SPEAK UP The writing is on the wall

Here are some other suggestions by Chris Casson Madden to use words, text or calligraphy to enhance the design in your home:
Text from children's books or poems can serve as the decorative motif in a nursery or playroom. If you wish to decorate a child's room with a verse and your freehand or stenciling technique is not up to the demand, look for a wallpaper design that tells a story or a border that will line up the words around your wall.
To decorate a kitchen, try reproducing one of your favorite recipes on the wall. I was in a home recently where homemade, oatmeal-raisin cookies were a staple and the recipe was scripted in freehand cursive, with a waterproof marker, on the tile backsplash.
Frame pieces of calligraphy or printed cards or verses that particularly delight you. I have a friend who has saved all the mailing envelopes she has ever received with fancy invitations where her name is written in calligraphy. She has framed these in inexpensive black frames and hung them on the wall in her home office.
Old advertising and roadside signs are popular collectibles and an interesting way to add the graphic beauty of words into your room's design. A friend who summers on an island in Maine found an old sign stating, "Buy your Ferry tickets here." It hangs in her children's playroom as a reminder of their summers on the island. If you can't find these relics or their price isn't in your budget, many stores are selling reproduction signs and plaques that say, "Diner," for instance, or a depiction of the advertised item such a lobster with the words, "Fresh Shell Fish."
Look for upholstery fabrics, bed and table linens and wallpapers that are decorated with words or calligraphy that fit your design motif. For instance, in a room with a serene or Zen feel, a paper scroll or fabric printed with Asian calligraphy may add just the right, spare note. A line of music staff, notes and words may be the perfect wall embellishment in a music room. Or frame sheet music or album covers that combine pictures and words to make your design statement.