My Marie Antoinette Cupboard

I have literally spent hours today sifting and sorting through my lace collection.

It was scattered all through the house in various boxes and displays and I wanted to bring it all to one location.

Wherever I kept it had to be accessible, protective from dust and sunlight but still allow me to enjoy it all every single day.

I have had this little display cupboard for many years now.

It is actually looking a little shabby now and I would like to repaint it and re wallpaper the interior.

I am now pondering on what colour scheme would best suit it.

Any thoughts ?

Anyhow......

Today I made it all happen. I gathered and folded and primped my treasured lace. 

One by one pieces like this (underneath)

Were folded and rolled around vintage pegs and popped into a drawer

Then this GOOOOORGEOUS piece of lace (pictured below) screamed out to me

'Feature me !'

SO I DID

I made a feature of her by hanging her up like a little curtain.

I think it looks like centre stage for my LACE SHOW !

She is such a pretty little piece. I think that she was once a collar from a very pretty Sunday dress. 

The fabric is very fine Swiss Dot Voile and is trimmed by beautiful Edwardian lace.

She truly deserved to be a feature in my lace display.

SOMEHOW MY SCENE WAS MISSING SOMETHING.

The lace all look kind of blah all by itself.

The textures and various shades of antique white was there.

It just needed a little OOMPH !

and that's when Marie Antoinette stepped in !

and all of a sudden everything that reminded me of Marie made it's way into the display.

My new framed water colour and embroidery picture, an antique greeting card, antique shoe stretchers, a pearl encrusted evening bag, a very, very old silk embroidered French handkerchief and then all of my beautiful lace.

It looks so lovely !

A whole entire drawer of delectable rolls of lace !

All wrapped carefully around vintage pegs to keep them all tangle free and looking perfect.

and then I stacked antique lace pillow shams and doilies on top of each other in one big pretty pile.

and I was very excited when I took the lid from underneath a stack of lace that I had recently bought and I found this roll of lace !

I was so happy to have found it as I had not even thought to check under the lid of the box.  Funnily enough I had given some of this lace to my friend recently in a lace swap and it was my favourite lace ever.

I decided to share some with my friend and knew that she would love it as much as I did.

Now I am so happy to still have some for myself.

There is quite a lot of this lace in the roll and it was all squashed up inside the lid.

HAPPY ME !

One drawer for peg lace and the other is for all of my doilies (well maybe not all of them.....)

I still have more ! lol

Obsessed muchly :-)

I can now enjoy all of my work while sitting on my sofa and enjoying a cup of tea.
Marie can inspire me and my pretty lace is all dust free and out of harms way.
The best thing about it is, is when I begin to get bored with this display I can find another theme and decorate it all over again.