Heritage Inspired Interior Design-101

     

     Like many of you, I have family photos placed all around my home.  Here at the nerve center of Ellie's Ancestors, (aka my computer desk), I have photos of my children, grandparents and grandkids looking down at me from the shelves and my bulletin board.  But what to do with the rest of the house to put my own personal stamp on the place?  I came up with a couple of very economical, and if I do say so, creative solutions.

     In my kitchen I have a baker's rack whose shelves are filled with Irish-y stuff, a pretty Flavihan's Irish Oatmeal tin, my Irish cookbooks, our matching himself and herself coffee mugs, my Grandmother's shamrock covered china tea cup, a wee thatched Irish cottage, etc, etc...
 

Don't know their identity but  love the cottage

     For the walls, I didn't really want to do the ubiquitous family tree thing, (not that there's anything wrong with that), so I looked around the internet and in books I owned for images I liked. (I've written about one of them here.) Having narrowed it to nine or ten, I printed them out on high quality paper. Then I looked into framing and was somewhat aghast. Have you checked the price of framing lately?  Suffice to say it was more that I was willing to fork over.  Then I thought of my local Goodwill. They are a worthy cause, and have tons of used frames; one I found even had an intricate Irish knot pattern on it, how appropriate! I made sure the frames I purchased included mats, a double savings. Some of them also included hideous paintings and cross-stitch pictures, which I promptly removed.

     I've framed a 19th century map of County Carlow purchased online, in addition to photos of Irish women selling potatoes and butter, and one of women making the Stations at a shrine in Ireland, all courtesy of the internet.  The photo of the shrine hangs on my bedroom wall, beneath the crucifix and rosary beads that once belonged to my grandmother.

     My favorite is an oblong frame that came with a mat with three openings.  In the center I placed a picture of Anna Ryan White, my great, great grandmother from Tipperary. To her right I placed a photo of her daughter Ellen White O'Hora, my great grandmother. To Anna's left is my grandmother Mary O'Hora, the daughter of Ellen.  Mary only had sons, but if I find a frame with more openings I just may add myself, and my daughter, and her new daughter.  Holy Cow!  I just had a great idea, I have a picture of my mother's mother, I can do one with her, my mother, me, my daughter and the new baby.  Maybe get this little one hooked on genealogy.  Get em while they're young...