As a designer this is a word I use a lot. It’s one of my many “designer buzz words” like fufu and way to much fussy stuff!
Ok let’s be serious. I knew what the word meant to me, but I didn’t really know the meaning of the word. So I decided to look it up and this is what I found.
Definition of vignette:
1. a. A picture (such as and engraving or photograph) that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper.
b. The pictorial part of a postage stamp design as distinguished from the frame or lettering
2. a. A short descriptive literary sketch
b. A brief incident or scene (as in a play or movie)
3. A running ornament (as of vine leaves, tendrils, and grapes) put on or just before a title page or at the beginning or end of a chapter.
also: a small decorative design or picture so placed. Aha, we’ll go with that one!!!!
Maybe we should talk about what vignette means to me! It is a small decorative design so placed. It is nudging a piece just so to be viewed at its optimal level. A grouping of 3 or more complimenting objects to create a visually appealing setting. A living still life or just plain eye candy.
Vignettes are fun to create and exciting to see. It makes a room design more interesting and is an important elements in layering a well styled home.
Does a vignette need to be just 3 objects? No, that would be the minimum. But always work with the magic odd number. The eye accepts odd numbers better than even numbers.
Can you have multiple vignettes in a room? Yes of course you can and you should.
Can a vignette be a whole shelf in a cabinet or part of the shelf? Yes
So how do you create a vignette? Vignettes can be successfully created with just about anything. An antique green bottle with a tax stamp holds olive oil with a Mackenzie Childs wine stopper just for fun. My yummy smelling counter cleaner, about as utilitarian as it gets! A Milwaukee Cheese crock holds baking and wooden utensils. Scrub brushes, sit alongside a Wedgewood tooth pick holder! All stuff I use every day.
It is just about grouping interesting objects together, varying the height and texture, and structure of the items. By placing them in a vintage pewter and wooden tray the items are contained and they don’t clutter up the counter.
This built-in in my kitchen is a favorite to style and you’ve seen it many times before. It is a narrow cabinet and isolates space well. It is a cabinet of vignettes! Let’s take a closer look.
The top two shelves of this cabinet are simply placed with a combination of Mackenzie Childs Courtly Check Chargers and Villory Boch Audun dishes from about 2005. A heavily embossed ironstone antique pitcher and antique black leather books. The books balance the height of the flowers in the pitcher, the yellow flowers reinforce the yellow in the dishes on the shelf underneath, carrying the eye down to the next shelf.
Shelf two features just more of the same except the Cutty Sark pitcher is the star and the rest are just supporting players. The hand wrought skewers in the pitcher are drawing your eye back up to the top shelf again keeping the eye moving around the cabinet.
The graphics of the Dundee marmalade jar and the tiny tobacco tin, a French enamel match box hangs on the wall to the right, a small transfer ware pitcher picked up at our Assistance League Omaha Thrift Shop blends nicely with its pastoral scene back to the Audun dishes.
The punctation point is the Lladro lamb figurine. Though the height is varied as it should be it is still a balanced vignette. The fine porcelain of the figurine creates a bright spot with these every day utilitarian objects.
The third shelf is the resting shelf. Uncomplicated this is where your eye pauses before moving onto the bottom. Styling it two ways so you can see the difference.
Without books so the platter becomes the principal player, though I feel it needs more. As much as I love the platter I feel like it needs you guessed it, more books.
The mold on the right picked up in Franklin TN last fall has a recipe for cornbread on the outside and the inside looks like this.
I love this mold positioned both ways.
Ok now down to the bottom shelf again. Here I’ve styled without the platter so you can see the difference.
The vignette, without it’s anchor
This is why you corral your vignettes. These objects are all to similar in size and not large enough to fill the space. Place a tray, platter, mirror, bread board or even books underneath and now it all becomes more cohesive. A moment!
A vintage ironstone black and white pitcher with antique pewter spoons, an antique French Dijon Mustard Pot, an English ironstone anchovy paste jar with lid, all resting on an antique oval pewter platter, that connects back to the pewter spoons. The punctuation point is this tiny hand carved yellow wooden bird. Reinforcing yet again the yellow in the dishes.
Placing this vignette on the bottom shelf of this cabinet is important because you need to look down on the Anchovy Paste Jar to see it.
Everything has its height in which it is best viewed. Pay attention and start to play around with this concept, you will begin to understand what I am talking about. If it were higher up it is insignificant and you won’t see it to it’s best potential.
Each shelf in this cabinet is it’s own vignette. Together they make a wonderful statement in my kitchen.
In preparing for the holidays I challenge you to give yourself some play time and create some vignettes. See what you have hiding behind closed doors, bring it out. Once you’ve done one you will see how easy it is and how impactful it can be in styling your home. Start creating your own moments.
What do you think? I would love to see your creations. I challenge you!
Thanks for stopping
Shelley
