How To Style Shelves
Over the past couple of months, a few of you have asked about the shelves in my office and how I style them. Through countless hours of scouring Pinterest, reading home design blogs, and shuffling and moving items I already own from shelf to shelf, I think I’ve finally come up with a formula. It may not be perfect or designer-worthy but after several moves and trying my best to only add what brings joy to our home I think I’ve found what works for us.
pick a color and texture scheme then zig-zag it
Please don’t think this has to be super restrictive. This can be a wide range of colors and textures to create a theme. For me, I picked the colors pink, grey, blue, white, copper/gold, green, and black with textures of metal, natural woods, paper, ceramics, and plants. That’s eight colors and five textures. I try my best to zig-sag the colors and textures throughout the shelves. For example, I won’t put a pink thing on the shelf right below another pink thing. Instead, I will zig-zag pink throughout the shelves. And same with all of the other colors and textures.
when in doubt add plants
Improving my green thumb is always on my to-do list. I love adding real plants to these shelves for two reasons: 1) they really bring some life into the space and 2) as they grow they tendril and fill the space way more than a picture frame or knick-knack. I move the plants around on this shelf regularly. They don’t always go back in the same spot after watering, and I love that it keeps the shelves fresh. Some of my go-to’s for easy plants - air plants, pothos variations, philodendron variations, and snake plant variations.
use what you have
I always try to find things I have around the house to use first. Is there a stack of books somewhere that I can use to fill a space? Or a cherished photo or item that isn’t being seen as much in its current location? Can I display a collection of things in a unique way?
For me, I collect pressed pennies. It’s a cheap souvenir that brings joy to my heart at the memories of certain locations and even the few that were gifted to me by friends make me feel so loved that someone would think of me on a vacation. But the pennies were living in a ziplock bag in a drawer. So I found a shadow box, super glued push pins to the back of the pennies, and displayed them in the shadow box. Voila! A unique piece that is truly me. Also, I framed all of the paper pieces from our wedding to use as art throughout our house. The pink Thank You card on the bottom shelf was on everyone’s place setting.
collect and curate
I’m not a fan of going to a big box store and buying all the things to fill your shelves. I do love a good piece from Target every once in a while, but I’d rather take my time to collect items and curate shelves that really bring me joy than rush to fill them with chachkies. If I am going to move things to dust regularly, it better be things I like looking at, ya know? We also have a family question I ask myself when adding things to our home: Do we love it enough to move it across the country multiple times? If the answer isn’t a resounding yes, then it doesn’t make the cut.
We have framed postcards from trips, rocks from our time on Lake Michigan this past New Year’s Eve, my pressed penny collection, a teacup from my great grandmother, an hourglass a friend gifted me, and a horse sculpture I was gifted as a child to name a few. It’s taken years to collect and curate these items, but they mean more to us than anything we could buy right now to fill the space.
play with height and shapes
Similar to zig-zagging the colors and textures. You should do the same with shapes and heights. Different shapes and heights create interest. I’ll stack a few books instead of standing them upright and place a plant on top. Or place a shorter object on the same shelf as something taller.
display photos of you and your family over the years
With social media, we forget to print and frame photos of you and your family or your loved ones. Find frames within your color and texture theme and share those wonderful images! It’s so nice to see pictures from wonderful moments in our lives on display. I have an old photo of the first time I met my cousin Tori on the shelf. I’m maybe five or so in the picture. It brings me so much joy to see us hugging each other so tightly.
baskets and trays are your friends
I love using baskets to hold books like on our bottom shelf or trays to keep things uniquely grouped together like the deer antler, air plant, rock combo. Our wedding videographer gifted us a wooden charcuterie tray that we weren’t using in the kitchen, so I repurposed it for the shelves. It now holds a cherished photo of me with my cousin and brother, a blue horseshoe from our wedding, and a few unique little items that would look off if just placed on the shelf. Trays, baskets, bowls, etc. help create vignettes.
be okay with empty space
The bottom shelf is still a work in progress, so really I guess every shelf is still a work in progress because I might shift things around as I collect and curate the bottom shelf. And that’s okay. Building a home and a life takes time. It will be worth it in the end when it’s curated with things you truly love.
We have this IKEA shelving system.
xx,
Linds