How to display your trinkets and treasures without it looking cluttered
If you’re anything like us, you enjoy finding, collecting and displaying those lovely little trinkets and treasures that can be found on travels and are often bought as treasured reminders of happy holidays or fun days out.
Some trinkets may be very valuable, but some may ‘just’ be sentimental. But they all bring us joy and can pull a room together to show your personality and style. It’s often these little ‘finishing touches’ that make a room feel homely and welcoming.
We have some tips to help you avoid the cluttered look though, because it can creep up on you and before you know it you’re beginning to worry that your friend’s think your home resembles something off Britain’s Biggest Hoarders. Read on for tips to help you style your display cabinet while avoiding the cluttered look.
1. Is your display cabinet big enough for all your treasures?
If, over time you have collected a lot of ‘stuff’ your display cabinet may have become rather overcrowded. Take a look at the vast array of display cabinets we have available for sale here at Edmunds & Clarke for a suitable replacement or addition.
2. Take some time to go through your trinkets – do you really need them all?
Tastes and fashions change – do you still want to keep all of those treasures? If you do, then that’s fine but there is a lot to be said for ‘Marie Kondo-ing’ your way through those items that have built up over time – if they no longer bring you joy, then maybe it’s time to have a garage sale or take some bits to the charity shop so they can bring someone else joy instead. If any of your bits and pieces have significant value you should get them valued by a professional before selling or discarding them.
3. Group your items
Are there any themes within your collections? You could group them by colour or shape or whatever commonality they share to showcase your treasures as cohesive collections per shelf. If you collect a specific type of china or glassware, then you could group all those items together.
4. Display your items in uneven groups
Uneven numbers of items often look better – we see it everywhere – chefs use this ‘rule’ to make their plates look good enough to eat, flower arrangers do it too – three stems in a vase look better than four. Three is, after all, the magic number, right?
5. Be playful with the scale
Your displays will look better if you can be a bit playful with the size of the items you display together – you don’t have to line everything up perfectly, you can mix it up a little to create interest. By displaying a tall item next to a smaller one or a fatter one, you can begin to create interesting shapes with the empty space around the items too (the empty space is very important to help you avoid the cluttered look).
6. Think about lighting
Some of the display cabinets we have available here at Edmunds & Clarke have integrated lighting, which is a great way to create a warm corner or nook within your room. Lighting is such an important part of styling a room – you may not be able to discern if it’s ‘right’, but you always know when it’s ‘wrong’. Lighting can help make a room feel warm and welcoming or bright and airy or on the flip side, cold and harsh or even empty and soulless. Take a look at the range of lighting options we have available – there is bound to be something there that will help elevate your display from the mundane to the sublime – perhaps a floor lamp near the display cabinet or a desk lamp on a lamp table nearby will do the trick?
The most important tip we can offer you is that if you like the way your display looks, then it is a good display! Your taste and style is the most important thing here. Also, have fun with your displays, you deserve to enjoy them and for them to give you pleasure every time your gaze drifts over to your display cabinet.
If you prefer to touch and feel your furniture before buying, then please come and visit us at our showroom in Bury St Edmunds, where you can talk to our knowledgeable and friendly staff about your display cabinet needs.
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