Blue and white and pretty all over

Every few weeks I help the owner of a local furniture consignment store redesign the shop.

When you take in consignments, you can't entirely plan what you are going to wind up with. The trick is to arrange the furniture and accessories so the customers can appreciate the beauty of what's for sale... and not feel like they are looking at a random bunch of stuff.

The process is a lot like the one I use when I redesign a room in a home. A little rearranging, a little borrowing from here, a little editing there and presto: the room feels pulled together.

I posted this photo from a recent redesign at the store to illustrate a trick I like to use.

With help from the shop owner's daughter, my little helper Charlotte, we pulled all the blue and white china pieces from around the store to use in a dining area we created. You probably don't want to use two dining tables and two china cabinets at home, but you can see how the repetition of color makes the display so much more dramatic.

You can do the same at home by scouring the house for one color of objects and displaying them in a cabinet or on a table.

I double dog dare you not to love it.