Glass display cabinets are a wonderful way to turn your beautiful belongings into design features without leaving fragile items at risk of damage.

But shoving your chosen objects in a haphazard mess won’t do your belongings – or your glass cabinet – justice. Instead, you need to carefully curate it, ensuring items complement each other and make a cohesive whole that draws attention for the right reasons.

Sound like a complicated ask? Worry not, in this post we’ll give you some easy-to-follow tips so that once you’ve picked the perfect display cabinet for your space, you can make sure the treasures inside look their best too.

Start with a clean clear space

If you’re arranging (or rearranging) your glass display cabinet, it’s the perfect opportunity to carry out a deep clean.

Start by emptying your cabinet. Wipe down the shelves, or base with a soft microfibre cloth, making sure to get into the corners. A damp cloth or spritz of cleaner will help keep dust on the cloth rather than in the air, but doing this first will stop displaced dust from dirtying spaces you’ve already cleaned.

When this is done, clean the glass. Using a specialist glass cleaner can help you minimise splashes and streaks, but still take care not to use too much.

After damp cleaning make sure to buff it dry with a very soft cloth – if possible, leave it to dry naturally as well. Moisture left inside an enclosed glass space is likely to fog or dampen the class and could even damage the items inside so get your cabinet as dry as possible before refilling it.

You don’t want any moisture left inside an enclosed glass space as it may fog the glass, or be unable to evaporate.

You should also clean the items you’re planning to display.

Find a theme for the contents

Try to see what connects the items you keep in your glass cabinet. It could be something as straightforward as their age, material or style.

Examples of ‘themes’ you could use include wood, porcelain, coastal, Wedgewood, coloured glass, brass, Victorian or even just colour.

These groupings can in turn create an overarching aesthetic feel for your display. For example, collecting together items made of wood can help build a rustic feel, while metal items with sharp lines can help create an overall sense of modernism or minimalism.

Once you’ve found these themes, organise the content of your display cabinet in line with them. If you have a range of different aesthetic objects, pick a theme for each shelf. Where possible, making your entire glass cabinet display follow a single theme can create a big impact.

 

You can also use contrast within these groupings to create a focal point.

Embrace odd numbers

Tempting as it might be to stay tied to symmetry, grouping items in odd numbers often looks better (and leaves you with more options on what to display together.)

There is still symmetry in threes, fives and sevens (just graduated) and it looks a lot more cohesive when using items with subtle differences. These differences become features instead of issues.

If you have a lot of identical items, then pairs and even numbers can create impact but odd numbers give you more freedom to shuffle items around.

Mix up size and height

If possible, try to include objects of different sizes in your display. Particularly use varying heights.

Avoid blocking smaller items with taller ones, but build a gradient within the display space. Photo frames, vases, bottles, jugs or crockery can all help add height and make your cabinet look more multi-dimensional.

If all your items are similar in size or height, stagger their placement more (and use odd number groupings) to stop the display feeling flat.

Change up textures

Another way to add more dimension to a glass display cabinet is creating contrast with textures. Pairing something rough, such as unfinished driftwood with something silky smooth like sea glass, will emphasise the tactile nature of your displayed items.

This will, in turn, add interest to the items in your cabinet by engaging with an extra sense (touch). Your mind will factor in a tactile appreciation from seeing it, even without actually experiencing it through touch.

Light it carefully

If you want the contents of your cabinet to really shine, you need to light it correctly. With a glass cabinet, that is easier to do than other cabinets, but it may still need work.

With a fully glass display cabinet, your items will already enjoy the maximum amount of ambient light possible, but is this enough? Even if your case isn’t hemmed into a dark corner, it might benefit from its own light source.

A light fitting directly above can help minimise shadows but isn’t easy to install. A lamp takes minutes to set up, but lighting from only one side will leave your cabinet cluttered with shadows.

Fitting lights inside the cabinet gives you the most control but even then, you need to decide how to fit them. Directional spotlights let you control the angle of the light but can be more fiddly to calibrate while using LED striplights can keep the light cast consistent but aren’t visually appealing in themselves.

Weigh up your options carefully and find the one that works best for you.

Don’t skimp on objects

Fear of creating a cluttered cabinet might make you wary of how many items you include but don’t go too far in the other direction. If you have too few items in your display cabinet, it can leave too much empty space, leaving it feeling bare and the items inside feeling scattered and disjointed.

The perfect display sits somewhere in between. Usually, though, that does involve more objects than you’d imagine.

One of the benefits of glass display cabinets is that they feel less messy and overstuffed than something with a solid back. But the downside of this is how easy it is to leave a glass case feeling empty.

Following our other tips (grouping items, varying heights) will help with this too but it is important not to be too sparing with contents. Make the most of the space you have and the benefits of this type of case by using plenty of objects.

And to ensure an eye-catching display – get a custom-made glass display cabinet….

If you want to make sure your display case is a truly stylish statement, a custom-glass case is always the best option. We can make a bespoke glass cabinet that meets your exact measurements, so you can make sure it fits the space it’s in perfectly. Whether you want to slot it into an awkward nook, or make sure it matches the overall dimensions of your room without looking dominating or dwarfed, we can help. Speak to us today to find out more.

 

4 Creative ways to repurpose old windows

We recently looked at how sustainable glass is as a building material. One of the main conclusions we drew was that the sustainability of any material can be decided by what happens to it, once it reaches the end of its lifespan.

While glass can be recycled, this isn’t always the easiest way to dispose of it. But there are other ways to squeeze extra life from your windows when they’re no longer providing the insulation or performance that you need. 

Here are a few creative suggestions of ways you can reuse your windows to get even more use out of them, rather than relegating them to the recycling plant.

 

Creative ways to reuse or repurpose your windows

Traditional-style windows with beautiful glazing bars can be the hardest windows to say goodbye to. Often expensive, these windows can take on a new rustic charm as they age and actually increase their appeal. With a new lick of paint, or even more deliberate distressing, they can become a beautiful centrepiece in your home. 

A photo frame

Printed photos are becoming something of a dying art, and a sideboard scattered with small photo frames can look like clutter in a minimalist modern home.

A window with glazing bars comes with its own inbuilt dividers to help you house several related photos. Whether you have a selection of captured family memories or a more artistic collection of prints, a window frame can help tie them together as one cohesive wall decoration that frees up your surface space and has its own design identity.

If you’re repurposing a rustic-looking timber frame, then sepia or desaturated photos will carry on the aesthetic, while a more contrast-heavy black and white set fits perfectly with thinner aluminium frames.

Mirror

If the glass in your window is the problem, not the frame, pop it out (then recycle) and replace the panes with mirror panels instead. This works just as well for plain window frames, as it does for ones with decorative mullions, transoms or glazing bars.

It can work with any sized frame too. As large mirrors with sturdy frames can be quite expensive, reusing your window frame as a mirror frame can actually be very cost-effective as well as an attractive design addition.

Best of all, a strategically placed mirror can completely change the look and feel of a room. You can maximise the sense of space, increase the natural light and make your living space a happier place to be. All out of a functional item that is no longer fit for its original purpose.

Headboard

Another wall decoration idea for reusing old windows is to mount them behind your bed as a headboard.

This is great if you have a very large window or a couple of smaller ones that can be used together. Make sure they are securely mounted to the way with heavy-duty hangers, and remove the glass for maximum safety but this can be a beautiful and unusual addition to your bedroom, especially as the wall above a bed is often left plain.

Again, the frame can be matched to the look of your bedroom too. Timber frames can be stripped back and refinished to match the look of your bedroom furniture whether that’s painted or stained. Aluminium frames can also be repainted with a little care, and the clean lines and finish will still add a stylish twist to a more minimalist home.

Build A Greenhouse

If you’re looking for a more functional use for your old windows, using them to build a greenhouse will really make the most of their remaining practical features.

While an old double-glazed window may not still have the insulating power you need to keep your heating bills down and home warm, they will do a far better job than most cheap greenhouses or polytunnels.

The amount of windows you have access to will dictate the size of greenhouse you can achieve, but even if you only have one or two you can use them as a roof for a small growing box that will let sunshine flood in and protect fragile plants from frosts.

Keep your home sustainable by recycling your windows

A well-insulated home is a more sustainable home, and this means having double-glazing units that are performing at their peak, as well as finding a new use for the old ones once they’ve started to fail.

If you’re looking to update your glazing, speak to us today to secure high-quality replacements that will pay for themselves.