Getting Cozy with Gemstones: How I Incorporate Rocks & Minerals into Home Décor

Lemurian quartz, pyrite and clear quartz

Colorful. Sparkly. Totally natural. What's not to love?

My love affair with gemstones began at an early age. Every year in September, there was a Rock and Mineral show in my small hometown, and when I was in school, students would get coupons for the show to have discounted access. I begged my parents to take me there every year (this was before I could drive), and then I remember spending an hour or two browsing through the vendors' booths, admiring the specimens of amethyst, quartz, calcite and many others little treasures dug up from the earth. I even bought a few specimens with my saved-up allowance, and still have some of those pieces today.

As an adult, I kind of forgot about my love for gemstones, rocks and minerals until I spent a fair bit of time traveling around South America in recent years, where I saw local gemstones that were incorporated into jewelry pieces. More than that, many rocks and minerals were believed to have potent healing properties by the people of the Andes mountains. They would incorporate quartz, malachite, lapis, rhodochrosite and other locally sourced minerals in healing regimens, or wear them to provide protection or bring them love.

A few small stones sit on top of decorative gravel, clustered with an air plant and fairy lights.

Around the same time, rocks and minerals crept back into home decor trends, and suddenly they seemed more available. (I have even seen tons of gorgeous rocks and mineral specimens at TJ Maxx this past year.) The moment I really got back into rocks and minerals, and started to learn more about them, started with two things. It happened about two years ago, when 1) my back was causing me excruciating pain that no doctor or medicine could really get rid of, and 2) soon after this bad back pain flare-up, I took a trip to New Orleans, during which my husband and I stayed in an Airbnb decorated with lots of amethyst, quartz and other crystals. Even if it was just a soothing placebo effect, I found them calming and relaxing to be around and I even wondered if they helped soothe my anxiety. They were, at the very least, a peaceful element in the home.

I came back home and began research whether crystal healing really held any weight in the scientific communities, hoping I might find a gentler solution to my back pain problems. And while not a lot of scientific research on the healing properties of rocks and minerals say that they have any healing potential beyond acting as a placebo, I don't really mind. They do, after all, add a calming, serene, relaxing element to my home, they are fascinating and endlessly interesting to look at, and they add a earthly element indoors, which is important considering how long my house is closed up during our long, cold northern winters.

A little terrarium makes a cute home for rose quartz, flourite and pyrite.

"Hygge" has become a bit of a buzzword in recent years. Everyone loves the concept of making your house cozy and appealing during cold winter months. No where is it more important than in climates that "enjoy" 7 or 8 month-long winters (like mine). Before I knew there was a word for it, I had definitely practiced Hygge in order to keep myself interested in being inside all winter long. Recently, adding sparkly gemstones and other interesting rocks and minerals to look at in vignettes around my home has proven to be a cheerful and calming decision.

And while I still don't know if any of them have helped cure my back pain, I cannot say that they have hurt, either. They most definitely add a relaxing and gentle feeling around my house, so at the very least, they look pretty and help me calm down at the end of a busy day.

With all of that said, it can be a little tricky to figure out how exactly to incorporate a few rocks and minerals in with home decor. If you have small pieces, they can easily add clutter or get lost. On the other hand, large of pieces can feel overwhelming and might be difficult to fit in. And some pieces are even fragile, so unless they are somewhat mindfully cared for, they may break.

My favorite way to enjoy my collection: wearing it! A necklace made with wire wrapped rutilated quartz.

I definitely solve that problem by rotating my collection, not keeping all of my pieces out all of the time.

One of my favorite ways to display smaller stones that I have collected is in small glass terarriums, which are really trendy right now and can be found in home decor shops like Homegoods or Homesense. I usually put a bed of decorative gravel on the bottom, then add my gemstones as I needed. Pictured here is a pyramid-shaped terrarium with robin's egg blue decorative gravel, rose quartz, green flourite and a piece of pyrite, with a tea light in the center. I love that the candlelight bounces off of the stones!


In another little terrarium-turned-rock-museum (pictured earlier in this post), I put a variety of rocks including desert rose, peacock ore, aragonite and others with an air plant. All are sitting on white and golden decorative stones. Once again I like to put little lights around them to brighten up and highlight the gemstones - this time, I used fairy lights.

I looooove my selenite lamp, which sits happily on my desk!

For larger pieces, like chunks of quartz that I have collected in my travels (pictured above is a lemurian quartz, a piece of clear quartz that I purchased in Chile, and pyrite from the Andes), I set them in groupings and place them on a shelf. I like surrounding them with plants or flowers, the softer, more organic shapes of the flowers contrasting with the harder textures and lines of the stones.

And then of course, there's always the possibility of wire wrapping certain pieces and wearing them as jewelry. This is my favorite way to enjoy my collection. The necklace above is one I made from a rutilated quartz point that I bought in Argentina.

And of course - there's always the option of buying just one spectacular showpiece, like the selenite lamp I bought from Amazon. It's said that selenite raises the vibrations of a room, and I have to say I really do feel happy when that lights up my desk on a cold, dark winter night.

Rocks and minerals are lots of fun to collect during travels, as well as just to buy when I am craving a little something that is sparkly and different to enjoy on a small shelf, on my coffee table or in a little collection in a terrarium. How do you decorate with rocks and minerals?