How to Style your Shelves like an interior designer
The reason we love styling so much is you can learn the rules - and there are some helpful ones - but really it’s just about playing. Gather your objects, shop your house, and get into the flow of it. It can be weird, it can be neat, most importantly you want it to feel right. Here are a few of our styling “rules” that are helpful to keep in mind. We recommend you read them and then get to playing!
Collect - Your home should be full of objects that feel meaningful or beautiful. Collecting pieces over time that feel interesting or sentimental is a great way to build up your styling reserve. Look for sculptural pieces, vases, ceramics, beautiful books, art, branches from your garden. Display your useful items - vases, pitchers, candlesticks, serving ware whatever you might have tucked away in a cabinet
Claire’s pro tip: collect items from travel - small bowls, trinkets and pieces of art are easy to pack and are perfect for adding memories and stories to your home!
Negative space is ok - you don’t have to fill every gap. Give your objects breathing room and allow yourself the space to fill over time
Grouping objects by color or use can help give you a place to start - for ex. books by color or subject matter, or vintage glasses and serving ware in your bar. Create vignettes, then you can layer in with more unexpected pieces.
Linny’s pro tip: Staying in a color palette to compliment the design of your room can help your styling from feeling cluttered
Balance can takes some trial and error. Stand back to see the composition as a whole - does one side feel too heavy? Try switching around darker or larger objects that have more visual weight.
Claire’s pro tip: try varying book display from vertical to stacking, which can provide platforms to display smaller objects on and incorporate bookends to break things up and incorporate color or texture
Linny’s pro tip: use the rule of 3 (vary heights and add in sculptural/vases/decorative) arrange them in a way that creates depth
