You look up shelf styling inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest: you see these pristinely styled bookcases and shelves, adorned with the perfect books, sculptures, plants, and accessories. You’re inspired. You’re motivated. You try making one of those #shelfie moments for yourself in your own home, and…well. It winds up either looking drab, uninteresting, and flat – or the polar opposite: messy, chaotic, and overwhelming. What went wrong? Shelf styling is supposed to be this fun, creative thing. And yet when you go to take a crack at it, it suddenly becomes confusing and daunting. Where should this item go? What items do I even include? Where do I even start? If you feel defeated, lost, and unsatisfied with your self-directed attempts at shelf styling, this is what you need to do:
Remove everything that is currently on your shelf right now and start from scratch with me. If you want to learn how to strike the balance between a shelf looking intentional and curated, yet casual and effortless: This is your guide. These fail-safe, go-to, reliable tips are tools I personally use time and time again, any time I am styling any shelf. These tips are simple to implement and will have your shelving looking professionally styled in no time.
1. Pick A Cohesive Colour Scheme
Your shelf styling will automatically go from looking chaotic to curated, just by limiting the amount of colours you allow in your styling moment. Go to any shelving photo that inspires you. I bet you can find a general limit of 3-4 main tones that are used to keep the shelf looking intentional. Black, white, green, and beige. Teal, mahogany, and terracotta. Olive, chocolate, cream, and rust. For my own shelf, I focused on black, white, and various warm brown tones. Any other colour simply did not make the cut. This not only simplified my own stock to choose from, but it instantly made the shelf look curated. Limit your colour scheme.
2. Work In Clusters (of 3 or 5)
Another key tip is to group items together in clusters. I personally prefer working with odd numbers (I find them to look most symmetrical and balanced) so I generally work in groups of 3, sometimes 5. Treating items as individual things and keeping them all separate from one another will leave your shelf looking disjointed, nebulous, and disconnected. It leaves no place for the eye to rest. In contrast, grouping things together in clusters makes “those three items” become “one item”. It defines areas, creates landing points; connects individual pieces together; and gives the eye a place to rest. As a result, items feel balanced, cohesive, interwoven. Group those lonely, floating, individual items together.
3. Variety Is Key
If you grouped things together in Step 2 and things still aren’t looking quite right; this is where everything comes together. Play with varying heights, objects, materials, and textures. This will add depth and interest to your shelf. This tip is so important that I’m going to dive deeper into 4 specific ways to add variety.
Height:
Those clusters of 3 we talked about in the previous tip? Pick one short item, one medium-height item, and one tall item. Make that a rule for all of your groupings. Play with different heights within each cluster so that the eye can dance around within the different areas you’ve defined. And if you need extra height, lean tall artwork in behind your front items! Not only will his layering draw the eye up, but it will also add depth (instead of just having everything lined up in one, single, linear row).
Objects:
You don’t have to stick to the standard books, artwork, and a plant. There are so many more possibilities! Add personal items, unexpected items, sentimental items. From left to right, I’ve included things like: A vinyl record by my musical hero. Framed artwork from an admired artist/poet. A ceramic bowl from my favourite local potter. Dried roses (each a token from every bouquet my husband has ever bought me and that I add to every time I receive roses from him). An embroidery hoop that my sister made me of a nickname my sweetie late grandfather used to call me. A framed setlist from my favourite musician when I was front row at his show. There are so many personal keepsakes and cherished items from my life that are displayed here!
Materials:
Mix up the materials you incorporate! Wood (letterpress drawer), glass (amber vases), paper (books, artwork), wax (candles), ceramic (bowls), leather (journals), brass (candlestick holders), plants (dried florals). The more variety in the materials used, the more interest for the eye.
Textures:
Closely linked to materials, is texture. Every texture becomes more prominent when juxtaposed against its opposite texture. For instance: dead, dried, florals look extra delicate when displayed in a heavy, warm glass vase. A white taper candle looks extra bright and smooth when placed in front of a dark, rough, wooden backdrop. The golden pages of a book look all the more shiny and brilliant when bound together in a matte leather book cover. Rough vs. smooth; clear vs. opaque; soft vs. rigid; dull vs. shiny; dense vs. spacious. When selecting the materials you want to incorporate, consider also the physical and visual texture they bring.
There you have it! Your ultimate shelf-styling guide. I have sincere high hopes for you as you put these tips into practice in your own space. Pinterest-worthy #shelfie, look out. You got this!
*I feel the need to tack on this final styling disclaimer for any seasoned stylists in the room: of course there are more advanced approaches and techniques to shelf styling. The decor in one’s home should be an outward expression of who they are. It’s subjective. Rules are also meant to be broken. Multiple accent colours are totally allowed. A maximalist, eclectic approach is allowed, as is a minimalistic approach. Lining everything up in single row, at a single height, can be a statement in its own right. You don’t have to follow a single guideline I’ve laid out in this post if it doesn’t jive with the styling you want in your home. However, if you’re just starting out or want to fine-tune your current styling chops, then this post is for you.
**This #shelfie was a part of a cozy bedroom makeover that you can read about here.
Let me know what tip you’ll be implementing first in the comments below!
