China Cabinet in Living Room Ideas: How to Organize and Decorate

A china cabinet in the living room can provide much-needed storage and a pretty place to display your favourite dishes and vintage finds. If you don’t have a separate dining room, finding a spot for such a large piece of furniture can take a little rearranging.

We purchased our full-sized china cabinet for our former home, where it had a designated dining room. Our newer home has an open floor plan without an obvious place for it, but I still needed the dish storage. Here’s how I found a corner for it and organized the cabinet to suit our living room.

Where to Put the Tall China Cabinet

Our main living area has a long wall with lovely large windows. They bring in welcome light during our long winter months, but leave little wall space for furniture. The other short wall has a fireplace that’s the focal point of the room. The one remaining blank wall is where I typically keep the couch so I can sit and look out the windows.

As you can see, there’s no obvious spot for a tall china cabinet with glass doors. I spent a few hours moving my china cabinet from corner to corner, finally deciding on a corner of our family room. It wasn’t the perfect spot, but it worked. The longer I have it there, the more I love it.

Tucked in the corner, the china cabinet doesn’t overwhelm the room. It’s far enough away from the fireplace that it doesn’t compete for attention. I placed a chair in front of it to help it feel like part of the seating area, then opened one cabinet door and hung vintage linens over it. The linens act like a piece of artwork behind the chair.

Finally, I placed some living room decor on top of the china cabinet. It’s not the perfect spot, but I love it now, and finding an arrangement that makes you happy is what decorating your home is all about.

So look for a corner someplace in your home, that maybe you could slide your china cabinet into, and give it some decor that gives it less of a dining room look.

Decorating the China Cabinet

So now  that its part of the family room I needed to rearrange the articles within the cabinet.

My china cabinet has two parts, the bottom section with doors that I love, and the tall glass section that I wasn’t sure what to do with.  I honestly considered tossing the upper glass door section out, but kept it because I need all the dish storage I can find, and Hubs likes this cabinet just as it is.

As the china cabinet is in the living room I didn’t want to display my antique china.  Its very nice, but definitely states its for a dining room setting.

My preferred colour for most things is white including most of my dinner and serving ware.  Start by sorting your items into categories that work for you.   By colour, and size is a good place to start, large bowls, platters, vases etc.  The dishes that didn’t fit into a useful category I donated away.  I said goodbye to quite a few teal pieces, but someone else will love them for me.

If tossing is hard for you, just think of another woman who can seriously use them.  For decades a thrift store was the only place I could buy pretty things.  Something nice and modern was truly exciting to find.  When I donate I always do so with this imaginary woman in mind.

Organizing the Dishes behind Cabinet Doors

For the closed door section, stack in as many dishes as possible.  As you can tell by the picture this section has nothing to do with pretty, but its functional and I holds a large 8 piece setting of antique stoneware with  left over room for lots of small clutter pieces.

Sort the dishes by type and stack neatly. want to use some stacking shelve so your delicate pieces aren’t stacked too high.  ms are all sorted and then stacked neatly. You may want to purchase some stacking shelves so your delicate pieces aren’t stacked too high.  For messy items you can even use a container or two, the plastic container holds all my seafood lanterns, crab forks etc.  Once done I was pleased to see I even have a little bit of room left.

The items in this portion aren’t on display, but they are easily retrievable, I can see what I have and they are stored securely to avoid breakage.

The China Cabinet Drawers

My china cabinet has two lovely drawers, I use the drawers for things like napkins, and steak knives.  Some year I will get silverware.  Right?  I sure hope so.  But for now these drawers are handy for holding dining knick knacks.

Behind a China Cabinets Glass Doors

Now comes the fiddly part.  I had to maximize storage while making it as “pretty” as possible.  This is the sequence I suggest working with for your own items.

Large Platters

Next I placed any large platters on the back wall of the china cabinet. Holding them in place stick on tabs from command hangers.pushed along the bottom so they won’t slide forward.   If you don’t have command hanger tabs I often use dollar store poster putty.

Largest Serving Pieces

Next came an assortment of big bowls and servers. Place them so now two large pieces are together.  Try your placement several times, moving them around until it looks balanced, not too many large items on one shelf, or on one side of the cabinet.

I find pedestal dishes so handy, if you have pedestal plates place them between the large bowls, stacking smaller ones if your shelf height allows.

I still have one very large clear pedestal plate to deal with. For now its packed into the basement where it can nag at me to put it away properly somewhere.

Small Ornaments & Vases

Finally came the smallest pieces.  This was the easiest part, because I was able to stuff lots of them inside the bottom portion of my cabinet.  I kept out the vases that I use regularly and my vintage glassware.  If you still have more buy a couple of baskets, place on top of the cabinet, and put them in there.  The one on top of my cabinet is currently empty, but I know I will fill it with some white dish garage sale find.

I grouped my small items in groups of 3 or five.  The bigger items (and less pretty ones) in the back.

Decorating the China Cabinet

The open cabinet door and shelves are a little bit show cased.  Place your favorite pieces in these areas, and find something you love to hang over the door.  I can be linens, or maybe a piece of stained glass, or even a small wreath.  For my cabinet I went into my antique linens.  The white embroidered linen was made by my grandmother and is at least 90 years old.  I use to have tea parties on it as a little girl, its precious to me so this is one of the rare occasions I display it.

My favorite milk glass piece has handmade lace of my mothers, and finished it off with modern black farmhouse decor and some greenery.

On the top of the china cabinet I  shopped at home, found a basket, a bird cage and a pitcher that use to be inside the china cabinet.  The final touch was some greenery.

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