5 Tips for Styling Your Bookshelf
Hello Design Community!
As promised, here’s an overview of my IGTV yesterday: Five tips on how to style your bookshelf or floating shelves. (If you haven’t watched it, you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwq3DuXwh8s)
1. Gather. Collect all the items you want to use for your shelves. It will feel like too much, don’t worry. You will have a large selection to choose from. You can use candles, books, decorative pieces, vases, succulents, driftwood, museum stands, frames and clocks.
2. Anchor. Place your largest items on each shelf first. This will act as the anchor piece to build the rest of your groupings around. If they need a bit of height, I always use 2 or 3 books to stagger items. If your books have pretty spines, use them. If not, flip them around so the pages are facing outward.
3. Personality. Next, display anything meaningful to you personally – That means your frames and any art with meaning. Maybe it’s something your child has drawn or a framed photograph of a place you’ve been or want to go to. Again, use the books to stagger heights. You should always want varying heights on each shelf to create interest.
4. Groupings. This is how I style each shelf. I use 2 to 3 items (not including the number of books you use to stack) and each item on that shelf should again be a different height and you can achieve that with your books. Make sure you don’t use the same color item or even stack of books directly above or below a shelf. You want it to look different but cohesive – meaning if you have a white vase or two on the left side of one shelf, mix it up and put something of a different color below that and then use a white vase(s) on the right side of the shelf above or below it.
5. Natural elements and texture. I always incorporate succulents, plants and some type of natural wood on every shelf. It brings texture and warmth to the space. It changes a bookshelf from being boring and flat with similar colors to interesting with texture.
That’s it! Now it’s your turn. Don’t overthink it. Grab a bunch of things around the house and let your creativity out. Scroll through my website, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest for some inspiration!
