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How To Display Antique and Vintage Collections

By Rachel

published 02/16/2024

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Last Updated on October 23, 2024 by Rachel Granholm

Learn how to beautifully display antique and vintage collections!

Collections of beautiful pieces, whether that be antique, vintage, or something else, gives your home personality and soul. So, how can you style you’re collections so that stay fresh, updated, and not feeling stagnant? Well, I’ll show you! Join me as I teach you how to display antique and vintage collections so they feel always feel timeless.

Table of Contents

Budget-Friendly Tips for Styling Decor, Book, or Art Collections

To me, the best part about collecting your favorite types of items is the journey of it all. Curating and adding to your storied collections is such a thrill, always on the hunt for ‘just one more’.

Going thrifting is my very favorite way to source ‘new’ pieces to add to my growing collections. Whether it be milk glass, enamelware, creamers or copper, there’s just something special about bringing a found piece home and placing it with the others.

Shop the Look!

Creative Ways To Display Antique and Vintage Collections

1. Group Items Together in Odd Numbers

Groupings of odd numbered items are more comfortable to the eye.

I especially love groupings of three or five.

Instead of having all of those pieces in one spot, try breaking the collection up into groupings and displaying them in different parts of your home. For example, play around with displaying three on an end table in your living room, five more on a shelf, and three more on a credenza.

Move your pieces around until you find groupings that feel cohesive to you. Depending on the size of your space, you can also try groupings of seven, as well!

2. Style Collections On Top of Cabinets

Wooden cabinets are not only beautiful pieces of furniture but they are perfect for holding collections, as well.

You can buy new cabinets with glass doors from any retail store these days but I prefer searching antique shops for them.

Old cabinets, especially wood ones, have so much character and will show off your collections in a gorgeous way. An added benefit of displaying curated pieces in a glass front cabinet is that you can mix and match different collections together.

You can pair glass jars, milk glass, vintage books, and ironstone together. The cabinet base makes it all feel cohesive.

To add height to your cabinet display, try using vintage books to put underneath some of the pieces. For dimension, insert some faux greenery stems into your display.

You can either try putting stems in items like jars or bowls or laying them on the shelf itself. The joy is in using your creativity to showcase your special collections. That’s what creates a home that is filled with charm and soul!

3. Utilize a Picture Rail to Display Collections

Picture rails are one of my favorite ways to display collections. They allow for creativity and expression, creating a display that is one-of-a-kind and can be re-arranged easily.

Picture rails allow you to display many pieces in a meaningful way without sacrificing floor space.

When it comes to styling a picture rail to display a collection, the beauty about it is that are no rules. My suggestion would be to lay out all the pieces on the floor that you would like to use on the picture rail and then just start arranging.

Keep moving your decor around until you are happy with how it looks. I wrote a whole blog post about about styling decor using picture rails. Feel free to check out that post for some more helpful ideas!

4. Hang a Collection From Hooks

For a collection of smaller pieces, try utilizing some pretty hooks! You can easily find vintage-inspired hooks at the hardware store.

Arrange the hooks in a pattern- like way on a wall, similar to a gallery wall. You can also screw your hooks into wooden boards or pallets and then hang those on the wall.

By hanging up your collection, you create a unique visual interest, almost like an art piece. You can also rotate what you have hanging up on your hooks, either seasonally or if you just need a change.

5. Display Collections On Open Shelving

Open shelving is the simplest way that I have found to display collections because you can move and switch things around easily.

You can personalize the shelving to fit your space in terms of size, color, hardware, and placement of them. There are many options to choose from in stores and online or you can choose to make your own!

By displaying a vintage or antique collection on open shelving, it truly is a curation of who you are and what you love.

Like a piece of art, you are letting whoever sees it to depict it in their own way. Your collection will be viewed differently by each person who looks at it.

Closing Tidbits on How to Display Antique and Vintage Collections

My hope is that these ideas for how to display antique and vintage collections were a help to you. It can feel overwhelming sometimes to figure out what to do with your very special pieces.

Try out one of the suggestions above or come up with your own way! Let creativity lead you and find joy in the process.

Let me know in the comments below which one of these ideas you want to try out for your collections!

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If you are new here, I’m Rachel, the writer and content creator here at The Antiqued Journey. I’m so happy to have you! I encourage you to stop by the ‘about me’ page to get to know me a little more.

Here on the blog, you will find loads of inspiration for decorating with vintage and antique decor, simple DIY crafts and many thrifting adventures. If that interests you, I invite you to sign up for my e-mail. You will receive a free digital download as a thank you!