How to: Shelf Styling

If you’ve ever felt daunted by the task of shelf styling, you’re not alone! Even for us experienced stylists, the idea of styling a shelf is often quite the assignment as there really is a fine line between nailing it and not. What decorative items should we use? How full should the shelves be? How can we nail the balance between pretty and practical? 

Well, it might have taken us a hot minute, but we believe our team has finally found our feet when it comes to shelf styling, and we’re going to share with you our top tips for shelf styling success. Yet, before we get started, our biggest advice is to just have fun with it! Play around and tinker away, try different scenarios until you find your groove - styling should be fun and there is no ‘right way’ when it comes to this creative process!

Use books as your base

Put in basic terms, shelves were invented to store books and we’re ok with that! They’re our go-to tool and we like to use them first as our base layer on shelves, setting a practical foundation for what’s to come. Books are great for using on a large scale, filling some space on your shelves. Try alternating between a vertical, horizontal or L-shape stacks to create visual interest and pop an ornament on top of your stacks for a bit of personalisation. If you’ve developed quite the book collection over the years, try to coordinate their spines to create pops of colour or keep the look consistent across shelves. 

Create variety and contrast

This might seem like an obvious one, but using different shapes, objects, textures and patterns through your decorative pieces really helps to create a bit of wow-factor. We like to mix old and new finishes with round and square elements to really mix up the look. Honestly, the quirkier the better! It’s the only way to keep the selves interesting, holding people’s attention as they look further to see what other unique objects they can find. Think photo frames, candles, book ends, indoor plants, baskets and vases - you’d be amazed what you can find around your home!

Embrace blank space

There’s a lot that can be said for a minimalist approach to styling. It is easier said than done, but please don’t feel the need to over-style! We often find that people feel obliged to fill any blank space they can find, when in fact, the opposite is much more attractive. Embracing black space is the key to styling perfect! Our tip here is to approach each shelf as its own ‘zone’ - give the shelf it’s focal point and then move on. 

Play with height and depth 

Now that you’ve got most things in place, it’s time for the fun part! People often fall into the habit of placing everything in neat, straight lines across the shelf but instead, try playing around with the height and depth of each shelf by tilting different objects so they look great from every angle. Varying heights also helps to create a visual story whilst overlapping items adds depth through a layering approach. Still stuck? Get yourself a hanging plant, such as Devil’s Ivy, which will cascade beautifully between shelves.