What about a very slender curtain rod or rods. Drape and layer the pieces.

I’d love to see how you displayed them previously and some photos of your specials linens. Just because (not that I have any suggestions.)

We ended up using plexiglass and then mounted that on a door.

I have framed a large tapestry. The tapestry was stretched taught and folded around the wood backing and placed into the frame without adding the picture glass back. I have also used a fabric I liked and folded it over cheap tjmaxx canvasses.

before

After

If not a tapestry, I have trouble visualizing display linens. I’d only display one at a time and rotate. Else it might look like a laundry room. I hung a tapestry using drapery rod

I understand the concern that it could look like a laundry line in the hallway. Fortunately all the linens are uniquely designed, have varying edges, most of them are embroidered and have a lot of fun colors.

In our previous home, we had a dining room for our large pine picnic table so I ws able to display the linens with my ceramics and pottery. but that table had to be repurposed and it's not acting as a dining table right now. and we have a few furniture pieces, that used to display my items, but they can't fit into the house. (we went from 2250 to 1875 sqft with some odd walls thrown in for good measure).

I like the curtain rod possibility as long as it doesn't stick out from the wall too far. I need a low profile slimline outcome because the hallway is sharing space with the curio.

@Party - like this a lot!

I would get rid of the curio cabinet in the hallway...

@Briana - that's not an option. There's no other place for it to go. It's from Charlotte, NC: tiger oak serpentine glass china cabinet crown is fully carved leafy foliage on a stippled background, feet are carved paws, well carved, the shelves are glass, the back is fully mirrored. 1890-1910. Worth $4,500-5,000. It's survived six moves.

Jen, I’m not questioning that it’s a nice piece, it’s clearly quality and much better than al the made in China crap you get now. However, this spot isn’t doing the piece any favors... you can really view it from the front except as you walk by and it sticks out awkwardly from the wall in an already narrow entry. I’d try to find somewhere else for it especially when you hang up your textiles as this will just create more to look at and bump into...

@briana. much like many responses in the Houzz advice centre, people give advice that was never requested. I didn't ask for advice on relocating the curio because there is no other location for it. Which is why I need a slimline hanging option.

May I assume that when you write "linens" you mean "textiles"?

Here's a photo of some of mine as mounted on wall. (You can click on it to see a larger image.)

The oldest, the small rondelles, are Coptics that date back to the 3rd or 4th century C.E. as well as some from South America and the Middle East that are as recent as the 18th, but that's beside the point.

These have all been framed under glass. Each is mounted on Linen which in turn is stretched over acid-free foam core board and taped onto the back side of the board. The glass is separated from the surface of the fabric by a 1/4 inch plastic spacer around the edges of the frame, practically invisible beneath even these very narrow metal frames.

You may or may not need or even consider going to these extremes, but I am surprised that no one has thought to warn you against three things: first, allowing the textile to touch wood or cardboard or any backing that is not acid-free. The presence of any acidic backing is, over time, going to discolor and/or ultimately destroy your textile. Second, if you choose to cover your textile with a sheet of glass or plastic to protect it from dust or smoke or other airborne particles, the glass must not touch the textile because moisture may condense on the inside surface of the glass as a result of temperature and humidity conditions. And, third, although it doesn't apply to what I have shown but does apply to what you have described, is folding. Folding any fabric, over time is going to weaken the threads at the fold line and, again over time, the part of the fabric that is exposed to light will fade in relation to that part of the fabric that is not.

Granted, these are museum-level concerns, but each is worthy of your consideration depending primarily on the value (not in terms of dollars) to you of the pieces that you have collected. I have admired pieces of fabric that have been attached to a sunlit wall with thumbtacks, leaving a rusty little circle on each corner, but I'd much prefer to find one that's be languishing in an attic trunk for the last hundred years, perhaps brought out only to show the children what their great-grandmother sewed or what faraway country she had visited, or perhaps even had come from.

Instead of one thing on one wall and one on another, could the pieces be displayed on the same side as the cabinet?

I also get irritated when people ask about one issue or item, and posters end up rebuilding entire house! However, your beautiful cabinet looks lonely and entirely out of place. I guess people mentioned it b/c it’s so glaringly misplaced.

Pls post pic of how you end up displaying your linens.

I don't know your taste except who couldn't love that China and I totally get it about downsizing. That said, have you thought about an antique ladder? The ones with round rungs with two pieces for two stories. Use the length you need, if it's too wide, cut ít in half. I can send you a picture of one if you need to see what I'm talking about. Hood luck!

I was thinking ladders also. Spaced equidistant down the hallway, each rung with a piece of linen neatly draped over it. It would be quite the conversation piece in the entryway.

I have one outside, but it's raining or I would get exact measurements for her. I think it's about a foot wide. Like you, I think it would display well, use little space, run the length, and really be an eye popper! Shorter pieces could go over the China to frame around it.

I would ho one further. if she is, or has,a handy helper to loosen each rung and "tilt" the ladder, that would be the ideal display. more fabric would show. That would be quite a job! But an incredible result. We will see this one on tv soon.