Using Rocks in Home Decor

If you know me or my husband, have read my blog for very long, or have been browsing through my wedding decor posts, chances are you already know that the hubby and I come from a long line of rocks.  His grandparents went rock hunting, and took him as a child.  My grandparents went rock hunting to a lesser extent, and enjoyed making cuts from beautiful pieces. As we both grew up with this in our nature, and having many family members who love us and want to give us things...well, we have a lot of rocks.   (My mother-in-law begs to differ that we DON'T actually have a lot of rocks...yet.)   So if that tells you anything. Not only are rocks often very beautiful, they can hold a lot of sentiment as well.  Since we have so many in our collection, rocks are all over the apartment implemented in the decor.  Maybe you already have a collection and don't know what to do with them, or you're interested in rock hunting as a hobby, I hope this can offer some ideas on how you can use rocks in your everyday decorating!

For larger pieces, storing them on a shelf with other items works great!  I left this bookend rock turned outward to hold up the 100 Days Away album up on the shelf.

Particularly interesting rocks may be added to shelf decor.  In one hallway I've used two small shelves to hold some beautiful rocks from our collection.  

Turn a jar or candy dish upside down to elevate them so they can be seen if you have shorter pieces.

Isn't this amethyst great?  Thanks to our good friend Wei who gave it to Tyler as a wedding present...I think those two boys "get" each other pretty well because this was the perfect gift for Tyler.  Actually, rocks are always a perfect gift for Tyler.

A great way to use rocks in your everyday decor is to use them with purpose.  

When purchasing or having rocks cut, it may be beneficial to think of a particular usage for them. 

 One of my favorite usages is as bookends.  They're heavy enough to hold books up, but are decorative and unique.  The blue bookends are particularly special to me as they were a gift from my grandpa who passed away several years ago.

Interested in how to keep collections of small sized rocks together, but still view-able?  Check out the post I wrote specifically on that topic!

We bought this rock on our honeymoon.  It comes in a little display stand.  Large pieces like this work as a single item on a small shelf, or worked in with other things.

*Ahh, sorry about the awfulness of this picture!  New to husband's camera's habits in low light still!

Slices of rock can be either particularly easy or particularly difficult to use in everyday decorating.  Much of it depends on size.

This fairly large slice works great as a layer of interest on a side table.  I often keep a candle or vase on it.  Instead of taking up room, it simply adds another layer to my table.

For some of the smaller slabs, I use them to accent a larger piece.  As you can see here, I have small slabs under both the rock tree and quartz piece.  The darkness of the small slice particularly helps the quartz stand out from the light colored runner.

Directly below the television I lined up several large rose rocks Tyler found and gave me a few years ago.

What other ways have you found to decorate with rocks?  Do you like collecting anything?

Displaying Collections of Small Rocks

Since our childhoods, my husband and I have loved collecting rocks.  Both of us had grandparents who also collected rocks, and helped us start some collections.  In this post, I'm presenting some practical ways you can display groups of small rocks together besides having them stored so you can't see them or stung out everywhere.

IN BOWLS 

In this bowl, I keep my childhood rocks.  As a kid I would always pick up rocks I liked off the dirt road where we lived (the little salmon colored rock).  In the middle, you will see the Caveman Kit Kat Bar given to me a la my friends who lived down the road, and the Caveman Toe Print on the right.  (Funny things we kids saw in these rocks).  When I was 10 my grandparents took me on a road trip to the west coast.  The white round rock is from the Columbia River Basin, as well as the volcanic rock.

In college, Tyler took a Geology field trip where he found a bunch of Calcite.  So for the past 5 years, it has been sitting in a Braums bag.  I finally got tired of the Braums bag and found a large fish bowl that we had left over from wedding centerpieces.   I used decorative grass to soften the bottom and placed all his calcite in the bowl.  Now it sits on his bookshelf where it can actually be seen!

In a meaningful bowl.  These rocks are all rocks we picked up from hiking while we were on our honeymoon in New Mexico.  How appropriate that I found one in a heart shape?!   While we were there, we bought this bowl from Mama's Minerals in Santa Fe for the purpose of  holding our honeymoon rocks, so now the bowl is also part of the keepsake - not to mention it is an awesome bowl!

AS VASE FILLER
We collected several Rose Rocks one afternoon last year.  Red dirt rose rocks mainly form just near our college town in Norman, Oklahoma so they're particularly easy to find.  Since we have so many around the house, I put some of them as filler for this vase.  The red looks great with the colors in the pine pebble flowers (that I sell on Etsy).

IN SMALL CONTAINERS
These are little fossils that Tyler got for his birthday from his grandparents - which are even more neat because they found them on their first rock hunting trip together.  We were having trouble finding a place to show them off since they're so tiny.   For Christmas, we got this snow globe that is made with the intention of putting a picture in.  It has a magnifying effect, so it works nicely for these little cuties.

Don't forget to check back next week!  I'll have a continuation on this post detailing how we use rocks in our everyday decorations! What other ways have you seen collections of small rocks grouped for display? \