DIY: How To Make A Curio Cabinet

by Mia M.

Learn how to make a DIY curio cabinet in a few easy steps – as well as some fun and practical ideas for what you can store in one! Oh – and, if you prefer to buy over DIY, I’ll show you some beautiful curio cabinets for sale. Affiliate links in post.

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to my corner of the web! Today, we’re dipping our toes in the pool of Halloween spirit. I have to confess, I’m not a massive Halloween person – but I love anything witchy and spooky all year round.

So this year I decided to celebrate the season with some gothic DIY decorations – that you can keep up all year! First on our list? Why. it has to be this beautiful DIY curio cabinet.

The inspiration behind this one is kind of a funny story. You guys know that I love vintage shit. Browsing thrift stores for furniture and bric-a-brac is one of my favourite hobbies!

Unfortunately, Melbourne is in lockdown 6.0 at the time of writing this . . . and my beloved thrift stores have been closed for ages. So one evening a stoned Mia decided to browse eBay and somehow it led to me bidding on a pack of vintage ink bottles? (Yeah . . . I don’t know either.)

Anyways – these bottles turned up in the mail a few weeks later. And I love them! They’re so beyond cute – and they make perfect propagation stations. However, I ended winning up like 20 bottles . . . so I really needed somewhere to put them! Enter: a curio cabinet.

OH, MIA – WHAT IS A CURIO CABINET?

A curio cabinet is quite literally a little display cabinet for sharing your curious collections. These can be practical things (like crystals or vintage odds and ends) – or they can be quirky, magical things.

Just look at some of the gorgeous witchy ones below! (They’re listed on Etsy, so you can actually buy these too.)

Naturally, as both a crafter and lover of weird vintage items, you can immediately see why curio cabinets appeal to me! One thing I did discover while hunting them down, though? They can be pretty tricky to find. So let’s take a look at where you can buy your cabinet from . . . then get into making!

WHERE CAN I FIND A CURIO CABINET FOR SALE?

Etsy is an absolute treasure trove of vintage finds. You can grab pre-filled cabinets – or blank ones that are just waiting for your collections! Here are some of my favourites . . .

Amazon is another good option – especially if you want to keep costs down! You can find tons of cheap and new display cabinets that will do the trick.

HOW TO MAKE A DIY CURIO CABINET

As always, I would love it if you watched this tutorial in video format and subscribed to me over on Youtube too! (You get a sneak preview at some of the other crafts I have coming up for Halloween as well . . . )

Buy or thrift a cabinet you like. I chose this one.
If there are any design changes you want to make, like staining the wood or adding labels like I did, now’s the time!
Curate your collection . . . then add it into your curio cabinet.

And that’s it! This is a really easy craft – not to mention a fun way to display your favorite items. Like I mentioned up top, I use my cabinet to display little propagation stations in vintage ink bottles . . . but there are so many ideas you could try!

IDEAS FOR WHAT TO PUT IN A CURIO CABINET

Crystals
DIY herbariums
Dried flowers
Propagation stations
Thimbles
Figurines
Crafts you make
Mini paintings

And tons more!

Alright, my loves, we shall end at the end! I hope you enjoyed my mini DIY curio cabinet – and were inspired to get out there and create some practical magical home decor of your own. Make sure you remember to check out the video too!

Did you enjoy this craft? Are you a fan of the vintage ink bottles? Would you create a curio cabinet? What would be in yours? Let me know your thoughts down below!

Peace,