Serving pieces of
My Wedgewood bone china,
and my crystal cut glass - some of it from my Great grandmother, my grandmother and my mother.
.

I don't have a china cabinet. He got all the furniture in the divorce. Instead, it all sits out on a baker's rack shelving in my kitchen. I ended up liking this set up. It makes me see what I have and, really, I have used it more. I don't want to wait until something really special to use it. Each day has something special about it! Of course, I don't have the really expensive china, just some nicer and some every day dishes. Now, at my mom's house, she has all the really good china. We used it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. That sits in the china cabinet at her house.

Not that one should or shouldn't use china, it's just how I feel. Life is too short not to live it like you're enjoying it. No judgments coming from here. I love the really good china and if I had a cabinet, I'd show it off. And maybe use it. Probably not more than we did last year, but still use it. And the cut glass. My view comes from facing death fairly early (early 20s, but it didn't get me! yet) in life, having a hard time conceiving the beautiful boy in my life... Like Erma Bombeck wrote when she was ill with cancer. She sure was smart!

Here is a link that might be useful: Erma Bombeck's If I had my Life to Live Over

I don't have a china cabinet. All china and crystal live in cabinets and a sideboard. But it is not "out of sight, out of mind" around here. I use the good stuff and enjoy it.

Wondering why you've decided to paint your china cabinet with chalk paint.... do you want to write on it with chalk? I've only used chalk paint once -- trying to "resurface" an old tin chalkboard. It came out 'ok', but I need to find a different application brush that will make it smoother.

As far as what I display, I really expected pictures! I use a slender vintage 'secretary' and a buffet with an open hutch for storage and display in my DR. The windowed part of the secretary holds lots of pretty glass vases in different colors and sizes, my margarita glasses, odd/special small crystal serving pieces, a set of carved stone animals, etc. The hutch part of my buffet displays many of my special pottery pieces, some special baskets, larger compotes, etc. All things that I use as much as possible. :)

I have two china cabinets full of treasures some valuable and lots of wonderful little gifts friends have given me over the years. I do have a large set of Old English Roses china in there. Its a virtual little antique shop!!!!!

My grandmother's oak, curved-glass china cabinet has my parent's wedding china, some silver, cut glass and other things that they collected through the years and one ceramic chip/dip thing that we recently purchased.

Rob333, I like your outlook. I only have one set of china (the good stuff) and that is what I use. The house I moved into two years ago is so tiny that the china could not go in the kitchen cabinets, so I bought the cabinet.
Party music, I'm not going to use chalkboard paint, I'm going to use chalk paint.
Jim, that is a beautiful china cabinet.

I have a relatively small china cabinet (part of the really small dining room set). I only have three shelves but they are chock full.

Top shelf - The really nice wine glasses. Use these the most.

Middle shelf - More wine glasses, a plate, some china pieces and a couple vases. Some candlesticks, a few figurines and an anniversary clock.

Bottom shelf - stacked depression glass luncheon set, wine decanter, assorted vases and wine/beer glasses.

The china is stored underneath but I would like that on display. It's an older set (early 60s) that I acquired 20 years ago. We use it but I'm a klutz so there is always a risk of breakage.

Jim, that is a beautiful cabinet. I'm looking for another cabinet.....hint, hint! *wink*

I have boxes of depression glass that I would like to get back on display. I need a cabinet because of the cats. Some of it is really old and can't be exposed to the sun or it will discolor.

The upper part (with the glass and mirrors) has crystal, some small serving pieces from my good china, blown-glass collectibles, and some knick-knacks that have special meaning. The bottom part has my china and miscellaneous "stuff". The matching server stores my silver stuff and table linens.

I have only a sideboard in my DR. I never wanted a display piece. The Georgian style house where I grew up had two corner cabinets in the DR with glass above and storage below.

Our present house has the main part of the kitchen on one side, set off by a nine-foot island. On the 'aisle' side of the island are a desk with cabinets above, the doorway to the DR, and a built in buffet with glass front kitchen cabinets above. Behind the glass I have family memorabilia like my mother's red wooden music box, some silver baby cups, an antique brass dish, a 10-inch seashell, framed photos of my grandfather and great-great aunt (in her 19th C. nursing garb), my Scots-Irish great-grandmother's common brown teapot (right out of "Downstairs"), my great-uncle's 'gold' watch in a glass case, my grandfather's shaving mug (Woolworth's, I'm guessing), a pewter tankard. (Lots of stuff -- valuable only to me.)

The hodgepodge piles of china, crystal, silver plate and silverware are all tucked out of sight. I have a couple dozen special bits of silver and figurines on bult in shelves flanking the LR fireplace. (I'm "allergic" to dustING.)

Wanda, I love your dining room set!

Ok...now I'll share mine. It's very unusual in style and I've never seen another like it; a little Asian inspired but not obvious. I've had it for 20+ years now and I am having a hard time finding a cabinet to match or even "go with".

I love the look of chalk paint too. And yes it is totally different than chalk board paint which makes a surface a chalk board.
I have seen several online done with chalk painting and also the milk painting they are very pretty.

Mine has currently a ton of glass pieces in it that I use for my garden totems and plate flowers.

mine is like wanda's but has just way too much (after 44 years of marriage ) and not one set of china, lol...and it's falling apart, after 3 moves, even though it's been in the same spot for 25...it sits in the lr. what I want to do is get cabinets installed on the wall and then rearrange items in that..someday, lol...

I keep mostly my mother's wedding silver in the top of my china cabinet displayed decoratively, rather than just piled up. I also have our kids' silver baby cups, mom's crystal bowls, a Wedgewood vase, crystal decanters, and the little silver salt and pepper shakers we bought as souvenirs of our honeymoon. One silver cake plate was my grandmother's and my daughter gave me a beautiful Wedgewood crystal sugar and creamer.

DH bought me a lovely antique set of Haviland Limoges china, which reminds me of the lovely sets my grandmother had. I keep that set in our pantry zipped up in china storage cases.

The bottom of my china cabinet is crammed. It contains our small liquor cabinet, crystal dessert plates, Christmas mugs and plates, and a set of drawers with candles, candle holders, napkin holders, etc stored there.

I have my Mom's now mine china stored in the top part of my china cabinet. Along with the glassware that goes with it and a few serving pieces. The bottom is filled with stuff like my tall vases that won't fit in the upper part of the cabinet.

I don't have a china cabinet and I don't have a set of china or any crystal. Never saw the need to buy expensive dishes that will only get used once or twice a year. I'll save my money for vacations!

In the top:

{{!gwi}}

the drawers have place mats and napkins beside batteries and a magnifying glass

the bottom is where I keep my bath towels, as I really don't have a better place for them.

Moni

Lots and lots of 'stuff.' lol

I have 2, one in the kitchen, an oak one my daughter gave me when she got a new one, it matches the oak cabinets....and a waterfall type one I have in the livingroom with a matching sideboard, got them at a garage sale years ago for $45 apiece...the kitchen one has mostly glass pieces, the livingroom one has little dolls and knick knacks.

I have 'downsized' quite a bit from my china cabinet and the China (Woods Ware, Pink Transfer) is still in the dish-pak in the garage. There are many Hummels, collected in Germany and Scotland many years ago, french doll heads (very old), my composition baby doll (1940's) as well as some have collected, some cake stands, High tea service with cake stand. I also have a bakers shelf that has some Longaberger (my everyday dishes) serving pieces, serving basket pieces..., very old collectible pitchers, small collectible items and pink transfer ware here and there.

This is from before we painted the dining room green, but the china cabinet is pretty much the same. The cabinet was a built=in in a house across the street from us in Minnesota that was going to be torn down to build a municipal parking lot. I got permission to uninstall the china cabinet from that house before it was torn down. It contains china and crystal that my wife received from her grandmother.

I have two downstairs that I store glassware and cookie jars and collectible pottery. I don't call them china cabinets, I call them hutches. They only have the glass on the top with drawers and doors below. My china cabinets are in the upstairs and I have my horse collection in those. I also have a china cabinet in the club house with collectible things in it. No china or crystal items here.

Sue

lucille, sorry I misunderstood! never heard of "chalk paint" then.

I've dedicated myself to simplifying, & all y'all's gorgeous
stuff (furniture as well as china) makes me want *more*!

I keep saying that it's time to use the good china, but as of a couple of days ago, I think I really mean it now.

not sure what made that happen, maybe it's just that enough time has percolated through my brain that I'm "ready" to make the change.

I have some beautiful Johnson Brothers china that's been sitting around getting dusty since the last time I took it all out & washed it.

time to start eating my mac & cheese in the most elegant style!

I don't have a china cabinet, instead I have a Welsh Cupboard...which I love to death! I display unique pieces of Blue Willow as well as my lovely pottery pieces, in a butter yellow that my daughter has given me over the years. Interspersed amongst these pieces are the 2 things I used to collect-my dancing couples and paperweights.

I have a server----bakers rack combination instead of a china cabinet....

I just have an Ikea sideboard that matches my coffee table and tv stand. I don't have a dining room, so it sits in my living room. One side has wine glasses and cup and saucer sets that my mother gave me from The Netherlands, and the other side has my regular corning ware dishes that we use daily. I put pictures and candles and knick knacks on top for display.

In my large china cabinet I have sets of Liberty Blue, Noritake Luray, Clarice Cliff Tonquin in purple, a couple tureens and several Noritake cream soups/saucers that are over a 100 years old.

got so distracted by the pictures that I forgot to answer the question.

I have 2 small china cabinets that contain bits & pieces of things that I like to look at:

a few small pieces of Sandwich glass, pickle dishes & so forth.

Melrose & Thistledown sugars & creamers

(The plates are in the bottom part where you can't see them, since the glassed upper part isn't wide enough.)

quite a bit of a Johnson Brothers china set (plates, bowls, platters) that has a green floral border with a thin gold rim.

about 4 Fire Kiing or Pyrex dinner plates, can't remember their names, but they're a sort of opalescent gold color.

a bisque bluebird

In the bookshelves, I have a bunch of old vases, some McCoy & Haeger & the like, & a hobnailed milk glass one.

love this thread!

This is a fun thread! I have my silver in my mother's china cabinet because it keeps the tarnish down. I also have my owls on top and my cats inside:

And then I have china in another cabinet, but it's not china, china. It's china collectibles in floor to ceiling bookcases. And where, you might ask is my china? LOL, it's packed away on the bottom shelf of my linen closets so in case of an earthquake it doesn't fall to the floor!

Tally what a beautiful collection!! I'm partial to owls and I love yours!