How To Style A Shelf

On my Instagram today I asked what problem areas in your home you wanted help with. Although I’m not an expert by any means, I find it fun to help others decorate.

A question that kept coming up was how to style a shelf. I find it so much fun to mix new and old pieces and funny enough, this was on the blog for today anyways. So I hope this helps you style your own shelving in your home!

We made these modern farmhouse shelves with old fencing boards and modern matte black brackets from Home Hardware. We didn’t stain then yet as I liked the beat up look of the boards. On these shelves it holds our bread box, canisters, some greens and dishes that we use frequently.

I like to decorate in odd numbers. Sometimes you might not be able to do this as you might only own 2 of something. But the eye for some reason favours 1, 3 or 5 of something. I have no reason for this, but I’ve always decorated like this. It’s like this unwritten golden rule. Even if you don’t have 3 of something, you can fake it by doing random groupings of 3. Or Placing one object by itself. In this photo I have 9 trees and then below that I have the grouping of 3 – a faux plant, a candle and my bread box.

On the other side of the shelving I have a stack of five cream bowls. I like to stack items so they aren’t perfect.. it gives a lived in feeling – but if you’re more of a modern decorator, you do you!

Above, I have a set of three canisters which you can find here and the bread box here. They’re my favourite that I’ve owned for a few years.

I also like to layer my decor. So you see it’s sitting at different depths on the shelving.

I also like to put signs or items on the back of the shelving to break up the wall space. If you can remember the general rule of decorating in odd numbers and placing things at different depths while mixing fresh items like plants in with other items, you will have beautiful styled shelves!

I know there’s been a ton of home decor posts of late – you guys seem to like those the best. But is there anything in particular that you want to read about? let me know in the comments!