Shelf Styling
Shelf styling, we’re so passionate about this topic because it truly takes on so many forms and can be super overwhelming if you don’t know where to start.
Part of our Full-Service Design Package is Millwork Design, Execution and Shelf Styling. We love sharing some of our latest examples of this with one of our latest installs at Project Coady. These wonderful clients have a modern, classic, monochromatic aesthetic and love our design suggestions to help bring dimension, depth and design to their new home.
Blank Canvas
It’s all starts with a blank canvas. Once we’ve worked with clients to create these fabulous new millwork built ins, we love taking the project all the way and offering styling as a part of our full-service design.
Often we go into clients homes and they’ve attempted to pop some of their personal items into the shelves, and we can tell, get frustrated and stop. There are two things about this we LOVE. We love seeing the items they love, their personal treasures and things they want to add to their space to make it their own. Then we can see where they gave up. The vision, the overall magazine look, the sourcing of the correct items. And that’s where we come in!
Measurements
We usually have the measurements, because we’ve done elevations of this space. Measurements can really help when you are gathering your pieces, or if you are out sourcing. We usually measure the height of the shelves and consider the width so that all of these items have a home and will fit proportionally.
Groups
Then it’s all about the groups. We all want that completed professional design look, with our own personal identity within the layers of the design. That’s where the canvas, the measurements, the sourcing and the overall vision come to life.
In this case, we wanted to update the space for our clients, while keeping the styling as modern, playful and clean as possible.
Sculptural pieces
These can be collected items, vintage pieces, new artists pieces, or simply items we find from our local big box store. We love sourcing sculptural pieces because they can bring a spontaneous moment to a shelf, and also be multipurpose. In one of our recent projects we styled in some candle stick sculptural pieces that can also be moved to the dining table for entertaining.
Books
We have our go to books that we cannot live without in terms of styling, which we will share in another post. Often, we are looking for larger books with beautiful spines. We want books that add an achor or a layer to the space. These can be beautiful new books, vintage sourced or books that we have received as gifts and want to display. Either way, we recommend finding a sentimental or meaningful attachment them, whether its a book you’ve read and loved, a book you’ve collected from an experience, which adds a sentimental anchor to your space, or an aspirational book that perhaps you love the aesthetic of and want to show it off in your space.
Books can really take on so many dimensions and we love grouping them together to display smaller dishes on or prop up other sculptural pieces.
Natural elements
If possible we love adding in some natural elements. Often it’s a little pop of green or a different material, such as wood, marble, or some texture. Adding in this level of dimension will also be a great accent to the other groupings and can really complete the entire look.
We’ve also included our YouTube series and we hope this helped inspire you to style your shelves, or work with us to help! Be sure to like and subscribe so we can bring you more fabulous design content!
Happy styling!