Monogramming – Your Personal Swag

Monogramming has been around for centuries and is still in Vogue today.  There are so many ways you can customize your home with your own personal sense of style and taste.  So much of what we own today is mass-produced abut monogramming makes items more personal.  It is an elegant touch to the ordinary.  It is a mark of your identity.

I love how it can be such a great gift to someone who is hard to buy for.  I also enjoy decorating my home with monogramming.  It is something newer to me and I am enjoying the process.  So many companies have their own look and offer a variety of personal swag and I like to think of this as my personal swag!

There are many ways you can use monograming.  Some of my favorite ways to incorporate monogramming are:

1. Your table with embroidered napkins or place settings
2. The powder room with towels.
3. The bar with glassware.
4. Your desk with stationary and writing tablets.
5. The holidays with stockings or custom gift wrap, ribbon and gift tags.
6.  Jewelry is always a great choice too!

There are a few rules of etiquette for monogramming to help with where the letters appear on the monogram.  In the case of a husband and wife monogram use the following rules:

1.) The husband’s FIRST initial followed by the LAST name initial and then the wife’s FIRST initial.

2.) If the wife does not take the husband’s name, just the two FIRST name initials are used.

3.) Make sure that the initials do not spell something that is unwanted.  Meaning the initials spell DOG where the husbands name is Doug, last name is O’Connor and the wife’s name is Gia.  This is undesirable so you may want to just use the first name initials.

I used to be confused about what initials went where when doing a monogram for an individual.  Here are some additional guidelines:

1.) A two-letter monogram uses the first and last name or they can be intertwined.  When the letters are intertwined it is called a cypher.  If this is done make sure that you can make out the letters.

2.) A three-letter monogram , if you want all the letters ALL the same size you should go First/Middle/Last.

3.)  IF you want the center letter larger then you should go First/Last/Middle.  I like this approach the best.

4.) For a married female, an individual monogram is traditionally done First/Last/Maiden.

These are some of the “rules” for basic monogramming.  I really like the guidelines.  It can be confusing and overwhelming but once you get started I think you will enjoy monogramming for yourself or as a gift.  I truly think these are the best gift ideas.  Lately, I have been using a company called Emily McCarthy out of Georgia and I really like them.  They have so much to choose from and their online store is great.  If you have questions they are a phone call away and can help.  Making your own personal swag can get a bit daunting but make sure to have fun in the process!