True, they're not gold medals but chances are you have some old trophies from camp or grade school stashed away, collecting dust in your house or in your parent's attic or basement. We remember this idea from this spring's O at Home; this weekend we saw it executed in person, displayed in the bookshelves at Cottage Living's Idea House...
Inspiration Display Your Trophies
Spray old awards, mis-matched ceramic figurines, or clay vases, with primer then cover them with a topcoat Here, the choice is white but you could use any colour (In O at Home, trophies painted with Benjamin Moore's high gloss Big Country Blue positively vibrated). Setting them against a dark background makes the shapes sculptural; clustering them together gives them impact and drama. This is a great way to unify a collection of mismatched, inexpensive objects that might otherwise be tossed. The reward is a display with strong visual interest that will definitely command attention.
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love this idea! too bad i never won a trophy...
view Enamorada's profile
Nope. They're still ugly.
view nazrd's profile
Enamorada,
I did this with some clay figurines from Mexico that someone had given me and that weren't really my style. Spray painted white though? Totally changed my mind about them. But red, blue, green, a grouping of any colour really (or spray em to match a favorite bowl or vase and display them all together as a set) would work just as well.
Cheers!
Abby
view abby's profile
how equestrian this person was, tennis... horseback riding... diving and last but not least fencing... must be a Kennedy Summer home! :)
view E.M.H's profile
Good solution for hideously-colored vases which have nice shapes, too.
My trophies are for spelling, so I doubt they'd look as cool as these do. (Big owl and 19 ___ 81! spelled out. :D
view Valerie's profile
Spray paint!! and cover up the glitzy gold figurines, the patterned holographic columns, the faux walnut base? The horror!
What was our childhood if not cheap trinkets designed to keep our attention and vaunt our useless acheivements (seriously, I'm all for sportsmanship & athleticism - but will fencing EVER be a useful skill in the real world?)
view Modfan's profile
Yeah, those are VERY pretty that way. I can imagine a lot of people kind of hating this, since it really seems to be all about getting your name engraved onto the trophy, though, and having the event engraved on it.
My apartment, itself, is the only thing I have that could be mistaken for something of a trophy.
view Curtis's profile
this is such a great idea
view hanako66's profile
Can we have more information on the "idea house"? Can you actually go see it? Or is it in the magazine?
view kitties!'s profile
Oops, never mind. I just saw the other post!
view kitties!'s profile
Great idea. Not sure I would do it to any really great ones from the 20's or 30's!
view poptart's profile