Novel Displays for a Vintage Shoe Collection

Novel Displays for a Vintage Shoe Collection

A vintage shoe collection can be used as a unique form of artwork to accessorize a bedroom, dressing room, or even living room for a single woman or houseful of women, but displaying the collection can be tricky. You do not want to simply toss the shoes into a heap, risking damage or loss, but neither do you want to lay them on the floor and hope no one messes with your neat rows of vintage shoes. So, how do you find novel displays for a vintage shoe collection?

Use a bookshelf or shelving system to display the vintage shoe collection. This can be a unique use for a bookshelf, but shelving is a great way to create a novel display for your vintage shoes. You can take a color coordination approach, sort them by the year they were popular, or come up with a method all your own for arranging them. Other shelving systems, such as an around-the-ceiling approach, are also a great way to display the collection without risking harm from little fingers or pets.

Curio cabinets are another great display option. Although shoes are not normally the curios stored in this type of display system, it is a great choice for really old vintage shoe collections because they often offer a glass barrier between touchy fingers and the shoes. Some even offer locking mechanisms for added protection, which is really important for very valuable collections. Similarly, glass fronted library display cases are a great idea, if you can afford them. They are relatively expensive, but a great investment if the vintage shoe collection is worth a lot of money.

Framed designs are unique and trendy. You can create the illusion of a shoebox with framed boxes that are deep enough to hold the shoes, but shallow enough to look more like picture frames. These are often known as shadow boxes, and are very easy to find or build with little help required. You can paint the boxes in many different colors, or use wood stains to make them look like traditional picture frames.

Build a shoe wall. This unique design will make use of all of your shoeboxes, and can keep the shoes safe without looking tacky or cheap. Keep the shoes in the original shoeboxes whenever possible, and take a picture of the shoes. You can also look the shoe up online and get a great picture that way. Then, glue the picture to the box so that you can show off the shoe without leaving it out for everyone to grab. You can use shelves, cubes, or simply stack the shoeboxes to create an interesting focal point in the room.

Display by the season. In other words, create a novel display for a vintage shoe collection by rotating your shoes out by season. Display using one of the other methods above, or create something totally unique. You can do the same thing with color coordination, choosing a different color for each season, month, week, or however you want to rotate them.