Decorative Vases | Unique Vases, Adding your personal taste to your home decor

 Decorative vases are more than just flower holders; they can be repositories for your unique personality, a perfect accent for an otherwise-bare table, or a beautiful conversation starter in your home. No matter what your home's style – or lack of style – you'll always be able to find a beautiful decorative vase that fits your mood and personality.

There are a number of rules you can follow when decorating with decorative vases that will always look great.

Choose vases that you love, not that you like. That unique vase that your great-aunt Sophie gave you that you really hate, but don't want to admit to – put it away. If you're worried she'll be hurt, make a point of putting it out when she visits, then whisk it back into storage and replace it with your beautiful Fenton glass vase or your kitschy Staffordshire cow vase.

Always keep to a theme. If you're doing your home in modern Scandinavian, don't set out your rose-covered Victorian frill-edged vases. Likewise, if you're working on a soft Southwestern style, your vases can't be sharp-edged modern geometrics. Work with some contrast (solid color vases with flowered furniture, for instance) but keep it in the same genre.

Never let things get cluttered. If you have too much clutter, your beautiful pieces look like junk, not décor. If you have too much to put out at once, store most of them and rotate to keep your home fresh. If you really want to keep them on display, get a glass case to keep them in when they are not out on tables; provided this doesn't get crowded, display cases are the best way to show your beautiful collection without getting tacky.

Pay attention to color and “glow”. Especially with modern glazes, decorative vases often are rich with color, sometimes to the point where they just draw the eye – that's the “glow”. Work with this, not against it. Look for the very best lighting for these special vases, and take advantage of it.

Decorate in singles or small groups. Very unique vases should be displayed singly, while solid-color vases that are more outstanding for color than unique design can be displayed in groups of up to three vases. If you do group, try to group for differences rather than similarities: so three vases in small, medium, and large sizes, and in primary colors blue, red, and yellow. Or two solid-color vases and one vase painted or with a contrasting geometric design.

Keep cherished keepsakes and irreplaceable collectibles in safe places. No matter the décor purpose, you'll die a little inside if that special Sevres porcelain vase you picked up for a hundred bucks at Goodwill is broken. Keep them on very stable shelves or good accent tables with four legs. Very valuable vases should be authenticated and insured too, just in case.

No rule is ever set in stone. If you find a way to display your vase that looks great yet breaks some of these rules, by all means do it. We here at VasesByDesign.com want to help you with all your resources and information in finding the exact vases that you want.