Tips for Decorating Built-In Shelves

Styling shelves can be really hard, especially when you’re starting from scratch. Last year, Laura gave me the idea to put in these fake built-ins from IKEA, as a cheap way to add shelving around our fireplace. They didn’t turn out 100% perfect, but hey, for $300 instead of thousands, I’ll take it! Plus, we won’t be here forever and they do the trick nicely. Today, I’m sharing my best tips for decorating shelves!

Let’s take a minute to remember what our fireplace looked like when we moved in. Crazy, right? It just looks so…MESSY.

And now, BOOM. It’s like an entire new living space and I love it.

Tips for Decorating Built-In Shelves

My shelves sat empty for months because I would get stressed out just thinking about how I would be able to fill the space and make it look good at the same time. I was scared to buy anything because I was afraid to regret it later on!! Laura and I are huge fans of the girls that run The DIY Playbook and they did a blog post on the do’s and dont’s for decorating your built-in shelves (check it out here), so they gave me all the inspiration I needed to get started.

• First thing first. Grab some coffee, and block your day to tackle this project. Andrew made fun of me because he couldn’t believe it took me the entire day to throw some decorations on a shelf, but umm…I didn’t see him offering to help! I didn’t want to rush the creative process, plus I had to make multiple unplanned trips to the store. 🙂
• Start with a blank canvas! If you’re thinking about re-styling your existing bookshelves, take everything down and put it in a pile on your floor. This will allow you to see everything in one place, and maybe start to think about what you could use more of (like books or vases) or less of. You also might start to see what works together, in terms of color or design.

• Find what’s in your house first. Before you go out and start spending money, spend some time going through your decor items at home and see what you have lying around that could be used for the shelves! I had some of my favorite books in storage that I’ve saved for this specific reason.

     

• Add books. Okay, take it from me folks. You’ll need more books than you think, and you don’t want to spend a fortune buying them, so check out your local Salvation Army to find hard covers with nice binds in simple colors. I stuck to blacks and whites to keep a neutral color scheme.
• Add greenery. The best trick for adding greenery is to mix in a few real plants with your faux ones. No one will ever be able to tell which are which! The green color brings your shelves to life and gives it that homey feel.

• Vary the height, texture, and color of your objects. You want the shelves to look balanced, without looking identical. You can achieve this by creating similar patterns of clustered objects on either side, but not matching them. Does that make sense? Mix taller objects, like vases, with shorter plants or vases. Put black books by white objects, and don’t forget to mix in the greenery!

• Embrace white space. You don’t NEED to fill every inch of the shelves. In fact, it looks much more styled if you leave some white space on the shelves. Give your items room to breathe. 🙂
• Add in your personal touch. You don’t want everything displayed to just be random objects that you bought from the store! Some of the things, like photos, should have a personal meaning for that sentimental touch. I picked some of my favorite photos that bring a smile to my face, and framed them in different color frames.

These are just a few of my favorite tips! If you have any more to share, please comment below. There isn’t really a ‘right’ way to decorate, so just enjoy the process. xoxo – lauren

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