How to Arrange a Dish Cabinet
A dish cabinet serves as both a decorative element and a practical organizer. Arranging your dish cabinet with an eye to both function and a designer effect results in a display that's both convenient and pleasing to view. Careful placement reduces the risk of damage and gives you convenient access to your dishes and serving items. Basic guidelines for displaying and organizing dishes give you a neat and balanced dish cabinet. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Organize the items you use the least often on the top shelf. Place smaller or multiple items at the back and fill the front with display pieces, such as pitchers and serving bowls. For example, if you only use the dessert plates and coffee cups and saucers that match your china on holidays, put those at the back of the top shelf. Arrange the large items across the front for an uncluttered and appealing display — such as a pitcher in the center with a serving bowl on each side of it.
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Arrange the items you use most on the shelves at the center of the dish cabinet where they're easy to reach. Place dinner plates at eye level. If there are slats or grooves at the back of a shelf to hold plates in an upright, display position, set plates on edge to display them. Stack the remaining dinner plates in front of them. Alternatively, display the serving platters across the back.
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Organize salad plates and soup bowls on the shelf below the dinner plates. Divide the bowls into two or three stacks containing an equal number of pieces, depending on how many are in your set. Avoid creating stacks that are taller than half the space between the shelf and the one above it, to avoid instability and a crowded effect. Divide salad plates the same way. Place the bowls on one side and the plates on the other, leaving at least 2 inches between each stack so they're convenient to get in and out of the dish cabinet.
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Display glassware on a separate shelf from the dishes on a central shelf that's in reach of everyone who sets the table — if the glasses are too high, there's a greater risk of breakage. If you want to keep wine glasses in the cabinet, display them in rows from back to front on one side of the shelf and line up water glasses and then juice glasses on the other side.
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Display other dishes that match the set in the remaining space. Place the sugar bowl and creamer in front of cups and saucers on a central shelf if your dish set includes these and you use them regularly. Line up the gravy boat, the serving bowls you use the most often, a pitcher and other items you want to show at the front of a lower shelf.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep items that you tend to use at the same time near each other. For example, keep dessert plates and dessert bowls on the same shelf.
References
Resources
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