Did you know that half of Brits would call themselves a collector? Books, coins, and candles are the most commonly sought-after items. Not all items collected are easy to display. Most find their way onto shelves, into a spare room or get tucked into cupboard space.
Among the world of collectables are smaller items that every homemaker could take some inspiration from and create a unique, one-of-a-kind wall art with a curation of compact collectables small enough to be framed.
5 hobbyist genres to explore for unique home décor frames
- Sports trading cards
Sports cards are nostalgic, and they span almost every sport. Football, hockey, basketball, wrestling, and motorsports are just some of the common categories.
Any sports enthusiast could get a unique and special piece of wall art just by curating trading cards of their favourite players, or the cards that represent the most memorable moments for them. - Pins and badges
Pins and badges are tremendous for creating collage displays. They are available around the globe and almost all tourist destinations such as Disney parks have pins and badges available. Some people collect these like postcards used to be collected. With an assorted collection, a unique collage display can be created and displayed within a photo frame. - Stickers
There are sports stickers just like trading cards. But there are also multiple themes of stickers. They are made and sold for personalisation purposes. Laptop stickers, and backpack stickers, stick them on water bottles, packed lunch boxes, ring binders, notepads and journals.
Put them all together and you have a mix-and-match unique curation perfect for a framed wall display. - Stamps
Stamps are traded internationally and there are niche areas for collecting too. Not all stamp collections are British or commemorative. Smaller subcategories of collectable stamps include migratory birds, festive stamps, and celebratory stamps marking an event. These could make for a colourful display piece. - Bookmarks
Not all bookmarks are made of card stock. Some are made with ribbons, others cord, some have medallions, and others are metal plated, or have a metal embellishment attached to cord, ribbon or a metal plate.
Displayed together, you can create a unique piece of wall art, and quite easily have it themed too, such as mythical bookmarks, an angel collection, or whatever genre of fiction is your favourite.
How to frame collections
Collections of smaller items that are flat are the simplest to frame. You could attach them to the mount board using suitable sticky dots, glue or acid-free tape.
Failing that, another option is to use cork board in place of a standard backing board. Frames with cork board are better suited to metallic objects. Anything made of paper, such as standard card stock bookmarks, stickers or trading cards is best housed in a frame with glazing for protection. Otherwise, they would likely yellow with age.
Metallic objects such as badges and pins could be framed for presentation and displayed without the glazing.
There will be far more smaller items suited for framing. The above five are only an idea of the types of items photo frames can be used to display.
As a guideline, the smaller the item, provided it is flat or at least has a shallow depth, is likely that it could be displayed within a photo frame.