Decorating your space can be a daunting task for many people, but us car people always have automotive-themed decor to fall back on. It can be tricky, though, to strike the right balance of displaying your automotive enthusiasm without turning your home into a garage or a cringey man cave. Luckily there are generations of car enthusiasts and artists who came before us who saw the artistic value of the automobile, and sketched, painted, photographed, and sculpted lots of tasteful automotive themed decor. The automobile had such a large influence on the world of design that it even launched the infamous American architecture style for roadside businesses called Googie architecture in car-crazed Los Angeles.
We want to hear from you, the doting Jalopnik audience, the undisputed tastemakers of the interior design world. What is the coolest piece of automotive-themed decor in your home? Share your story with the class in the comments below.
The coolest piece of automotive decor in my home is my collection of license plates
Cool is a supremely subjective measure, but I think the coolest piece of automotive decor in my home is my string of license plates. I love asking my family and friends, many of whom have moved from state-to-state, if they’d be willing to give me their old, unneeded license plates. Once I amassed a reasonable collection of license plates comprised of vintage plates I found at a thrift shop, plates from my own retired vehicles, and friends’ plates, I decided to string them up and hang them in my living room. Also, I just moved into this apartment, and I’m not done decorating yet so don’t come for me and my otherwise bare white walls.
I have some other automotive decor in my home that I’m quite fond of as well, including a series of vintage framed photos of Volkswagen bugs and buses being unloaded at a port, but my favorite thing about my license plate collection is its sentimental value. I love looking at the South Carolina plate and thinking of my best friends who lived there, the Nevada plate and remembering my grandmother, and the plate off my Honda CR-V that I junked after the catalytic converter was stolen. That’s why I think my license plate collection is the coolest piece of automotive decor in my home. What’s yours?
