Ever struggle with how to decorate a glass front cabinet? Whether you have a curio cabinet, a china cabinet, or glass front kitchen cupboards, I’ve got 10 styling ideas to make your glass front cabinet displays beautiful.

Glass front cabinets can be found on many pieces of furniture and also built into homes. Sometimes looking at all those shelves can be intimidating. Today I’m going to share some fun decorating ideas for those glass front cabinets that will convince you how valuable they are for your home’s decor! Here are 10 Styling Ideas That Make Glass Front Cabinet Displays Beautiful.

This post is part of the Lifestyle of Love series, dreamed up by the creative Cindy of County Road 407. This talented group of bloggers all show how we love and use vintage, antiques, farmhouse, and repurposed in our homes. If you’re visiting from The Crowned Goat, welcome! I’m sure you enjoyed  how CoCo beautifully styled her dining room hutch!

For more of our Lifestyle of Love post series, see HERE.

This month we are focusing on our love of cabinets and hutches! I can’t wait to see all the beauty these ladies have come up with! I’ll have all their post links at the end.

Decorating a Hutch or a Cabinet?

Glass front cabinets, china cabinets and hutches are a great way to maximize your decorating space without making your home cluttered. You can create a theme that’s all contained in one space and switch it up for the seasons, if you like. Bonus if your piece has storage in addition to display space!

If you’re space challenged, definitely make use of cabinets in your decor. Whether they have glass fronts on them, or if you’ve taken the doors off, you will enjoy seeing all your treasured finds!

10 Styling Ideas That Make Glass Front Cabinet Displays Beautiful

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission. There is no additional cost to you. My full privacy policy is here. 

Make the Background of Your Glass Front Cabinet Interesting

Before you add anything to your cabinet, think about the back wall. How can you make the backdrop of your display interesting? You can paint it, add a texture like beadboard or rustic wood, or even hang patterned wallpaper, fabric or decorative paper. Depending on what you’re going to display, you can really punch up the wow factor with something fun!

Another idea is to hang a decorative accessory on the back wall of your cupboard. A pretty wreath, frame, or plate can set off your vignette beautifully.

{“3 Steps to Displaying your Collections Beautifully”}

Style Your Cabinet Display With a Color Theme

Decide on a color theme to decorate your cabinet display. Choose seasonal colors, or coordinate with a special party you’re hosting. Starting with a color theme of 3 or 4 colors is often where I start when styling my glass front cabinets.

In our upstairs hallway, we moved a door and built in an old glass front cabinet on the top and a vintage dresser beneath it. Here’s how differently it looks with a Spring color scheme of blues, greens and purples compared to Fall colors of oranges, golds and browns. The glass doors were given a rest, which gave me even more depth to decorate. (It can be a nice change to take glass doors off for a different look, too)

When I styled this seasonal switch, I tried to use almost the same types of accessories in the same locations. Notice the similarities?

{“How to Decorate to Thrift the Look, Garden-Inspired Decor”}

{“Decorating the Bookshelves for Fall: The Rule of 3, Multiplied”}

Style a Cabinet Focused on One Color

For a fun change, how about filling your cabinet with accessories all focused on one color? It can provide a dramatic seasonal look to your home decor.

For Fall, I displayed the glass front cabinet in our kitchen with all brown accessories. I used a variety of textures for interest. It can be fun to look all around your house for your accessories in one color!

Display a Favorite Collection in Your Glass Front Cabinet

All those wonderful shelves can happily display one of your vintage collections. Pretty glassware, vintage cameras or typewriters, or some other valued collection you’ve been hunting down for years, corral it all together for impact. My great grandmother’s primitive jelly cupboard is a treasure. Someday I’m going to give it the refresh treatment it deserves. But I love it’s display space up top and the storage down below.

A collection of colorful enamelware teapots join colorful books in this cabinet display.

Use a Repeating Shape When Styling the Shelves

Repeating shapes is one of the hidden tricks of good styling. Use many different objects that all share the same shape, but are made of different materials. Your eyes happily jump around from thing to thing and is pleased to see the harmony, without even noticing it. 

This display showcases the circle shape on many different vintage finds. Other round objects multiply the effect.

To Balance Your Display, Think of an “X”

Styling a big bank of shelves in a large cabinet display can be intimidating. Start with larger anchor pieces and place them in an X; top left, bottom right, bottom left, top right. The middle of the X can be a larger object or objects, too. This will keep your display from getting too “heavy”.

When I style the big canvas of my kitchen glass front cupboards, this design concept comes in handy. Notice the similarities in the diagonals.

Add a Wide Variety of Textures to Your Display

You can decorate your glass front cabinet display a thousand different ways, but it can be fun to bring in a wide variety of textures. I consciously go through a checklist in my mind of all the different surface materials I’m using: glass, wood, metal, woven, painted, foliage. It’s a great way to think of accessories you may have somewhere in your home you hadn’t thought of using.

Create an En Masse Display

At the total opposite end of the spectrum is to create a display with all one thing. Kind of like using a collection, styling with all one item can be both relaxing and exciting at the same time. I love stuffing a whole cabinet with vintage books with their pages sticking out. Or, have the binding sides out and group them by color. This type of display can be artistic and bring an eclectic flair to your home. Plus…it’s easy!

For more creative book decor ideas:

“Decorating with Old Books: The Different Types You Should Collect”

“21 Creative Ways to Use Old Books for Decoration”

Decorate with Glass Front Cabinet Displays in Every Room

I’ve found that glass front cabinets are a great way to display a lot of fun accessories without getting your home decor too busy. I love my vintage things, but don’t like my home to feel too busy (or get too dusty!). Exactly why we’ve built in old cupboard display cabinets, designed glass front kitchen doors, and spread refreshed furniture pieces in different rooms. Even bedrooms are great places for glass front cabinets to corral pretty accessories.

{“Vintage Modern Bedroom Makeover Reveal”}

Hang a Pretty Wreath or Accent on the Outside of the Cabinet, Too

Think beyond just decorating the inside of the cupboard or cabinet. You can have fun with the outside, too! A wreath can hang beautifully from the latch or knobs, or you can drape garland across the doors for a festive touch.

See 10+ Brilliant Places to Hang a Wreath for more creative wreath-hanging ideas.

Create a Vignette on the Top of the Cabinet with Larger Accessories

Last, but definitely not least, the top of a cabinet or hutch is a fun canvas to feature larger items that don’t fit inside. You can either carry through the theme you’ve got going inside the cupboard, or block off the glass fronts if showing the inside would be too busy.

See “7 Ideas for Decorating the Top of Armoires, Bookcases (or any tall furniture)” for more ideas.

Get more display ideas in “How to Style a Hutch for Every Season”

Have I convinced you that you need more glass front cabinets in your life? I hope so! They hold so much decorating potential and can be used in any room of your home. They’re a great way to enjoy all the fun vintage things without getting too cluttery. And if you’re square-feet challenged, like me, they are a big decorating bang for the footprint. 

Thanks for reading 10 Styling Ideas That Make Glass Front Cabinet Displays Beautiful! If you enjoyed your visit, be sure to Become an Insider so I can send the ideas right to you! You can Sign Up HERE.

Follow Me: LTK | Amazon | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook

Pin, Share, and Enjoy the Rest of the Inspiration!

Lifestyle of Love: Hutches and Cabinets

Sharing at these lovely parties:

Farmhouse Friday

DIY Salvaged Junk Projects