Decorating the Shelves #2: Using this and that.

OK, time for the second part of decorating your shelves. 

If you didn't catch the Decorating Shelves #1, you can read it HERE. 

In that post, I gave a couple of tutorials about what I randomly find around my house to use on shelves, and I discussed how to "balance" the shelves....to the best of my knowledge anyways.  

Once again, I'm no expert or professional, I just LOVE decorating shelves and I'm trying to annalize what I do to offer suggestions. 

1.) Use Groupings

One easy way to add some interest on your shelves is to add a grouping of something. This can be vases, jars, picture frames, or even something you've collected. I find it looks best if these items all have something in common such a color, or theme. It's also good to have some variation in the grouping, such as different heights, maybe different shades of the same color, or different textures. 

You can see this in my picture frame grouping below. 

Similarities: They are all contain a creamy white color, and none of the pictures are colored (remember that frames are really easy to paint if you want picture groupings!)

Difference: Heights of the frames, and the pictures are different distances. Meaning, some are showing the kids farther away and a couple are close-ups (it always looks nice to do this with a picture collauge).

2.) Search your house for THE COLORS!

I'm meaning the color or colors that you're using on your shelves. Even if it wouldn't be a logical thing to include on a shelf, it may be just what you need! Really, go around your house and pull out bowls and plates, and branches, and kids toys, and wrapping paper. Any and all sorts of things that are a close color to what you have in your room! 

In the picture below, I took some yellow fabrics, and made a fabric flower, then I attached it with wire to a glass jar filled with yellow kid's blocks. This adds a lot of interest, and also provides the color I needed on the shelves. Fabric and blocks wouldn't typically go on a shelf, but as I collected things from around my house that were yellow, I found the fabric and blocks and it all came together. 

3.) Nature

Nature is awesome! It's intresting, provides some good color, or even more often, wonderful neutrals. (It's nice to balance out colors with neutrals on shelves.) 

Branches, rocks, flowers, feathers, pinecones....they all look great in decorating! And best of all....it's all usually FREE!

I love plants and think the green of plants really can add to a space. I included these succulents that I found outside on a shelf. I used a flower shaped bowl as a pot, and then placed the little black ringed saucer underneath. To add color I used a yellow paper doily underneath the plate. Once again, just things from around my house.  

4.) Something old, something new, something vintage, something unexpected!

In the tip above, something old, vintage and unexpected can most of the time go together. You can see the bucket below. It's old, vintage and unexpected. It's probably my favorite thing on the shelves. I found it at a junk yard for $2. Don't be afraid to use something unexpected. One reason people love vintage is because it's so unique, and often times, unexpected! 

5.) Five is kind of redundant, but aim for BALANCE. 

You can see below that I used yellow on opposite sides of the shelf, balanced by the white/cream decorations on the other side. The white book pages that are displayed are every other shelf. Use what you have to "balance" the shelf display. 

Go around your house, collect everything and anything you think might work. Set it in front of the bookcase or shelf and starting staging. Keep at it until it looks right! Remember that in order to have beautiful display shelves, you probably won't be able to use everything you want to display. 

Here is finished shelf #2 on the right.  You can see finished shelf #1 on the left and you can read more about it  HERE. 

 

Home Stories A 2 Z also had a great post this week on decorating shelves. So if you want to read more about decorating shelves, you can check hers out HERE. 

Hope you've enjoyed my random babblings on how I decorate shelves. Just remember they are a reflection of you, so place things and mementos on them that you love, and remember that as long as you enjoy them when you're done, then you've done it right!

--Katie

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