I found a unique-to-me home décor item at a vintage emporium while on holiday in Iowa recently, and I knew it had to come home with me. Even if I wasn’t sure what it was, or how I’d use it in my home. Sound familiar?

For purposes of this post I’m calling it a French country cottage ladle - but I'm always open to suggestion.

Here it is, before cleaning. Made of porcelain, it has delicate, scrolly details, including the "basin" which is carved like a scalloped shell. It's also quite heavy. Luckily, it has an opening on the back that makes hanging it on the wall fairly easy.      

I had an initial idea for this large porcelain spoon. I envisioned it hanging on the wall in the powder room, as a beautiful and unique soap dish.  

Look at all that grime on the underside! Turns out all I needed was some dish soap and elbow grease! I gave the ladle a good scrubbing with a scrubber sponge, some dish soap and warm water.

It cleaned up quite nicely. Then I filled it with some special "bee" soaps with a honeycomb motif.  

 The soaps appear to fit perfectly in the scalloped dish.

 They're almost too pretty to use!  

I then switched out the soaps for a mini Blue Willow plate.

I think the shell makes a great display area for any number of small treasures -- plates, tea cups, tchotchkes. It could also be used as a unique jewelry catch-all, especially for rings. For that I'd hang it right next to the kitchen sink.

Lastly, this lovely ladle can be used to hold votive candles. While a real candle might be more attractive, for safety reasons I'd go with an LED votive. Obviously they'd both be more impressive at night.

For now I'm loving the French country vibes. Who knows? I might even come up with some other ways to decorate with it in the future. 

Do you have any ideas as to how  

you'd use it in your home decor? 

 Well, that's it for today, friends!

I hope you enjoyed reading about 

how to decorate with a 

vintage French country cottage ladle

and that I've inspired you in some way.