When I was planning this home, I made sure to include different shelving thoughout so I could incorporate lots of decor and little vignettes. Our last home was such an open floor plan, it was essentially four corners and no nooks or crannies to decorate. There was nowhere to put anything cute basically. Our new home has a few different shelves, I put some in the living room (along with a ton of storage in the cabinets beside the fireplace), and there are two sets of shelves in the kitchen.
We opted to remove a wall in the kitchen to open up the pantry area, which made this beautiful open kitchen for us. I’m obsessed with it and I love that we did open shelving along the one side. It’s so bright and open, plus it’s the perfect spot for a coffee bar.
I haven’t figured out what I want to do with the top shelf still, I’ve shopped all my decor and nothing really fits in that space design wise, so it’s sort of a mish mash right now. The bottom shelf I layered in my cutting boards, some frames and my new favourite glassware. It’s so chic and minimal I love it. I keep the glasses upside down though because… dust lol. The candle sticks are vintage from my great grandparents and these tapers are battery operated but they’re SO realistic (linking them here for you).
The second set of shelves in our kitchen are beside the refrigerator. I have some plants propogating on the top shelf and then some simple decor that I kept minimal. This is where I keep our stand mixer and my favourite little diffuser.
Lastly, for our living room shelves,
I did these custom shelves and cabinets that flank our fireplace. They’re stained in the coziest warm stain (it was a custom blend from our previous home that I used throughout). Actually, the shelves are birch and the cabinets are a laminate (!) They look SO real you can’t tell at all, but being a laminiate they are about 100% more durable, which is why we went that route. I don’t want to be all over my kids about stuff, espeically in cabinets were their toys and games will be stored. They’re in and out of this space all day long and I’m hoping the laminate finish will keep our cabinets dent free and looking new for much longer lol.
I printed these prints off of Etsy, there are so many options to look through but I loved the faux texture these prints had, like a real painting.
My easy tips for shelf styling:
1.Stick to 3-4 colours in your pallette.
My colours in our living room are white, greys, greens, and browns. It’s super minimal and clean but gives a warm cozy feeling with the browns added in. I would say choose 1-2 main colours, and then 1-2 accents colours. So my accents colours are green from the plants and prints, and black.
Of course, there are so many styles of design, if you’re a maximalist or love colour, you can use this tip but more decor and colour looks amazing with that design so there aren’t rules, just sometimes guidelines to help. But decorating should be an expression of you and your style, so go with what you love and with what makes you happy.
2. Don’t forget foliage or plants!
Adding that touch of green brings a space or shelf together. I also included some faux foliage I found at HomeSense, and it’s in the prettiest soft pink and brown shade. So have fun with it!
3. Lastly, follow the rule of three’s!
This one is important! It helps create that cohesive ‘things go together’ feeling. Don’t put just one small item, group three together. Or instead of a handful of similar sized items, make it three different sizes (small, medium and large). This makes it more pleasing to the eye and for whatever reason, just looks better lol. I divided my shelves up into three sections essentially. So while some items are just grouped into two’s, because there are three sections on the shelf, it still feels aesthetically pleasing.
Anyways, like I said, have fun with it! It takes me forever to style shelves, it’s not something that is naturally easy to me lol. I add decor, stand back and asses, remove, then add more, then take a photo… then remove everything and start over… lol it’s ridiculous but it does take me a while until I’m settled on how it looks. So don’t be deterred! If you need inspo, check out my Pinterest pages, I have a ton of pretty shelfie inspiration on there!
xx Megan
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