IDEAS for DISPLAYING
VINTAGE TOYS
in
MODERN WAYS

If you have a large collection of vintage toys don't pack your antiques and fleamarket treasures away in boxes! Use them as a decorating centerpiece and an inspiration for your themed rooms! Make your collection of soft, antique stuffed toys the foundation or background of your decorating project. Collecting antique toys has been popular for years! Modern toys may be cool, slick and shiny, but they don't have half the personality of a dented tin toy or well-loved ragdoll that has history!
Think of all the decorating ideas that you can take from that vintage baby carriage or antique baby bed and cradle set that you've had tucked away in the attic. What a easy and cheap way to create an affordable vintage nursery! What an opportunity to display your great-great-grandmother's porcelain baby dolls in such a way that it looks like she just tucked them a moment ago. Is there a picture of your ancestor holding one of the dollys or perhaps an old sepia tone photograph of a similar carriage with baby being strolled along an avenue of long ago? What a lovely focal point for the nursery wall and a way to introduce your infant early on to history and your passion for collecting!

Vintage toys and other antique baby items can be used in so many baby nursery themes! Learn how to clean your antique toys so that they don't lose their value and so that they won't look used, dusty or sad. The proper method of cleaning antique toys is important, so consult a professional. Speaking of cost and value, do you know how much your antique or vintage toys are worth? If not, please consider getting antique toys appraisals done by a person qualified to do appraisals on antiques!

Here are some ideas on how to use your vintage toys in your themed baby rooms:

• In a Southwestern room you could display your antique Mexican toys along with some colorful woven blankets used as wallhangings or adapted for use as a valance for your nursery window treatments
• Consider placing some quaint cast iron stoves and other cooking toys in a special kitchen corner of a Victorian room
• Antique circus posters and toy circus wagons will decorate a circus theme bedroom with a vintage toys display! Circus Theme
• Antique John Deer tractor toys for your Vintage John Deere Nursery Theme
• A wall gallery of Old Western Cowboy Pictures, antique leather saddles or other Cowboy collectibles for a Cowboy or Cowgirl Nursery Theme
• Peter Pan Collectibles for a Tinkerbell or Fairy Theme Room
• Beatrix Potter or Peter Cottontail Books and Figurines
• Any of the Disney Princess Collectibles or Mickey and Minnie Mouse if you need vintage toys for a unisex nursery
• Patriotic Theme
• Antique Construction toys for a boy's Construction Themed room
• Antique Metal Jeep Toys for a Camo or Military Room Display

VICTORIAN
Hang a few articles of vintage baby clothing on some decorative wire hangers. Decorate your old hangers with large bows made from aged satin ribbons, properly faded of course. Display the clothes on ornate iron or wooden wall pegs. Frame some family photographs in heavy silver picture frames on heirloom tables. Decorate your baby's crib with a set of toile baby bedding and you're all set. Study some magazines that have pictures of the Victorian style of decorating for nursery painting ideas to compliment your room.

The best paint colors for this bedroom might be found in the historic paint section. These paints will give you great choices for interior paint for a Victorian room. They will also allow you to creat balanced historic paint schemes. These colors will more than likely be perfect matches for the paints on your vintage pieces and other precious collectibles. Your historic paints should be chosen to give the same warm and inviting feel that you get from your antiques.

CIRCUS NURSERY
Vintage toys featuring any of the circus animals or even some old advertising signs or banners would be super!

PATRIOTIC
Toy soldiers, drums and antique flags would be great for an Old Glory style room. What a fabulous way to introduce baby to his country's history!

DISNEY
Disney movie posters, collectible dolls or figurines can be used with many nursery accessories available in the stores today. Disney items will never look dated. If you want a more colorful theme, this is one of the best for a baby girl or boy.

There are just so many ways to use vintage toys in your decorating projects. There are certainly far too many to list on this page. Look through your magazines at pictures of tastefully decorated rooms that use antiques and other old stuff as accessories to get ideas and have fun!