Have you got a great collection of items that you can’t wait to show off? How about an assortment of fancy plates and silverware that you want to proudly display? Is your living room or bedroom feeling like you’re missing something, like a critical piece of furniture that would make the entire room come alive? Then you might want to consider getting a curio cabinet.
Display items in your curio cabinet by categorizing them according to their overarching color and/or scale. Creating a color gradient across the cabinet can produce beautiful displays. However, there is no correct way to display curios, so you will need some trial and error to fit it to your tastes.
It’s important to know which items work best and which ones don’t when looking at a curio cabinet. If you are a collector of small items and objects like memorabilia or if you happen to just have a lot of great looking and sentimental things lying around, these cabinets could be perfect for you and your home.
Table of Contents
Displaying Items in Your Curio Cabinet
Perks of using this cabinet are that they keep your items safe while displaying them clearly. Sometimes, with more precious items, it’s not a good idea to display them out in the open because either they gather dust or have the risk of getting knocked over.
With a curio cabinet, you can avoid both these risks by giving your pieces a spot to stay where they’ll be protected from the elements and proudly shown off at the same time. Some curio cabinets include features that add to protection like thicker glass or including locks. With a curio cabinet, you’ll be able to ensure your goods are safe without having to worry about them.
When Is a Curio Cabinet the Right Choice?
First of all, what even is a curio cabinet? A curio cabinet is something you’ve definitely seen and may even have in your home, even if you don’t recognize the name. A curio cabinet is a large display case, typically made of glass and surrounded with wood and metal.
It is generally used to exhibit smaller trinkets such as miniatures, accessories, or even antiques that may catch the attention of everyone in the room. Curio cabinets come in a variety of forms and sizes, so you’ll have plenty of options when it comes to finding the ideal one for you.
Who could benefit from this cabinet? This cabinet is great for people who love collections. Be it figures, video games, coins, or vintage memorabilia, for those who take pride in what they’ve gathered over years of collecting, these cabinets will be great ways to store and display. If you’ve got friends or neighbors coming over, the first thing their eyes will be drawn to are the precious items you’ve cultivated.
Even if you’re not an avid collector of goods, you could still benefit from this cabinet as a place to store things that currently don’t have a permanent location. As long as they fit in the cabinets’ many shelves, they’ll look like they naturally belong.
How to Choose the Display Items
There is no shortage of things you can store in a cabinet once you find the perfect one.
- Vintage memorabilia is one of the most common items stored in these cabinets. These could include toys and dolls that have been in your room for a long time, trinkets you’ve picked up from special occasions, like a class ring from high school or a family heirloom from the olden days
- Entertainment products can be stored in these cases. These could include video games, movies, and CDs of all kinds. Many entertainment enthusiasts prefer physical media in the age of digital, so having a spot to display your library could keep them in pristine condition while helping to avoid issues like dust buildup or wear and tear.
- Figurines and model sets are also utilized well in these cabinets. Most people don’t know, but these kinds of figures cost a pretty penny and models take painstaking time and effort to put together, all for the purpose of having an astonishing display piece. However, one wrong slip up and you could find your money and time shattered into a million pieces. With this cabinet, you can show off your figures in style, completely safe.
Other items you can fit into these shelves are small items like fancy plates and china, glass items and books. In short, whatever you want to display and protect at the same time will be a perfect fit for your new Curio Cabinet.
Finding the Right Cabinet
Finding the right cabinet for you will depend on your personal taste. Thankfully, these cabinets are sold far and wide with more sizes and variations than you can imagine. You want to plan ahead before purchasing a cabinet to see if it will fit in your designated location, as well as plan out how you’ll transport it, and if you’ll be able to assemble it if required.
Places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, or Target will typically have a decent sized collection of these cabinets, but if you’re looking for the widest selection possible, you can find these cabinets at sites where you can specially order them in a wide array of specifications. Since these cabinets are widely available, you’ll have no problem getting one that fits your home, both in terms of size and aesthetics.
Filling Your Cabinet Out
Many collectors of items place a high value on carefully displaying their treasures. After all, even modest collections of little objects may add up to a lot of money over time, and these items are generally meaningful to the owners. If you want to fill out the cabinet as efficiently as possible, fill it one shelf at a time and explore to see what looks nice. Experiment to find what works.
Making Your Cabinet Stand Out
To make an impression, you want this cabinet to be a centerpiece of the room, but not overtake everything else in it.
A curio cabinet is often a large piece of furniture, so it will stand out and draw eyes in whatever room it’s in. You can use this cabinet as a space to hold precious memories and family heirlooms in a convenient place.
Picking the right items will help you make the best use of your cabinet while also keeping your most important items safe from harm, degradation, and just dust. It can also make sure that you can keep an eye on items all the time to maintain them if you see them rust or forget where you keep them.
Keeping Your Cabinet Safe
A few items you shouldn’t put in this kind of shelf are ones that draw any kind of heat and power, like gaming consoles or humidifiers. The reason is because of the way heat travels in an enclosed space. Most of these items have fans which draw warm air out which has the potential to cause damage to your cabinet and your device at the same time.
Ensuring that you keep proper airflow is critical to making sure that you’re storing items safely. If something has to plug-in it may not be a good idea to store it in an enclosed cabinet but depending on the type you go for you may be able to keep it on the very top. Refer to your cabinet’s health and safety instructions to determine the best course of action.
One other aspect to keep in mind is the weight of your items. Sometimes even if each individual item isn’t heavy, once you pair a lot together it could stack up. Heavier items should go on the bottom shelves while lighter items should go on the top shelves to create a balanced weight and ensure that your shelves don’t topple over.
Stop Your Items from Escaping
The safest place for your cabinet is up against a wall, preferably in the corner of the room where people are unlikely to walk into or accidentally bump. After all, if you paid so much for your new cabinet and stuffed it full of all your important items, the last thing you want is for it to all come crashing down. It’s important to leave your cabinet leaning against the wall and firmly flat on the floor to prevent the risk of toppling.
Display items in your curio cabinet carefully so that you don’t knock items over or tip over the cabinet itself. The cabinet glass doors offer easy opening and closing and help arrange by featuring many angles where you can see your item clearly to make sure it fits no matter which direction you’re looking at.
Storing the Right Items
On the other hand, regular items like toys, figures and plates are perfectly acceptable to keep in your cabinet.
Here’s why these items are perfect for storage:
- The first reason is that they do not draw any heat or power and are capable of avoiding any kind of electrical hazards and risks associated with electronic devices.
- Sometimes these items are fragile and in other areas are susceptible to falling over and breaking. Even if you’re extremely careful you always have the risk of something like a guest coming over and accidentally knocking your valuables over or at worst even an earthquake doing it for you. If your items are safe in this cabinet, these issues can be avoided
- Keeping these items inside a cabinet can also help to reduce dust, damage from UV rays, and other issues that would spring up from items being exposed to the elements. When your goods are safely enclosed, they will last much longer and be permanent display fixtures in your home without you having to worry about them being exposed to dust.
Ultimately, the items you want to store in your cabinet or up to you. Since these pieces come in all shapes and sizes it’ll be easy for you to find one that suits your needs and fits all the items that you were looking to store. Be sure to measure your items beforehand and look up the dimensions of your order just to ensure that they will fit snugly without issue.
Maintaining and Displaying Your Cabinet
To make sure your cabinet stays clean, as well as the goods inside them, it’s important to regularly dust and clean your cabinet to prevent accumulation of dust. Proper maintenance will help you keep your cabinet looking clean and will keep your goods in pristine condition for years to come.
Where Your Cabinet Should Be
The best room for this cabinet is either in the living room or a large bedroom. Since these cabinets take up a lot of space you want to make sure that they don’t get in the way of other furniture or block out passages where people walk.
These cabinets can typically be found in corners of the room and away from doors which could open and slam into the glass. It’s important to measure your room and the cabinet dimensions beforehand to make sure that it fits within the area you designated for it.
You want to avoid placing this cabinet in rooms that are already lacking in space. One recommendation is to also keep the cabinet in a temperature controlled room to ensure both its safety and longevity. If kept in a room of extreme heat or extreme cold, it has potential to damage the glass and wood the cabinet is made out of
Keeping your cabinet safe from damage won’t be a difficult task as these pieces are large and sturdy. However, what comes with this is a risk of causing damage if it toppled over. You will want to ensure that your cabinet is kept in the proper upright position and kept on solid ground where it will not wobble or run the risk of falling over.
You also want to ensure that the items within the cabinet are balanced and not too heavy so it won’t throw off the weight of the entire cabinet.
Ensure Your Items Are Protected
If you want your items to last, the best advice is to keep them routinely cleaned and maintained, just as you would if they were anywhere else. Since the doors of these cabinets are made of glass and built with the intention to display items, you’ll have no trouble knowing when it’s time for a cleaning because dirt and dust will be clearly visible.
The items inside will be protected thanks to the thick glass and sealed enclosure that the cabinet provides. Since these cabinets are display pieces, obviously one big consideration is the protection of your items.
Some cabinets are compatible with locks and safety mechanisms to prevent unwanted intrusion. This can help keep the goods inside your cabinets safe from kids, pets, or in the worst case scenario: break-ins.
Everything Else to Know About Curio Cabinets
Other things you’ll want to know about this cabinet is the price range. Depending on the size, make, design and brand of the curio cabinet, you can see a large range of prices for your budget. Typically, these can range from $300-$1000 for cabinets that are roughly 80 inches tall on average. Depending on what kind of cabinet you need to store your items, you could be looking at various different ones.
Some are curved and fit well into corners, some are straight and are fully surrounded by glass without wood coverings, and some can even be mounted directly into walls. There is no shortage of designs when it comes to these cabinets so be sure to shop around so you’ll be guaranteed to find the perfect one for your home.
Make sure to pay attention to things like color matching when filling out your cabinet. Since these are display pieces, you want to match the items inside your cabinet with the furnishing that the cabinet is made out of.
Since a lot of these cabinets are primarily glass, this isn’t an issue because everything will blend in. However, for some cabinets with more intricate designs, you want to make sure that the items within them don’t detract or seem too loud when displayed.
Why Curio Cabinets Can Be the Perfect Fit
It’s easy to see why curio cabinets are such a popular option for display, storage, and general usage in homes across the world.
Whether you are a collector who wants to proudly display their memorabilia or just an average home with a few extra items lying around that you want to spice up the appearance of, these cabinets are versatile and exciting enough to fill all your needs.
Display your items in a curio cabinet to keep them organized, safe from dust and damage, and keep them as the centerpiece of your living room or bedroom. Whenever you have guests over, their eyes will be drawn immediately to your stunning collection and when you’re just hanging around at home you can always glance proudly at the items you displayed.