gathering. I pulled books, quilts, vases, and other small accents in these shades and grouped them together for an instant Americana feel.

3. Use Family Photos as Decor

I pulled out a few favorite summer photos of my kids from when they were little, especially ones where they’re wearing patriotic outfits or playing outside. Tucking these into frames I already own brings personality and memories into the room.

4. Reuse What You Already Own

I’ve saved flags, fans, and table linens over the years, and I bring them out every summer. They might not be perfect, but that patina is part of the charm. Don’t be afraid to use what you love!

5. Clip from the Yard

You don’t need a florist to make a summer statement. I clip fresh greenery or blooms from the yard and pop them into vintage jars or pitchers. It instantly freshens up any room…for free!

6. Use Fresh Seasonal Fruit as Functional Decor

Summer fruit isn’t just for eating; it can double as a beautiful, budget-friendly centerpiece. I like to display peaches, lemons, or limes in a vintage bowl or colander on the kitchen counter or dining table. It’s a simple way to add color, texture, and that fresh summer feeling, while using what you’re already buying. Bonus: it’s practical and gets eaten before it spoils.

7. Rearrange for a Fresh Look

One of the easiest no-cost ways to freshen up is to simply moves things around. Switch throw pillows from one room to another, restyle your shelves, or flip patterned pillows to the plain side for a lighter, airier look.

Decorating for summer doesn’t require a shopping trip, just a little creativity! Whether it’s pulling out old family photos, styling shells from a beach trip, or clipping hydrangeas from the yard, the most meaningful decor often comes from the things we already own.

Which idea will you try first? Leave a comment and let me know how you’re decorating for summer on a budget!

Abby Smolarsky2 Comments

Essential Elements for a Beautiful Entryway

It’s the beginning of a new month, which means it’s time to release another designed space. This month’s design plan features an entryway 3 ways: casual, formal, and transitional.

This article contains affiliate links and ads. You can find the products I recommend by clicking on the links throughout and at the bottom of this page. These are designs that you can pick and choose which elements to bring into your own spaces. They’ll be saved here on my website, or you can save them on Pinterest. You can come back and add pieces to your spaces as time and budgets allow.

This month I am sharing what I consider to be the perfect recipe for a successful entryway design. The best entryways have the following essential elements in common:

  • a functional piece of furniture
  • a lamp
  • artwork
  • a mirror
  • storage/catchall
  • something alive/fresh
  • a rug
  • a clock
  • and a place to set a wet umbrella.

Not only do these items create a beautiful space, but they are functional as well. For example, the mirror allows residents and guests to check their appearance before coming and going, as well as reflecting light into the space. A lamp allows residents to find their way inside on a dark night, as well as helping guests find the door on their way out.

Below you can see a colorful and vibrant entryway design. Since the entryway is the first impression of your home, it’s an opportunity to create a space that reflects your personal style. This design leans more towards casual and bohemian. It is full of visual interest and layers of texture. Combining two separate pieces, like the green and white plate and the pink framed artwork, you can create a one-of-kind, original piece of art in your home that no one else will have. Try using Command brand hooks to mount the plate on top of the pink art before hanging it on the wall.

Click the photo to shop for these exact items.

Traditional decor thrives on symmetry. The design below uses symmetry to create balance by flanking the mirror with matching lamps and plates from the same series. While the first design is considered modern and casual, I would consider the design below to be formal.

Click the photo to shop for these exact items.

Entry Table

Below you will find the final entryway design for this month. Notice how similar metal tones and a soft ivory color are carried throughout. Natural materials like wicker, marble, and wood counterbalance the glamorous gold and brass to create a sophisticated but approachable space. This design is a midway point between casual and formal.

Click the photo to shop for these exact items.

In many cases, the front door to the home opens directly into the living space without a designated foyer or entryway. In these situations it’s possible to create an entryway by grouping specific items on a wall next to the front door. Are you missing any of these essential items in your entryway? Do you have any items in your entryway that you would add to this list? Let me know in the comments below.

Never miss a design release in the future by subscribing using the box at the bottom of this article.

You can find many of these items in my LTK Storefront HERE.

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Transforming Our Breakfast Room: A Makeover Journey

Today I am sharing some before and after pictures of the breakfast room in our 1939 home. This is the casual dining space in our home that we use for our everyday meals, playing board games, and doing puzzles.

Our breakfast room is off of the kitchen, and has also has a door to the center hallway on the main floor. One of the things we love about living in a house that is not open concept, is that we can dedicate rooms to the functions we need and completely close the room by shutting the doors to it.

Before, the previous homeowners used this space as a family room.
After, we restored the space to its original purpose, a breakfast room.

The previous owners were using this room as a family room. They were using a sectional sofa that took up the entire room. The walls were painted a sherbet orange color with a lighter orange color on the ceiling. The only light in the room was a pendant fixture that was so dark we couldn’t tell if it was on unless we opened the yellow glass shade.

Before, a large sectional filled the entire room.
After, the space is restored to its original purpose, a breakfast room.

We transformed this space by painting the walls Benjamin Moore “Pale Oak” and the ceiling “White Dove.” Our general contractor gave us a handmade stained glass shade that his father had made. The shade is far from perfect and a little uneven on the edges, but we loved it for this space. I found a pendant online that could accommodate the shade.

The orange paint colors on the walls and ceiling were not appropriate for the room. The windows have south and west sun exposure, which means direct light comes into the room for most of the day. As a result everything in the room took on an orange glow. Combined with a light fixture that wasn’t functional, this was a space that no one in our family wanted to be in.

After I corrected the color on the walls and installed a functioning light fixture, the breakfast room was completely transformed. The total cost was around $250 for the paint and a pendant fixture. The breakfast room isn’t completely done. We’re on the hunt for a very specific table and chairs. I’m also deciding what to put on one of the walls. But I wanted to share how simply changing the paint and lighting can completely change a room.

I’d love to see how you transform your own spaces with paint. Be sure to tag me on Instagram or comment below to share your photos!

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Vintage Book Shopping: Themes, Genres, and Gifts

This article contains commissionable links and ads.

The first antique I ever bought was a book. As a young teenager my family stopped into an old bookshop that used to be in historic Stone Mountain Village in Georgia. The shelves were absolutely crammed with books, and although I was an avid book lover from a very young age, I was a little overwhelmed with where to start browsing. I noticed there was a shelf marked “antique,” and for some reason, that’s where I started. I decided to look for the oldest book that I could afford. I walked out of the bookshop that day with my very first antique, a book called, “Reveries of a Bachelor.”

People often overlook buying vintage and antique books on their thrifting and antiquing adventures. Today I am sharing six things to consider when shopping for antique books: theme, genre, use, author, personalized gifts, and color/pattern.

Theme

Books can be a wonderful conversation starter, and grouped together they can become decorative accessories of interest. For example, one of our guest bedrooms has evolved into a red, white, and blue theme. On a nightstand in that room I stacked a group of books that evoke the feeling of “American government.” I currently have books in this stack with subjects like government, democracy, and America. If I want to grow this themed collection, while I am antiquing, I will look for both fiction and non-fiction books that fit with this theme. An example would be a book about American presidents, or maybe a murder mystery book with Washington, D.C. in the title.

Other themes that would be easy to search for are things like art, wild west (cowboys, western expansion), the region you live in (Southern U.S., the beach), cooking/food, gardening, or travel. Just remember not to limit yourself to either fiction or non-fiction; they can be mixed! (Check out these old gardening books HERE!)

Genre

I have wonderful memories of consuming books as a child. The characters from these books are often remembered fondly. I’ve put together a group of sentimental titles that would fit into a genre that an adolescent girl would enjoy. Books like The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, and Pollyanna all make sense when grouped together in a display, because they’re all from the same genre. I’ve grouped my set on a shelf in our bedroom.

Other genres that would be fun to collect are early textbooks, British classics, poetry, music books, and hymnals. (Check out these antique poetry books HERE!)

Use

One of the best reasons to collect old books is because you’re actually going to use them. Years ago churches started throwing away all of the hymnals that used to be in stored the back of the pews. They moved to showing lyrics on screens instead of reading them from hymnals. However, many people prefer to use a hymnal to sing or play hymns on a piano. When I see a stack of old books for sale, I go through them to see if there are any old gardening books. I like to use them as references for plant problems or inspiration for things that I’d like to add to my garden.

Other books to look for if you want to actually use them are books on woodworking, cookbooks, or other types of how-to books. (Check out these old song hymnals HERE!)

Author

When people collect old books, they often choose them because of the author. One of the authors whose books I collect are those written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. My family name is Lytton, and some relatives speculate that we are distantly related to the Lord Lytton. Another, more modern, author whose books I specifically search for is Martha Stewart. I find Martha Stewart’s books to be helpful resources for many topics that I’m interested in. Martha published her first book 43 years ago in 1982, so many of her books definitely fall into the vintage category.

Other authors that interest people are Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dickens, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, just to name a few. (Check out these vintage Martha Stewart books HERE!)

Personalized Gift

Another reason to consider buying vintage and antique books is for personalized gifts. Around the holidays I like to give a little something extra to people like our hair dressers and our dentist. If I was giving them a gift card or a tin of cookies, it would be fun to package their main gift with an antique dentistry book or a book on old hair styles. If you have someone in your life that is interested in wild life or travel, finding an antique book to give them on their topic of interest shows that you took a little extra effort in the thought that went into it. Be sure to look for these types of gifts all year long and set them aside for when you need them. (Check out these vintage hairstyles books HERE!)

Color and Pattern

Finally, another thing to consider when shopping for vintage and antique books is the cover. People have started using old books as decorative objects in their home. They can make an impact as decor when grouped by color. One side of my husband’s ancestry is largely found in Scotland. I have recently started collecting Scottish themed books for our bookshelf that have beautiful tartan patterned covers. These tartan decorated books are also beautiful in Christmas displays.

The next time you are thrifting and antiquing, don’t forget to look for books. Decide on a theme, a color, or even someone to buy a gift for. Recycling old objects in these ways puts them to use and keeps them out of a landfill. Happy Hunting! (Check out these vintage books with tartan covers HERE!)

Abby Smolarsky2 Comments
Styled garland showing how to dry whole oranges and use them in natural Christmas decor.

How to Dry Whole Oranges for Christmas Decor

When I think of Christmas, I am reminded of fragrant oranges, spicy cloves, and warm cinnamon. For many years I have dried and preserved orange slices to use as Christmas decor. (See this article from 2020.) This year I decided that I would learn how to dry whole oranges, instead of just slices. Today I am sharing the simple steps to drying whole oranges.

The steps for drying whole oranges are very simple, but they are somewhat time-consuming. Today I am sharing the basic things you need to know about how to dry whole oranges. I chose to only dry half a bag of oranges. I wish I had done the entire bag! While it is a little lengthy to dry whole oranges, they turned out really well. I found other spots in the house that I would’ve placed more whole, dry oranges. Next year I’ll put the entire bag into the drying process.

Step One

Turn your oven on to the lowest temperature. My oven’s lowest temperature is 170*. My oven has convection bake and regular bake. I found that convection bake was more effective than the regular bake.

Step Two

Using a small paring knife, you will begin to cut into the orange rind from pole to pole. Don’t quite go all the way to the end/pole. Leave 1/4 of rind on each end of your cut. You’ll want to make sure your cut goes all the way into the pith/rind through to the orange flesh. However, once you start drying them, if you notice that you didn’t get all the way through to the orange flesh, you can take it back out of the oven and cut deeper before putting it back in.

You can see how I didn’t cut deep enough on this orange. You can cut deeper and put it back into the oven to finish drying.

Note: I experimented on one of my oranges to see if I could cut a design other than basic stripes. This doesn’t work as well. Using the method I described above, the oranges will develop gaps and vents, exposing the inner part of the fruit to be dried out. You can experiment as well, but in my experience, basic slits are best.

You can’t see them, but the slits into the orange are there.

Step Three

Once your oranges are cut, you need to decide how you want them to be placed into the oven. My oven is new, so I decided to line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place them on top. Some people place them directly onto the racks. Other people place them onto metal cooling racks that have been put into a cookie sheet. A friend told me it would not affect drying time. You decide what’s best for you!

I used tongs to turn the oranges every couple of hours. If you notice a cut didn’t go all the way through, take it out to cut deeper before putting it back in again.

Step Four

Next you will leave the oranges in the oven to dry out until the rind is hardened and you believe that the fruit inside is dried out. I had been warned that this would take a long time, and it certainly did. On the first day, I dried them in the oven from 7 am to 7 pm. I didn’t want to leave the oven on overnight, so I took them out. The next day I dried them for another four hours. The third day, I dried them for the entire day again. All in all, I think this was about 24 hours of drying time. Which is why I wished I had dried the entire bag at once.

After Your Oranges are Dried

You can use your dried oranges in garlands, wreaths, or hanging on your Christmas tree. I have tucked dried oranges into my fireplace garland, along with pomegranates, feathers, holly berries, and pine cones. I added ribbon that resembled the colors of dried oranges and pomegranates.

When I dry orange slices, I will save them in an airtight bag to use for multiple years. Before I use dried slices again the next year, I inspect them to make sure there is no mold or anything undesirable on them. Since it is not possible to see inside and inspect whole oranges, I won’t be saving the dried whole oranges to use again next year.

Using natural elements in Christmas decor creates a rich and vibrant ambiance. Since a bag of oranges is relatively inexpensive, you really only need some time to create Christmas decor using whole dried oranges. Have you dried oranges before? Slices, or whole oranges? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below. Or, post a photo on Instagram and tag me so that I can see your dried oranges.

Merry Christmas!

Abby Smolarsky1 Comment

Creating a Cozy Holiday Experience for Guests

It’s less than twenty days until Christmas, and touches of holiday spirit can be felt in nearly every room in our home. One of the things we love most about the holidays is welcoming our friends, family, and neighbors into our home to celebrate the season with us. It’s important to us that our guests experience the contagious holiday excitement, while also feeling at ease. We truly want them to make themselves at home when they come through the door.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Kierra Todd with Redfin.com. Kierra asked me how we ensure a comfortable experience for our guests during the holidays. One way I do this is by mixing natural elements with conversation pieces. Today I am sharing our dining room decorated for a Christmas gathering. The vintage and antique Christmas decor we’ve collected over the years has started many conversations while gathered around the table with guests. And by collecting and foraging from our yard for decor, we ground the space and bring commonality.

Interior designer Abby Smolarsky at Belle Antiquarian, highlighted, “By mixing natural elements and conversation pieces, guests will feel the excitement of the season. In the dining room, guests will see magnolia and holly from our yard, as well as a tree sparkling with collected antique ornaments. It’s the perfect mixture for putting people at ease.”

Redfin.com

In the South we are blessed to have quite a few plants to forage at Christmastime. Our property boasts several magnolia species, abundant holly trees, and evergreen. I gather clippings and wire them together to adorn tables, buffets, and fireplace mantels throughout the house. Tucked here and there you will see some of my favorite pheasant feathers. My wonderful neighbor, Claire, gave me a bag of long-leaf pine cones that she had collected, which were the perfect finishing touch. Each region will have vegetation that can be brought inside for decor. If you don’t have anything in your yard, try asking a friend or neighbor if you can come clip a few things to add to your decor. Be sure to bring a basket, sharp clippers, and gloves to protect your hands from pointy leaves like holly.

Vintage and antique Christmas decor are among my favorite things to look for while treasure hunting. Throughout my years of selling antiques, I have collected some unusual and special ornaments. It’s fun to gaze and watch them sparkle on our dining room tree while gathered for a special meal. Part of the reason these ornaments are so special is because they were collected slowly over time and in various places. They each hold a story or memory, and they have kept the conversation flowing at the Christmas table on more than one occasion. It’s okay to start small with one or two baubles and add to them as the years go by. They’ll become part of your story as well.

The dining room feels festive, but also approachable. It’s doable. Anyone can gather foliage from their yard and bring it inside. Everyone can pick up a vintage ornament here and there. It’s how we share our space with the people we care about, sharing a little bit of our lives with theirs.

I’m honored to be featured on Redfin for this special holiday article. You can find the whole article and many more tips HERE.

No matter if you live in an apartment in Miami, FL, a rental home in Tuscaloosa, AL, or a
house in Bakersfield, CA, this guide will walk you through essential steps to declutter and clean your home, add festive touches, prepare for guests, and set the stage for holiday entertainment, ensuring your home is ready to impress and delight all season long.
Prepare Your Home for the Holidays: 7 Tips for a Festive Season | Redfin

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American Living Room Design Plan: Warmth and Style

It’s the beginning of a new month, which means it’s time to release another designed space. A few weeks ago I took a poll on Instagram, and the majority of followers voted for this month’s design to feature a living room.

This article contains affiliate links and ads. You can find the products I recommend by clicking on the links throughout and at the bottom of this page. These are designs that you can pick and choose which elements to bring into your own spaces. They’ll be saved here on my website, or you can save them on Pinterest. You can come back and add pieces to your spaces as time and budgets allow.

In most American homes, the living room is the space in the house where a family will gather to sit and relax together. Living rooms provide the perfect opportunity to show your style and to incorporate pieces that reflect your personal flair. In this living room design plan, I’ve purposely used multiple sources for the items featured. I want to discourage you from walking into a furniture showroom and buying a completely matching living room set. In order to create a collected aesthetic that is a unique reflection of your style, you’ll need to pull together pieces from different sources.

Click the photo to shop this design.

Design preferences are FINALLY moving away from sterile, all-white or gray interiors. The design I’m featuring today is warm and evokes a feeling of “home” with saturated and inviting colors. The wall color for this living room design is Shaker Beige, HC-45, from the Benjamin Moore historic color collection. On the floor you will find a timeless selection of traditional hickory hardwoods. Using Shaker Beige and hickory hardwoods as the base for our design, we begin to layer in warmth and richness, starting with a woven Persian rug.

The sofa in this month’s design is fully customizable. After choosing the basic shape of the sofa, I selected the number of cushions, fabric, cushion filling, and feet. The feet selected are walnut stained feet with brass castors. The fabric shown is “Atlantic Performance Blakely.”

At this point in the design, we have the base in which to start adding complementary furniture, art, and accessories. I added some leather armchairs and walnut end tables that echo back to the lines of the traditional sofa. The elegant coffee table pairs well with the metal accents on the sofa feet.

The table lamps in this living room design are ones where a visitor might wonder if they’re new or if they were found on an antiquing adventure.

I selected window treatments and an art piece for this space that pull from the colors found in the rug, sofa, and wall color. If you’re only able to change one thing in your living room, try finding a new art piece that will unify the other colors used in your space.

The final layer in this living room design plan is for accessories. Accessories are such a fun way to inject personality into your space. Here I have used conversation pieces that add texture and interest.

You can find the sources for each of the items that I recommend below. Never miss a design release in the future by subscribing using the box at the bottom of this article.

You can find many of these items in my LTK Storefront HERE.

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Thanksgiving in Our New Historic Home

Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, and this will be our first year celebrating in our “new” historic home. I want to give a house update and share our Thanksgiving table with you.

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We’ve been working hard to settle in and make our house feel like home. All of the moving boxes have been unpacked. Many of them had been in storage for four years, and thankfully we’ve only had two items broken. Our kitchen renovation is finished, and we’ve restored the flooring in several rooms. We’ve restored many of the original iron railings, and the rest will have to wait for warmer weather this spring. Outside, we’ve planted hundreds of perennials, including boxwoods, hydrangeas, and peonies, to name a few. If all goes well, there will be blooms throughout the yard from spring through summer next year.

Click the photo to shop these items.

We’re also researching the proper way to reglaze our original, working, sixteen pane windows. We’ll start the slow process of reglazing them when weather turns warmer. This is considered a maintenance task, and if we do it correctly, it won’t need to be done again for decades.

Click the photo to shop these items.

As we’re nearly the holiday season, we’re also preparing to host out-of-town guests. Several guest spaces have been completed to make them comfortable during their stay. Unfortunately, a custom sofa that we ordered in September still hasn’t arrived, which is creating stress as Thanksgiving draws near.

Click the photo to shop these items.

In spite of the lack of living room seating, there is a place for everyone at the dining room table. We’ll treasure the times spent with our friends and loved ones this season. We will be gathered around the table to enjoy delicious food and each others company. I’ve included a few photos of our Thanksgiving table this year. You will notice that there is a Christmas tree up in the dining room. There are a few reasons for this, which I can talk about in a future article, but let’s just say the turkey still tastes the same with the tree up!

To find the sources for everything I used to set our Thanksgiving table, you can visit this post in my LTK shop.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Abby Smolarsky2 Comments

Discover Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year 2025

It’s the beginning of a new month, which means it’s time to release another designed space. This month features a new bedroom design, which has been inspired by the Benjamin Moore color of the year and color trends palette for 2025.

This article contains affiliate links and ads. You can find the products I recommend by clicking on the links throughout and at the bottom of this page. These are designs that you can pick and choose which elements to bring into your own spaces. They’ll be saved here on my website, or you can save them on Pinterest. You can come back and add pieces to your spaces as time and budgets allow.

Benjamin Moore recently released their color of the year and a color trends palette for 2025. (Read more on the Benjamin Moore site HERE.) I designed a space using 4 of these colors, and I want to show you how simply changing the wall color can drastically change the whole room. The Benjamin Moore color of the year for 2025 is Cinnamon Slate 2113-40. In addition to Cinnamon Slate, I incorporated some of Benjamin Moore’s color trends for 2025: Sea Salt CSP-95, Paris Rain 1501, and Tissue Pink 1163.

In the first design plan I’m featuring Cinnamon Slate as the wall color. Cinnamon Slate is a deeply saturated and sophisticated hue that can be treated as a neutral when taken care not to overwhelm the space with competing colors. Because Cinnamon Slate is the star of this design, we can carefully add selections that keep the space calm and serene. I found a piece of wall art that unites all four of the paint colors that I’m featuring today. This artwork is integral to creating a cohesive design. The furniture and other decor pieces are either very neutral and without pattern, or they only have a pattern that includes colors from the color palette that I’m featuring. With Cinnamon Slate as a backdrop, the other design selections are noticeable individually as they pop away from the darker color.

Wall color Cinnamon Slate. Click the photo to shop this design.

In the next design I have kept all of the exact selections from the design above, but I have simply switched out the wall color from Cinnamon Slate to Paris Rain. I absolutely love Paris Rain. It has been one of my go-to color selections for years. I urge you to get a color swatch in person, because you will love it, too. The silk draperies, which are barely a whisper of pink, like Tissue Pink in our color scheme, become a direct complementary color to Paris Rain, as they are opposites on a color wheel. In this design, Cinnamon Slate transitions to an accessory color in the bowl, lamp, and artwork.

Wall color Paris Rain. Click the photo to shop this design.

Again we are going to keep the exact same design, but this time we can see how it would look if the walls are painted Tissue Pink. I think Tissue Pink is a very palatable pink. It’s an excellent option if you want to warm a space up, while still keeping it neutral. Notice how the selections change with Tissue Pink as the background. The lamp, draperies, and rug are all unique accessories, but with a similarly toned wall color like Tissue Pink, we can start to feel more on the monochromatic end of the spectrum.

Wall color Tissue Pink. Click the photo to shop this design.

Lastly, let’s look to see how the design changes when we change the wall color to Sea Salt. Sea Salt is the lightest hue in the palette that I’m featuring today. In this design, the artwork, accessories, and rug become the stars of the show. This is a good example of showing that often choosing a lighter paint color changes the focus of the room onto the things that are in it. If you have artwork and collections that you want to spotlight, a lighter paint color may be the best option for you.

Wall color Sea Salt. Click the photo to shop this design.

Each of the design selections for this room can be found linked below. Now that you have seen the same room in four different colors, I want you to slowly scroll back up. In each room, focus only on the artwork above the bed. Notice how the artwork works perfectly in each room, and yet as the paint color changes the artwork looks somehow different in each one. Ah, the power of paint! As I said at the beginning, the artwork is integral to this design.

Paint is one of the easiest ways to change a room, and it’s important to select the right color for your space. As you can see, it can completely change the entire design.

You can find the sources for each of the items that I recommend below. Never miss a design release in the future by subscribing using the box at the bottom of this article.

You can find many of these items in my LTK Storefront HERE.

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Top Sources for Original Artwork in Collected Design

This post contains commissionable links and ads.

If someone were to ask me what my interior design style is, I would say “collected.” Collected interior spaces are ones that can rarely be rushed or quickly pulled together, so they range from feeling as though they are not finished to sometimes being a little overly done. People who resonate with collected interior design are ones who wish to have their personality reflected in their spaces by featuring a mixture of old and new pieces, original artwork, items collected from travels, and multiple design styles.

Of all of these characteristics of collected interior design, the one that resonates the most with me is original artwork. Do you remember that fear of showing up to a homecoming dance and seeing another girl wearing the same exact dress as you? That’s how I feel about potentially walking into someone’s home and seeing the same exact mass produced artwork hanging on the wall.

In our family, artistic ability was highly treasured and encouraged. In my large, extended family I have multiple family members with an incredible gift for all types of artwork, ranging from jewelry design to painting to large scale commercial art installations. It’s for these reasons that I have found myself drawn to purchasing original artwork over the years to decorate my homes with.

Until now, I have closely guarded my source for much of this artwork. Today, for the first time ever, I am sharing where I have purchased original artwork for many years and a list of tips so that you can also find amazing pieces for your home or business. This began as a source that I used when I was a seller in the antiques industry. Initially, I kept this source close to the chest because sourcing artwork to resell can be difficult. Then, I kept quiet about it because I didn’t think people would take it seriously.

So are you ready for it? My source for a great deal of the original artwork in my home is GoodwillFinds.com. I know, I KNOW. Not what you were expecting, right? Let me tell you why this website has been such a success for me. You can discover hundreds of hard-to-find pieces and hidden gems. I have purchased a massive painting for $30, which turned out to be worth over $3,000. I purchased my treasured dog painting that you’ve seen in many pictures for only $100. And the best part? No one in the world has a painting exactly like mine.

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Here are just a few tips for successfully buying artwork on GoodwillFinds.com:

  • I’m listing this tip first because it’s often overlooked. Make sure you read the description carefully, especially the dimensions. You don’t want to be surprised when it’s delivered by receiving something much smaller or much larger than you expected.
  • Read to see if there is anything regarding delivery you need to know.
  • Before you start searching the website, create an account!
  • Use the search features wisely! At the top of the website is a search box, and you can also click on the top left to view by categories. Artwork can be found under the home category.
  • It can take a bit of digging to find something that you want to own and be proud of. Since artwork is unique and items are constantly being added, check back often to see what’s new on the website.

I hope you found this information helpful, and I wish you much success in your hunting! I have a few promo codes that will work for first time shoppers below. I was very hesitant to share this source, and my husband was actually surprised when I told him that I was going to. It would bring me great joy if you would share your finds with me in the comments or tag me on social media. (Facebook, Instagram) Happy hunting!

Promo codes:

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