How to Style Open Shelves Like a Pro
Do you have open shelves but don’t even know where to start when it comes to making them look beautiful, styled, and full?
The Blush Home
Looking at empty shelves and trying to figure out how to fill them neatly can be intimidating and overwhelming.
So can having cluttered and messy-looking shelves, on display for everyone to see. But it doesn’t have to be daunting! If you are armed with the right tools, styling your own shelves can – and will - be a whole lot easier.
Shapeless Studio
Open shelving has been in style for a while now, offering a lighter visual weight compared to enclosed upper cabinets in your kitchen or large storage furniture pieces in your living or dining rooms. The downside (or is it really an upside?) is that you can’t squirrel things away behind closed doors. You’ve got things on display 24/7 and you want them to look organized, intentional, and pretty.
On top of them looking pretty, maybe you need your open shelves to hold practical and functional items, too (not everyone has tons of spare square footage for storage. We need to think practically here!) How do you make your printer look nice beside that stunning antique you inherited?
Unknown (Pinterest)
Here are my top 3 tips for styling your shelves like a pro, along with some examples of beautifully curated open shelves to empower and inspire you:
1. Negative space is a positive thing -
Leaving areas of empty space gives the eyes an area of pause and ensures the vignettes you create are featured and not lost in visual clutter. You can also do this is colour (e.g. your walls are white so white objects can act as “negative” space).
Allisa Jacobs
2. Don’t be afraid of larger items ‑
Scale and varied heights are key when styling. This can be a piece of earthenware with branches in it styled beside a votive and a picture frame, or a stack of books topped with a family heirloom catchall and your stylish Bluetooth speaker beside it.
Chandos Interiors
3. Odd is good ‑
If you’ve got 3 black items, spread them out. Style 5 items of varying sizes together in a vignette. Stack 7 books, then lean 3 up against them. Work with odd numbers (my fav is 3). It will be a game changer for your shelf styling.
Thrifty Décor Chick
Now, how do you make it all happen?
Gather everything that you need, want, and can have on your shelves. Having more to work with is ideal.
Group them into little vignettes using the tips above.
Select the location of each vignette, balancing scale and colour throughout the process. For example, if you’ve got 2 bigger sized vignettes, space them out first, and fill in with the rest.
Happy decorating!
Hello! Catherine here. :)
I’m a Vancouver-based interior designer and love all things creative! I’ll be sharing things that inspire me, posting design tips and DIY projects, chatting about all kinds of topics, and hopefully inspiring some people to make little changes at home to create an environment that is functional, beautiful, and a perfect reflection of you!
