Arranging your pewter cupboard

Welcome to my new blog. I want to write weekly about living with antiques, being an antiques dealer, and well, who knows? Any ideas out there?
Today I had a customer call wanting some ideas for her treen display in her open top cupboard. How to arrange? What to do?  I’ve included a pic of my pewter cupboard, where I just arranged some treen I own and some from the shop stock.  You can arrange cupboards many ways. One way is to look at it as an artist would look at a painting or sculpture, by putting your larger items here and there, and balancing with groups of smaller items. Don’t forget to balance your lights and darks,  and your colors. It would look really silly to put all the red items on one side, no? Also silly to put all the darker items on one shelf.
But the look I like the best is when you are trying to duplicate a harassed housewife putting away her things after a very long day. Who cares what it looks like, just put the darn stuff up so the dogs don’t step on it. My best inspiration are old, what are called genre prints. As an example, I have a small black and white print that shows a Rev War housewife defending her home with a rifle. On her mantle piece is a jug, a napkin or cloth and a stack of books. Nothing symmetrical about it. As far as I know, symmetrical mantle arrangements became popular in the early 19th C. when classical design was all the rage.
So have some fun with you cupboards. Take it all out and try throwing it in. You may just get a look you’ll love! And if you are in the mood for a little shopping, check out my website, www.bluedogantiques.com