Built-ins, open-shelf kitchens, and decorative floating shelves flood your Pinterest feed and now you’re ready to achieve the look, but you need the basics on how to style shelves of your own. Here are the 7 rules you need to follow when creating your unique styled shelf.
Styled shelves are such a popular look and a great way to showcase your own style & personality in your home. The best part is they are so easy to arrange and rearrange whenever you want a fresh look. I’ve styled a shelf or two (or 10) over my years staging Airbnbs and in my own home, and I’ve picked up some great tips along the way.
Here you are going to get the rules and tips to getting the styled shelf of your dreams in no time. Read till the end for a few extra tips on how to style shelves in your kitchen and how to style shelves in your living room if you’re looking for room-specific tips.
This post is all about how to style shelves.
Best Tips for How to Style Shelves:
1. Think: Balance
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As you add things into your shelf masterpiece, it’s important to always be thinking about balance. If you were to draw a vertical line down the middle of your shelf, each side should balance out with repeated textures, color, type of objects, and/or sizing of the objects. It’s going to take a lot of playing around to achieve this, and you might not get it perfect on the first try, but that’s totally ok. This is a work in progress kind of project.
Same goes if you have two large shelving units, say, on either side of a TV in your living room. Each of those shelves should have balance within, and also balance with each other.
2. Vignettes
A common interior decorating technique is the use of vignettes. A vignette is a grouping of decorative items placed together in one cluster. You can use a variety of objects that work together to create a unified visual piece. Vignettes are a great way to use meaningful items you might have around the house but in a new way.
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A rule of thumb is to use an odd number of items in the arrangement, and vary their height. Think small, medium, and large. Another tip to create height is to use a stack of books to give a height boost where needed.
3. Blank Space
The key to making sure your shelf doesn’t get cluttered is to leave space between each vignette, decor piece, row of books, etc. Leaving blank space throughout allows the eye to be drawn to each individual decor segment and leave the whole arrangement looking clean, organized, and intentional.
4. Color Repetition
Think of your shelves as one big work of art. As the artist, you get to pick the palette. You may decide to stick to a strict color palette like a neutral, or you can bring in a color and repeat it every so often throughout the arrangement.
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Now if you’re decorating with a bunch of things you already have and you’re not buying new decor, that’s ok. You can bring in some color repetition with plants, which is a great way to add a pop of life to the look. Or you might choose a dedicated color for frames for any art or photos you’re displaying.
5. Functionality
This goes for any type of shelving, but particularly applies if you’re here looking for tips on how to style shelves in your kitchen.
An important decision you’ll need to make about your shelves is whether they are going to be purely decorative, functional, or a little bit of both. I opt for both, but with a heavy emphasis on function- especially if you’ve got open kitchen shelving in lieu of upper cabinetry.
If you’re a person who is not into purchasing decor for the sake of decor, you can still get a really stylish looking shelf by decorating it with what you already have. On the kitchen shelves you might incorporate your cute cheese trays, dutch oven, decorative serving plates or bowls, pantry items in pretty jars of containers, and maybe potted herbs. In living room shelves, you could add a section of books you reference often, framed family photos, pottery, vases, and jars, and memorable knick knacks or other handed down items.
6. Books
Which brings me to my next point- yes, it’s ok to put books on your shelving! I’m not sure when the trend of decor-only shelves became a thing, but I’ve never really been here for it. My suggestion is to pare down to only the books you think you’ll reference again in the future, are inspiring to you, or a special collection you’d like to keep. But displaying your books is a great use of space and also a way to showcase your personality and interests in your decor.
As you start loading a shelf with books, think again about balance. There’s no one right way to do this, but an example would be to start a row of books on the left side of the top shelf, then for the second shelf start a row from the right side, and work your way down alternating sides.
There are several ways to incorporate your books into your shelf design. If you’re like me, you’re not a afraid of a little color- so you can leave the spines facing out. If there’s a book spine or two that are a particularly bold color that you want to avoid, just flip that one the other way around so that the pages face out instead.
Another way you can organize your books is by color- all the red spines together, the orange spines together, and so on. This creates a really neat effect, although a bit of work to keep this organization if you’re going to be adding new books often.
Finally, if you’re going for more of a sleek look and don’t want a lot of color could turn all of the books so that the pages face out. If you go with this method, only use books that you won’t be needing on the regular as its not going to be ideal if you’re going to be referencing your books often.
7. Personality
Last but not least, do not be afraid to let your personality shine through in your styled shelves! My favorite look is that unrefined, “thrown together” style that incorporates everyday or hobby items that tell the story of the owner. I find this look to be inspiring, authentic, and super cute.
Cool things to put on shelves:
Here is collection of my favorite things to see on a styled shelf:
- Knick-knacks handed down in the family or collected over the years
- Hobby books
- Faux plants
- Music album covers
- Family photos
- Artwork
- Little-used hobby objects that you want to showcase (binoculars,
- Wicker baskets to store small objects
- Tealights & candles
- Souvenirs
- Decorative serving plates, cups, etc.
- Vases, jars, and pottery
Tips for How to Style Shelves in your Kitchen:
- Invest in some new (or thrifted) dish ware that will look good on your shelf and fit in with your color scheme.
- Incorporate herbs for a pop of color and life- and because you NEED fresh herbs in your kitchen!
- Once you’ve completed your look, use a label maker and put a discrete label on the top of the shelf where everything goes. This will help other family members and yourself remember where things go and help maintain your styled look.
Tips for How to Style Shelves in your Living Room:
- Add baskets for texture and also to store things like board games, extra remotes, your candle lighters, etc.
- Go for the books! It adds character and warmth especially in a living room.
- If you have an entertainment center with built-ins on either side, make sure you achieve balance throughout each shelving unit, but also between the both units.
- Dig out any of those packed away knick knacks, and meaningful items you haven’t known what to do with and incorporate them into a decorative vignette.
This post was all about how to style shelves.
If you like this post, you might also like: “Decorate with what you have: 8 secrets to styling your home without money“
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