We were traveling In Natchez MS recently.  What fun shopping, antiquing, and of course we had to tour Rosalie House.  I will follow up on a post of our adventures.

Grab a glass of wine this is a long one!!!

I think china cabinets have fallen out of favor because for some they are daunting to decorate, and I have found that most of my clients don’t have a clue as to how to go about styling one.  That being said a china cabinet in any room can be the focal point that is needed.  In my small living room my Welsh Cupboard that you’ve seen here a ton if you’ve been following me for any length of time acts as the focal point  Allowing me to display my antique treasures but keeping them corralled so it doesn’t look like clutter.  Though not a “China Cabinet” the principles are the same.  You can read more about styling this cabinet here Working with Smalls

While wandering thru the streets of Natchez I came across incredible Antique Shops and in one I happened upon the piece I was looking for.  Not to buy, but for this post.  A Federal Period Breakfront.  Breakfront because the center section protrudes forward a couple of inches. The cabinet upper is actually made of 3 separate compartments allowing you to adjust the shelves independently of each other.  Highly figured mahogany this cabinet could be made to work in any environment. From Period to just the right punctuation to a modern room.  It is gorgeous, and huge.  Designed for a room with at least 10′ ceilings so it actually has more shelves than most modern cabinets.  

The challenge with decorating a china cabinet is the doors and shelves.  I often find myself saying a little more to the left!  Let’s analyze this piece.  

The First Visual:  Each cabinet door is divided into 3 sections with the top Gothic arch being the largest compartment.  

The Second Visual:  The thicker horizontal lines are the shelves, while the thinner lines are the mullions (window panes) on the doors.  The left and center compartments are messed up.  If you look at the right side of the cabinet the shelves are spaced properly. Lined up with the mullions and evenly between the mullions. This gives you 6 surfaces to use as display with 5 shelves.  Between all three compartments that makes 18 spaces!  Yikes, way to much.  In the center section the top 2 shelves have been dropped down, where as the third shelf has been moved up and the bottom shelf is positioned correctly, the same height as the mullion on the cabinet door.

The Third Visual:  The top 2 on the left and right are breaking at a different height from center giving you  a chaotic visual line before you’ve placed one thing in the cabinet.  This is one time where you want the furniture to play the music and the accessories to be the supporting role.  Have I lost you yet?

• Step One:  Decide what goes in the cabinet.  Hopefully you’ve had your conversation with yourself about how to analyze your “stuff”.  See this post How to Style a China Cabinet – Part I.  Line the shelves up with the mullions to create a clean line.  Now is the time to determine if you need to remove any shelves to accommodate the larger items you want to display.  I promise you this is ok!  I find removing shelves is one of the most transformative things you can do in a china cabinet.  This enables you to think outside the box.  Is there a smaller piece of art, a tall vase, a great pot or basket, or your favorite grandmothers china!
•  Step Two:  In choosing your items try to find a common thread.  I refer you back to the above post.  You don’t want everything to be random.  It is a balancing act.  It can be color, texture, or type and you want to be able to repeat those similar components throughout the cabinet.  Think of the cabinet as a tapestry or a still life.  Lot’s of different components to create the whole. 
• Step Three: Treat each vertical and horizontal line as a compartment within the shelf space. Again using the still life painting for an example while other compartments will be treated like a one off.  One singular item within that compartment.  The eye needs a place to rest.  Also, consider the scale of the compartment and the objects that you want to use.  You don’t want to crowd a compartment by placing too large an item in that space, alternately you don’t want to loose an item because it is too small for the compartment.
• Step Four:  Some compartments in your cabinet will require  “back drop”.  An anchor for the items placed in front of it.  Back drop will also move the eye from one component to the next and create a rhythm for the eye to move around the cabinet.  Back drop can be a platter or plates, chargers etc.  But back drop could be something more graphic like a game board, a small painting that would get lost on a wall or on a table but create magic in a cabinet, a wicker or tin tray.  There are so many things that can be used to anchor your vignette.  Just look around your home with a fresh eye.
• Step Five:  Place your larger items first, keeping in mind that some compartments can have one item in them.  Remember to give the eye a rest.  I usually will start in the middle and work my way out.  These are usually my backdrop pieces but again this could be a larger vase or sculpture too.
• Step Six:  Balance is probably the most important aspect of achieving a beautifully finished cabinet.  Balance in color, balance in weight, and balance in height.  For instance, if you place a blue and white vase in the top left corner compartment you want to repeat that color in a different compartment on the right.   It is always good to repeat a color, texture, shape or size three times in a cabinet.  Don’t group all your blue items together and not repeat them elsewhere in the cabinet.  This will be the thing that forces your eye to travel.
• Step Seven:  Everything has it’s height in which it should be viewed.  Some things view better from the bottom shelves an example would be a bowl with a beautiful design on the inside.  If you put it on a mid to upper shelf you are totally loosing what is appealing about the bowl.  Don’t be afraid to tilt a bowl on an easel.  It creates a different shape and can be quite interesting.  A figurine or sculpture with eyes views better at eye level.  If the eyes are looking up it goes on a mid shelf if the eyes are looking down it goes on an upper shelf.  Again these are tricks which allows your eye to travel around the cabinet.  Most of us don’t use figurines anymore but there is a place for them and I still have a few that I love.  They make great bookends!  
• Step Eight:  Bring on the books!  People are not book collectors anymore but a few well placed books are probably one of the greatest tools to creating balance in your cabinet.  It creates texture, isolates space, and can act as a riser to lift an object above a mullion.  They can anchor a grouping of small objects that could get lost in a cabinet compartment if just set on a shelf alone.  I don’t subscribe to turning the books around but then I collect antique books.  You can paint the bindings with chalk paint to give them a more uniform appeal. 

In 2015, I was asked to teach a class on “How to Style a China Cabinet” for a Holiday Open House.  The elements in this cabinet really have no relationship, other than the fact that they had to be larger.

The shelves were not adjustable and were basically evenly spaced.  I only had the 3 shelves to work with so on the top and bottom shelves I created back drop with the framed picture of the boy on top and a tray placed in the middle on the bottom.  I then placed the Demi Jon bottle on the top shelf along with a French pottery vase.  This balanced the height of the picture and also filled the space.  

On the second shelf a placed a piece of scrunched up burlap to anchor that shelf and the smaller items I would eventually place on top of it.  Notice the burlap is very random and it dips down over the edge of the shelf.  Then I placed the large silver punch bowl and a cloche with a birds nest in it.

On the third shelf I repeated the burlap and placed a beloved Santa that I brought from home and a lidded round box that belonged to the shop.

Now it was time to add the supporting players.  To reinforce the holiday theme I added the HO HO HO forcing your eye to travel from left to right.  A shore bird stick up sculpture with a tiny boxwood wreath around it’s neck which is hard to see.  The Peace beads could be draped around the bottle all year round.

On the middle shelf I added glitter ornaments to the punch bowl which could be changed to fruit or textured balls for a different season.  Then I repeated the Santa theme with a beloved Santa from my own collection carved by a family friend.  Stuck in the small faux tree for more texture and height.  To keep the eye traveling I just stuck an evergreen pick under the foot of the punch bowl, but the thing that really popped on that shelf was the small wooden pale laying on it’s side with white antique bobbins spilling out.  Can you get more random than that?  If that pale was standing up it would just be more stuff on a shelf.  Look for the most interesting way to display something.  With the spill it catches the eye and again forces that movement.

On the bottom shelf the Santa is kind of peaking out behind the burlap, the paper star in front repeats the sparkle from the glittered ornaments above, while the smaller cloche with the limes and mercury glass ornaments repeats the green elements in the cabinet and the boxwood ball on top of the round box reinforces and balances the bottom shelf.

Random things but lets look at what they have in common.  The boy and two Santa’s all have eyes and faces!  The Demi Jon and the 2 cloches are glass creating shine.  The glitter ornaments, and star add sparkle.  And the mercury glass ornaments, silver bowl and the metal shore bird add a silver element.  The wood frame, pottery vase, burlap, and Santa’s all create texture.  All the green elements create an organic feel for the space.  A Still Life of Memories.  Ok maybe just made up memories but it works!

• Step Nine:  Open and close your doors often.  Remember I said everything has a height in which it is meant to be viewed.  You don’t want to spend all this time arranging a cabinet only to close the doors and have your favorite things hidden by the door frames or mullions.  A little more to the left!  Sometimes the distance of a 1/4″ can make a difference.  Keep adjusting for the door frame.  It may require editing and removing something that is not working.  In the cabinet above I was leaving the doors open but if closed you would loose the items in the middle.  That’s why I recommend treating each compartment.  With this cabinet and closed doors I would have styled it differently.

A cabinet I did for a client.  Notice how the top shelf isn’t lined up with the mullions.  I needed that extra inch for the large charger she had and wanted to use.  Do as I say not as I do!  The vase to the left I placed on books to lift the foot up over the mullion. It is essential to make sure each item is visually anchored to the surface.  The photo on the bottom shelf needs to be lifted.  I ran out of books.  This is very spare but I still think effective.  The clock, old camera and antique binoculars lend a bit of the industrial vibe while the basket adds a bit of texture and the bottle a bit of sparkle.

Try to include something shiny, something dull and something that sparkles in your vignettes.

• Step 10:  Treat yourself to a glass of wine.  You deserve it after all the mind bending you’ve gone thru not to mention reading this post!

I hope this helps you as you settle into your holiday planning.  If you have questions just leave me a message in comments.

Thanks for stopping

Shelley