Patriotic Decorating Ideas: Using the Flag

What better way to decorate for the United States Birthday than by displaying the flag in your décor? Here are some ideas on ways to do display the flag:

• Do you have a great porch? Then display the flag from your porch. Create accents around it with draping banners in red white and blue. When displaying the flag outdoors, remember that it is proper flag etiquette to bring it inside at sunset or to illuminate it during the night. This shows the proper respect for the flag. If you are displaying the flag hanging down you should make sure that the blue and star part of the flag is in the observers top left hand corner. Read more flag etiquette here.

• Do you have a large white wall in your living room or dining area? Use star shaped curtain hooks to hang a large flag.

• Make throw pillows with the flag on them. A lot of craft stores have iron on appliqués of the flag.

• Display small flags in a vase like a flower arrangement, or simply put them in with potted plants throughout the house.

• There is also ribbon made to look like the U.S. flag; use the ribbon tied to the backs of chairs at a barbeque or in your dining room, tie large "flag" bows to trees in the yard, on stairwell banisters, or even fence posts.

• Use fabric made to look like the flag on mantels. They look great draped around pictures and candles. You can also use it to make simple swags as window treatments, as a tablecloth, or make it into a throw to be placed at the end of a bed or on the back of a couch.

• Create a flag collage. Frame different sized flags; they can even be flags from different eras of the United States' history. Then hang them together on a bare wall. It will create a dramatic effect. Especially if you hang a phrase in the center such as "God Bless America" or "Old Glory."

• Add a flag to wreaths, flower swags, and in table centerpieces.