How to Decorate Shelves Like a Pro

15 Minute Read

Shelves are often simply a means to an end for some of us – to provide storage and get things out of the way. But storage isn’t the only reason to add a shelf to a room, so if you want your shelves to act as wall décor and look great, you’ll need a plan to decorate your shelf. After technical questions, we’re often asked about decorating and styling shelves, and we’re always a bit cautious of answering, because there are so many variables to consider! What a ‘perfect’ shelf looks like will depend on your personal taste in interior design, the colour scheme of the room, what is around the shelf, and the look that you want to achieve with the shelf.

However, in this post, we’re going to cover how to decorate your shelves with what we think are the best items that will make you feel like an interior designer!

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Best ways to decorate shelves

There are so many items you can use to decorate a shelf, and you don’t necessarily need to got shopping for new items – unless you want to, of course. ‘Shopping your own home’ and moving items you love to your new shelf is one way to create a new look without spending, or you might shop sustainably – either second hand, handmade, or at the least, plastic-free. Here are some of the things we love seeing on shelves to make them look great.

Plants

You can’t go wrong with adding greenery to your shelf – and not only do plants add a great natural touch to your shelf, but house plants are also great for the air quality of the space. They help to remove gases including carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as fungal spores and other bacteria. They have even been shown to improve both psychological, and physical health for humans, so if you’re thinking about adding greenery to your shelf, there’s a list of plants that can help here.

If your shelf is high enough to water your plants would be tricky, or you simply don’t have green fingers, then consider faux plants, or an arrangement of either silk or dried flowers. These can look just as effective as living plants, and there is no chance that you’ll over- or under-water them.

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Artwork and photos

If you have a large collection of artwork or photos that you want on display, your shelf is a great place to put smaller ones. Choose your other accessories to complement, or to contrast with the colours. You might choose to layer in accessories that suit what is in the image too – so, having a palm-like plant next to an image of a tropical beach, and maybe an ornament from the holiday you took there, for example.

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Books

Books are an obvious choice to place on your shelf, especially if you have a large collection! But think about how you want to display your books, and the effect you are going for. You might try:

Arranging them by the colour on the spine
Displaying books that complement the colour of other items on the shelf
Turning books around to show the pages rather than the spines, for a more neutral effect
Laying books flat and placing items on top, to help create visual balance
Arranging books largest to smallest

Play with how to display your books based on what else you’re going to have on your shelf – you might not even need to use bookends, depending on what else you have to display.

Decorative storage

Even if your shelf is purely decorative, you still might want to work in some storage – there are always items that you need to keep hold of, but that you don’t need to hand every day. Where this is the case, you might look for:

Beautiful glass jars
Woven baskets in natural materials
Vintage jewellery boxes
Ornate wooden boxes
Cardboard gift boxes
Large bowls – ceramic, glass, or even copper can work beautifully
Decorative plant pots (or metal ones for an industrial effect)

Of course, you can still use your shelves to hold functional items like ring binders and box files – but keep in mind that storage can look great too.

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Collections

If you’re a collector of any kind of item, then there’s a good chance you’re putting up your shelf to help display your collection, and so you can appreciate those items. Here are a few ways to display items from your collection:

Group Items – this will help your collection to look intentional, rather than haphazardly thrown together and cluttered.
Create a focal point – if your collection has items of different sizes, try a single focal point, either in the centre or to the side, or you might use two similarly sized items to create symmetry to your collection.
Sort your collection by colour – you might place all blue items together on a single shelf, create a rainbow effect with different items, or just choose two or three complementary colours.
Change the items on your shelf seasonally – this means you get to see and appreciate more items in your collection, and you’ll refresh the look and feel of the room easily.

8 tips on how to decorate shelves like an interior designer

If you’re unsure how to make your shelf look good, don’t worry – there isn’t a single way to make your shelf look great. You can play with different items to make your shelves look good, and you can break all the rules – but here are a few tips that make it easier..

1 - Place large items first

If you’re placing artwork, large photo prints, plants, or an ornament on your shelf, put that in place first. This will help you to establish that it is the right item for the location, and that the scale of it makes sense. This will become your anchor piece, which you can then layer other items around.

2 - Be cautious with heavy items

If you’ve bought quality shelves that have strong fixings, then the weight that you can place on your shelf is likely to be pretty high. All of our bracket shelves and floating shelves can hold up to 35kg (around 77lbs) of weight – we’ve tested them – and that equates to a pretty decent number of books, especially in paperback form!

3 - Keep it simple

You don’t have to include loads of stuff on your shelf – less can definitely be more. Personal items that you love, with one or two other items that complement them, will look much better than picking stuff you don’t have a connection to, just because it is trendy.

4 - Find balance to create symmetry

Symmetrical doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use a pair of the same item – rather, it is about creating balance with the visual weight of the items on the shelf. You might balance a tall vase with a plant of a similar height, or a few books, for example.

5 - Use the rule of three

If you’re unsure how many ornaments such as candles to add to your shelf, you can’t go wrong with three. This will help you to keep the shelf feeling uncluttered.

6 - Group smaller items to make one bigger item

If you’ve got a collection of smaller items, you can place those items together to create the look and feel of a bigger one. Typically, designers use odd numbers of items in groups (see the ‘rule of three’ above) but you may have a pair of items that look great next to one another – so feel free to break those rules.

7 - Don’t forget about cleaning

If you’re adding loads of little items, don’t forget that you’ll need to be able to get to your shelf and dust them according to your cleaning schedule – and if there are a lot of little items, there’s a good chance you’ll end up regretting that you put so much up there!

8 - Forget about perfection

Perfect shelves can often look boring, so we recommend not even trying for it. In fact, the concept of ‘perfectly imperfect’ is likely to be a better one to aspire to, since it will look less contrived, and far more effortless. What you think looks great in your home is far more important than what a designer says is on trend – and you’ll love it far more too.

Final Thoughts On decorating Shelves

Decorated well, your shelves will make a beautiful addition to your home, and there are infinite ways to make your shelves look great. If we’ve inspired you with our post, when you’ve decorated your shelves, or maybe you’ve restyled your shelf ready for the start of spring!

Don’t forget to take a shelfie, and post it on your Instagram, tagging us @bensimpsonfurniture.

We love seeing your Ben Simpson Furniture shelves in your homes, and we’ll share your post with our followers, to get your shelves even more love.