How To Decorate A Display Cabinet

You can easily add refined style to your home with a display cabinet, but styling it can be a little tricky. We’ll go through some top tips for decorating your cabinet, including both what you put inside and on top of it.

A display cabinet is an amazing way to show off your prized possessions, and it’s also a place where you can just store away your belongings. You don’t have to limit yourself to priceless treasures when it comes to what goes inside your display cabinet, and you can absolutely co-ordinate your display with your home’s aesthetic.

There’s another important aspect of styling a display cabinet that is easy to forget about - what you put around it. Both the surface space on top of your cabinet and the floor space around it are opportunities to frame the furniture and also build up your room’s sense of style. We’ve separated this blog into three sections, so you can go through each step to perfect your display cabinet’s decor:

Styling Everything On Display In Your Cabinet

Decorating The Top Of Your Display Cabinet

Utilising The Space Around The Cabinet

9 Tips For Decorating Your Display Cabinet

1. Consider Your Colour Scheme

If you can, it’s a good idea to try and be intentional with colour for everything you have on display. This could be as simple as using primarily white and grey objects with a couple of small, brightly coloured items for some interesting contrast. You might be a little limited on colour if you’re using your cabinet to display a particular collection, but even small choices like grouping similar coloured items can have an impact.

2. Give Everything Space To Breathe

While every cabinet is a little different, it’s fairly universal that aiming for an even spread with some good spacing will look the best. Putting too much inside and keeping everything stacked together uniformly can make the cabinet feel too crowded. Spacing everything out, like in the Taunton Wooden and Rattan Bookcase above, keeps it looking neat and orderly.

3. Use Varying Heights

Although the effect is a little more obvious with an abstract style display cabinet, like this Greenwich Abstract Wooden Bookshelf, any display can benefit from using the height of your objects intentionally. Try not to just include items that are all similar in height, and instead change it up with taller objects, like a candle stick or vase, and then smaller potted plants and stacks of books. This way, you’re using the layout of your items to create some visual interest, simply through how you’ve placed them.

4. Double Up On Vases

If you have a display cabinet that is quite wide but not especially tall, like the Holcombe Glassfronted Sideboard, then you’ll have a lot of surface space available for decorating. So why not double up on some vases, like these Valencia Ceramic Vases, for a bold and interesting visual? 

With a setup like the one above, one vase being larger than the other and one having a faux plant in it while the other doesn’t, you’ll add some extra contrast and presence to the cabinet overall.

5. Combine A Plant & Some Books

Another option is to go with just one vase like this Alanya Ceramic Vase, containing an impressive faux plant, and then pair it up with a small collection of books. Keeping some books on top of the cabinet, instead of inside it, is useful if you have a collection of books that you’re currently reading. Instead of keeping them tucked away inside the cabinet, they’ll be within easy reach on top of it!

Building up the look with an additional vase, especially if it contains a real or faux plant, is a brilliant way to make sure your ‘recent reads’ collection doesn’t look too lonely. You can also get inventive with including some book ends, whether they’re purpose-built or creative alternatives like candles.

6. Add A Useful Bowl

If you don’t already have a decorative bowl somewhere in your home - and even if you do - you should consider adding one to the top of your display cabinet. It’s such a versatile piece of decor, useful for if you need somewhere to store keys, jewellery, spare change, or anything else that’s small and might get lost easily.

Give it a little more presence by putting it on top of a short stack of books, and make sure the rest of the display cabinet’s top surface doesn’t feel empty by adding in a faux plant or a vase like this Rafina Medium Ceramic Urn (or both!).

7. Include A Little Bit Of Everything

Struggling to decide which decor choices to go with? Why not bring everything together with a few different options, such as adding vases with faux plants, a table lamp like this Alanya Ceramic Table Lamp, and a small stack of books? For a bonus, hang a mirror on the wall above your display cabinet to add some extra light and more of a spacious feel to the area around your cabinet.

This works especially well with a long display cabinet, because then you have a little more room to space out the decor. You can still include several different options, without it feeling especially crowded. If you have a shorter surface to work with, then you could try going with smaller or thinner pieces of decor, while still choosing a couple of different types to keep it varied.

8. Use The Floor Space

You don’t have to limit yourself to just the surfaces in and on top of your display cabinet, either. Consider utilising the floor space around and in front of the cabinet as well, like how the Rafina Large Ceramic Urn has been placed in front and to the side of the cabinet above.

It’s a delicate balance, because you don’t want to cover up everything you’ve stored inside the cabinet. But if you keep positioning and placement in mind, you can achieve a look where your freestanding decor doesn’t get in the way of the display!

For a slimmer option, you could consider a plant like the Areca Palm Tree. With it being a little thinner, you have a little more flexibility with where you place it. In fact, spaced out palm leaves can be positioned in front of the cabinet to add an interesting visual without entirely blocking the view inside the cabinet.

9. Add Another Cabinet

If you feel like your display cabinet is lacking a bit of presence, then why not double up on the cabinet itself? Placing another one next to your original cabinet, especially if they have complementing designs like the Greenwich Abstract Wooden Bookshelf above, is a practical idea for additional storage. It also makes more of a statement out of your newly combined display cabinets, turning them into an eye-catching focal point for any room.

It’s Time To Upgrade Your Display Cabinet Decor

If you’re all done with your display cabinet but you’re still in the mood to style some more furniture, then why not check out our tips for how to decorate your console table? Or, if you’ve been eying up some new curtains to go with your newly decorated display cabinet, then we can teach you how to measure for them!