Decorating with birdcages

When I was a teenager, I had a fascination with ornamental birdcages.  At the time, I was working in a florist, and I swooned at the lovely rustic birdcage my boss had in stock.  When Christmas came around, she wisely wrapped it up with a big bow and presented it to me.  I still have it, 13 years later (it’s to the far right in the photo below)!  Over the years, I started to seek out more birdcages.  Interestingly, they became more and more of a decor item.  Suddenly, they seemed to be everywhere!  At the height of my collection I had seven ornamental birdcages!

In 2011, I started to consider moving out of my parents home to buy my own place.  I also became a regular reader of the forums at Unclutterer.com and reading Colleen’s blog 365 Less Things  I started to question the wisdom of “collections”.  When I asked the common clutter questions, I came up short.  They weren’t functional.  And I didn’t love every bird cage.  I didn’t actively try to declutter them, but when someone asked on freecycle for ornamental birdcages, i was ready to share my ‘less favourites’.  I bundled up three birdcages that I didn’t love, and made this woman’s day.

That left me with three birdcages at my house, and one at my parents house.  My home doesn’t have a lot of flat surfaces for ‘displaying’ things, so for 16 months, I’ve moved birdcages around, trying to put them somewhere where they’ll be enjoyed, but not getting in the road with functionality of things around them (the TV, lamps, other things on shelves).  It just wasn’t working.  So I decided I’d go ‘up’!  I had a corner of my living room that was a little ‘dead’.  It had never really worked, and I decided it needed something to ‘jazz’ it up.

As you can see above, there’s definately not much happening in this neck of the woods, err living room.  After extensive consultation with Mr DIY (a close friend… who has a drill,  I don’t), we decided we’d use a wooden bar between the two walls, and then attach cuphooks to the underside.  Then with some chains leftover from the floristry display, I could hang my beloved three birdcages.

As you can see, it’s certainly changed up that corner! It seems less barren and empty. Interestingly, I’ve had this idea for about a year or more, but it might seem like I’ve been inspired by my all time favourite DIY bloggers at Young House Love – see this post for what I mean. This is one item I am ever so pleased to get off my ‘house to do list’!