I was recently reminded, once again, of the necessity for freedom when it comes to the decoration of one’s space.

I was working with a dear client to edit and organize his office when I unearthed a business marquee. Not insignificant in size, the sign had hung outside my client’s and his father’s company for over thirty years.

Inexplicably, he wanted it. Without any rational justification for holding on to it, he nonetheless couldn’t bear the thought of parting with it.

So I went for my go-to move in situations such as this one–I found a way to display that giant ass sign in his office.

If an item serves no practical purpose (i.e. you don’t need it), it had better fulfill an active emotional purpose (i.e. you want it). And a sure-fire way to uncover how earnestly you want something is, as I’ve said before, to put it into a display role. If you say you want something, but you don’t want to look at it, well, then I start asking more questions.

My client just needed to grant himself the freedom to embrace that now defunct sign as a display piece in his office, and once he saw it could be so, he was delighted.

Now I shall attempt to further inspire you to elevate non-traditional art into display-worthy items using the assemblage of images below.

Image credit: Design by L3G Designs, Photography by Paul Raeside via Vogue Living

In a breakfast room, early 20th-century plaster hat moulds and enameled dessert moulds serve as decor.

Image credit: via Absolutely Beautiful Things

Like anything else, art and decor comes down to confidence, if you ask me. If you say it is so, it is so. If you say an item you may not need but want is worthy of seeing the light of day, as opposed to being shut up in a bin for the next twenty years, it is worthy of seeing that light. If you say an item is sentimental enough to warrant keeping because actively being surrounded by it brings you delight, hang that blank on the mother blanking wall.