I often get asked “How do you style shelves?” The real answer is I just say that I play around with the shelves and the decor until I’m happy. Honestly that’s how it goes for all my How To’s and it is no different for How To Style Shelves… I LOVE playing around & changing our decor around & you all know that… so that is the simple truth. When you break it down, there are some simple rules that I follow & I wanted to demonstrate that today. I went & styled a cabinet in our living room, so that I could share what goes on in my mind.
1- Gather your items you want to styled –
Gather up your collections you want displayed, books, art, candles, plants, blankets, heirloom items & more. As you are gathering items start thinking about balancing all your shelves out. Whether it’s one shelf or 10, think about how each shelf will be balanced with all of your items. The example today is a good representation of the tip, keep your items cohesive in one way. Here I used mercury glass & different neutral textures that all work nicely together to create cohesive balance on the shelves.
2- Start from the bottom-
Put the “heaviest” items at the bottom of your shelves. Not just heavy physically, but visually. The shelves can feel grounded & make the room feel more balanced & not top heavy. For this bookshelf, I put the blankets and pillows at the bottom. The weight of the blankets together visually is a lot and really grounds the piece. As you move up from shelf to shelf, each has similar weight balanced on both sides. This lets your eye move rhythmically and easily around the cabinet.
3- Have fun arranging –
This is the fun part! Let’s start playing with those items you curated in step one.
-Hang art or set art on the shelves [Here I hung the silhouette portrait to balance out the large pot on the other side of the top shelf] & I set the clock face on the middle shelf on one side to balance out the medium pot on the other side of the middle shelf.
-Typically on shelves I will use books, but oddly in this case I didn’t. If you do use books, style them different ways like sitting up straight, lying horrizontally stacked, & layered on each shelf in different arrangements to balance each shelf. It adds a lot more interest, that way & books are an easy way to add texture, height, and weight to your shelves while also being practical at the same time.
-Work in layers start with your books & art. Begin with your larger pieces, then start add in all of your extras. Extras are your, picture frames, candles, and other items you want to display.
-Add some life to your shelves! Finish them off by adding in your greenery. This is the time when you can complete the balance of you shelves with house plants whether real or faux. Plants add that finishing touch wether it’s a simple succulent or a crawling pathos. In my opinion plants on a shelf is the secret sauce to make them pop!
-Keep playing, keep stepping back, keep checking balance on all the shelves. Check that each shelf has the same weight even if it has a lot of different items. Most importantly… make sure you like it.
That’s it for today in shelf styling 101, but since this has been one of my most asked questions… I will be back with many many many more examples and tips. Honestly a good shelf style is all in the eyes of the beholder. I truly enjoy styling, but shelf styling to me is especially fun. And it only took 10 minutes. I hope these shelf styling tips, help you become even more passionate about it as well. THANK YOU all for stopping by the blog today & every single day to see what we are up to. xx
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Your pictures are huge, I cannot see the entire shelf at all.
Love your tips! Styling shelves and tables is something I struggle with, and you always make it look BEAUTIFUL! I’ve bookmarked this for future reference!
Thank you for sharing your tips. Everything you put together looks so so nice! I struggle so much so I’m hoping this helps.
Love how you styled your shelves! Looks beautiful! I too love styling shelve and everything else I can stack or layer!!! I know you guys have to be excited about the new windows. I am sure it gets chilly up there! Have a wonderful night and stay warm. xoxo
Julia @farmhouse_charmed
Love how you did this! I always just put stuff o each shelf till I like it. I knew there was a formula to how nice yours looks! Can’t wait to get more tips!
Thank you
I enjoy your blog, and your styling is wonderful! You are so talented! I love your shelves, but may I make an observation? The woman’s silhouette would look better facing in to the shelf, and not drawing your eye outside to the wall. It immediately draws your eyes away to the left and off of your gorgeous display. So, maybe hanging her on the other side would be better, but then you would have to reverse the visual weight of the shelf under that one, to get your balance, which affects the next shelf, LOL! Isn’t it fun? But, after designing many cards, scrapbook pages, and gallery walls, it is just a rule of thumb for me. Maybe because of that, I notice it more. But, if the subject is facing left, I put it on the right to balance, and not draw the eye away, and vice versa. (In scrapbooking, the subject should never look off the edge of the page.) Try it sometime and see how much better it usually looks. Of course, your beautiful items would still be pretty just thrown on there randomly! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Love you ideas-do you have tubs and containers with all your decorating items?? Adding another shelve to the living room so this will be helpful
Hi ~ Thank you so much for this! Such great tips! I cannot wait to play with the shelves in my house!!
I love how you have styled your shelves. Any tips on styling with family pictures and antiques? This is where I struggle to find a cohesive look.
These look beautiful. I struggle with my shelves looking too cluttered so I keep a lot of open space between items. I don’t understand how you and others manage to include so much in a small space and yet it does not look cluttered at all!
I love to style my bookcase and make vignettes for table tops. The most fun is sitting back, assessing and changing items around till they make me happy when I look at them. If something makes me nervous when I look at it I know it’s not right yet. Just did baskets made in Africa with some gourds and a few animals of the region. I have some faux animal fur pillows and a fur throw on my couch and they help pick up the colors of the baskets.Took a while to get it arranged but now I love it for some transition between winter and spring. Hope the grounding is right with his forcast!
LOVE this post so much! I struggle with styling shelves and trays so this info helps a ton!!
It still amazes me! No matter how beautiful the pieces are by adding the touch of greenery ( live or faux) make all the beautiful things just “Pop”. It’s a bit like going from nice to amazing in seconds….
and your shelves are proof. Charming!
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