Shelf styling trends come and go like the seasons. You pick your favourites, perfect your shelving decorations, admire your work, and then the trends change, leaving you wondering what to do next.
Your shelving is an extension of your home—a way to express yourself—and so there’s pressure to get it right, to style something that’s both on-trend and feels like you. But instead of focusing on trends, you should prioritise principles: simple design rules that can help transform your shelves into a focal point and a feature for your room.
We’ve brought together a few of those principles – those dos and don’ts – to show you how to decorate your shelves perfectly, without it going out of style.
The don’ts of shelf styling
Much of design and art is subjective, and because of that, we’re always hesitant to enforce strict rules for shelf styling. While we won’t tell you exactly what to do with your shelves, we can share a few things to avoid when searching for that perfect shelf décor.
Don’t rely on symmetry
Too much symmetry will sink your styling. While you don’t want to rely on exact symmetry—it can make your shelves look overly curated and ordered—you should balance out your shelving decorations and décor to create equilibrium. Try varying the shapes, sizes, and textures of your pieces. If you have a smaller ornament with a neutral colour, add some greenery nearby. Our modular shelving allows you to vary the size and shape of your units, to help bring some balance, variation and practicality to your shelf styling.
Don’t be afraid of books
They say reading is a gateway, allowing us to explore different places, times and ideas and it’s true. This might be why including books on your shelves can elevate and transform your design. While you may not be curating a library, books are the perfect décor and one of our favourite shelving decorations.
Try varying the sizes of your books as well as the covers and content. Traditional coffee table books are beautiful, but exquisitely bound novels or other works of fiction can add an extra accent to your shelves. Grouping books within a colour palette helps integrate them seamlessly into your design.
Top Tip: Books can add elegance and beauty to rugged industrial-style shelving units.
Don’t ignore texture
It’s easy to get caught up in displaying and arranging different objects, but texture is just as important as the items themselves. Varying the texture of your books, ornaments, and plants—and grouping some textures together—can add depth and variation to your design. For example, if you’re using industrial-style shelving with coarse, rough materials, smooth ceramics or books can offset the texture beautifully.
Don’t overthink it
Most importantly, don’t overthink it. Choosing your styling and shelving decorations should come naturally to you because, after all, it’s only ever an expression of your personality and taste. Designing your dream home is a marathon, not a sprint and you should enjoy every step of it.
The dos of shelf styling
There may not be any hard and fast rules when it comes to shelf styling but there are some simple principles that will help elevate your décor to another level.
Harness plant power
Never underestimate the power of plants. Plants and foliage can serve as a break between the books and ornaments that dot your shelving. Trailing plants up high can offer a route to draw eyes down towards other features while offering a natural horizontal line. If your plants are smaller, try grouping them to fill the space. Be sure not to overcrowd the shelves with plants and stay away from anything large and overbearing.
Shelving not storage
Your shelving should be a feature not just a storage unit. It should be styled not just a store cupboard. Of course, it’s important you strike the balance as you want your shelving to be functional, but not everything needs to be on display.
If you’re in need of more covered space, consider shelving units and cabinets with storage at the bottom. These offer the perfect opportunity to both style shelves and to hide away anything you may not want on display.
Remember, less is more
While it’s tempting to display everything on your shelves, nothing will scupper your shelf styling more than clutter. Here’s what you need to do: from now on make a conscious decision to display things with meaning.
Perhaps it’s the books you connect with most, maybe it’s a framed print you picked up on holiday, perhaps it’s the only plant you’ve managed to keep alive, whatever your shelving decorations are, make sure they’re worth displaying.
Top Tip: if you feel like it’s getting too much, don’t be afraid to declutter. Clearing off your shelves and starting fresh can do wonders.
Embrace a colour scheme
While you don’t want your shelving to turn into a sea of green or pink, dominated by one shade, it’s a good idea to choose a colour scheme and stick to it. Are you channelling lighter pastels or are you choosing bigger and bolder splashes of colour? Whatever you decide on should be an extension of your styling.
If you’re including books, for example, try matching their colour to the pallet of your other shelving decorations. If you can bring them into the colour scheme then you’ll find your shelving décor fitting seamlessly into your home.
Make it yours
Most importantly, don’t forget that your shelf styling wants to reflect you. While it’s great to stay up to date with the latest trends or to implement all of the design thinking you’ve learned, styling is really only ever about you.
If you feel that industrial style shelving isn’t for you, then don’t do it. If you a colour pallet doesn’t work, then try something else. Shelf styling should be an extension of you, it’s why we help people design their own unique shelving and storage units, so they have something that fits seamlessly into their life.
Now you know how to decorate shelves
Every home is different, just like the people living in them and so, ultimately, the style, the design, the shelving, the cushions, it’s all down to you – and we know this. It’s why we love modular shelving – the perfect way to create the right shelving for your bedroom, living room, home office, and beyond.
Hopefully, after reading our dos and don’ts, you know how to decorate your shelves and you can be confident that your next shelf styling project will be a success. If you need any more help finding the right shelving for your space, get in touch.
