Repurpose Thrifted Trinket Shelves In Your Home With These 11 Creative Ideas

Small wooden trinket and curio shelves are a fairly common sight at many thrift stores and secondhand dealers, coming in a variety of sizes, configurations, and styles. Options vary from primitive Shaker-style wooden shelf units and cubby shelves to acrylic and glass-fronted curio cabinets. While today's more minimalist interiors don't always lend themselves towards a lot of small items to populate these shelves, many clever repurposing projects for them go beyond simply housing a collection of tchotchkes. With a little ingenuity, you can create alternative uses for thrifted wall shelves, turning them into organizers, displays, or storage options for almost every room in your home, including your kitchen, your closets, and even your garden.

These shelves are often quite inexpensive in thrift stores, making them ideal for updating your home on a budget. They can also be found aplenty in venues like estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, and on Facebook Marketplace. Use them as they are, or augment them with paint, decorative paper, trim, hooks, and other elements to make them fit your aesthetic.

Turn a small set of trinket shelves into a work of art by removing the back panel and replacing it with a cardboard printed background of your favorite artwork or personal photos. Use the shelves for small mementos. You can even create a front piece for the outer edge using an existing thrifted frame with the glass removed. Or you can build one from strips of decorative molding. This would be a beautiful idea for a large wedding photo with small trinkets to remember the day. 

Small trinket shelves are a cute spot to keep small toys organized in a kids room, nursery, or playroom. Line the shelves with plastic people, farm animal figures, or matchbox cars and hang the shelf where little hand can reach. Not only will the toys serve as functional wall decor, but are also easy to get out and put away for kids to clean up after play. 

Turn a narrow trinket shelf or a larger one on its side as a great way to create extra storage on an entryway or hallway table. You can use the top as a riser for decor and stash mail underneath to sort it. You could also use it as a place to keep important papers, photos, and souvenirs to add storage to the top of your desk.

Trinket shelves with small cubbies work perfectly to hold small craft items like spools of thread or twine, rolls of ribbon, washi tape, vials of glitter, and more. Lean one against the wall above your craft table or hang it on the wall to free up your workspace below. They also make a great way to organize your collection of rubber stamps, so you can easily see what you have. 

Add some hooks on the underside of your shelves to use a set of wooden trinket shelves to organize your jewelry. Lay watches, bracelets, and dishes with small items, like rings or earrings, on the shelves, and hang necklaces from above. If your jewelry pieces are longer, just remove the middle shelf and allow them to drape all the way down to the next one.

For another great idea for using trinket shelves in a kids' space, turn a set of shelves with wooden backing into a wall-mounted dollhouse. Cover the "walls" of each room with decorative paper and add small figures, miniature furniture, and tiny artwork to decorate the shelves. Use it as a cute display or hang it within easy reach, low on the wall, so kids can play with it.

The shallow shelves of a unit with multiple levels make the perfect piece for housing spices on the wall above your counter. Make your pretty vintage spice jar set into part of your decor by featuring them out in the open, all in one place. Or line the shelves with small, clear jars for a more modern look. You can also add paint, trim, decorative paper, or moldings around the outside to decorate the shelves before use. 

These tiny shelves can be perfect for holding small items in your bathroom. Add jars with items like cotton balls and swabs, or use the shelves to hold perfumes, hair accessories, cosmetics, or nail polish. Hang the shelves on the wall or the side of your cabinet for some discreet storage along the sides. You could also lay a shelf in a shallow drawer and use it as a horizontal organizer. One of the best places to use a curio cabinet with freestanding legs is in the bathroom, where it can hold toiletries and towels. 

For another fun use for shelves in the bathroom, employ ones with larger cubbies to hold your stash of extra toilet paper. Or use one to hold rolled hand towels or wash rags. Not only does it keep essentials from cluttering your surfaces, but it also makes it easier for guests to find them without rummaging in cabinets when they need them. 

Trinket shelves can be turned into awesome storage above your potting bench, with the shelves just wide enough to hold a collection of small plants or bottles holding seedlings. Add some small cup hooks below to hang items like gloves, trowels, and small shovels to keep your planting areas organized. You can also use a shelf unit as a cute vertical garden on an exterior wall or fence, holding small pots.

Glass-backed curio shelves can be transformed into adorable small terrariums by adding faux moss, stones, and small plants inside, laid out among the various shelves to create a beautiful piece of biophilic decor for your wall. You can even add small LED lights inside to give them a pretty glow or add some statues and figures to create a miniature fairy garden.