7 Simple But Decorative Shelving Ideas
Shelves are generally underutilized interior decorative assets. Although their beauty stems from simplicity, putting considerable thought into their design and adornment can jazz up your space. Consider these seven ideas to lend more interest to your shelving.
Go Bottom-Heavy
Put more oversized, bulkier items on lower shelves to make your multilayer piece look airy. Petite and slender decorations create more negative space and allow light to pass through. This arrangement can make a tiny space appear roomier since the visually hefty items are out of your natural line of sight.
Display Greenery
Use plants, flowers and minuscule trees as decorations to inject a splash of color into your drab shelving. Green is one of the most relaxing hues, mentally soothing the observer.
Vegetation is a low-hanging fruit for introducing biophilic elements to your home. You can explore various avenues to infuse plantings into your shelf decor. Quality faux foliage gets the job done because it’s indistinguishable from the original. Preserved blossoms and plants are evergreen. They’re full of character and are low-maintenance — an excellent choice when you want something you can set and forget. Indoor herbaceous ornamentals fill the air with natural fragrance and bring more vibrance to the room.
One or a few small potted plants may suffice. However, a vertical garden isn’t overkill if you keep growth in check.
Place Artwork
Make your humble shelf mesmerizing with framed or unframed paintings. Leaning artistic works against the wall is a neat way to display them without drilling holes. Taking this route gives you redecoration flexibility, allowing you to give your room a dramatic makeover without worrying about hiding eyesores.
Arrange Coffee Table Books
Add more visual weight to your shelves with hardbacks. Coffee table books can be just as arresting as art pieces and serve a double purpose as reading materials.
Their covers are a delight to the eyes, so you can lazily set them against the wall. Stacking them vertically and horizontally also works. However, arranging them is an art. Many experienced interior decorators recommend building a pyramid to avoid having a wobbly tower of hardcovers, so a smaller piece must be atop a larger one. Aside from size, think about color coordination for cohesion.
Many pros advocate for the rule of three because odd numbers are interesting. Forming trios lets you display numerous reads without inadvertently creating a bookshelf. Spread out multiple horizontal stacks of three with their spines facing out. Using vertical stacks as bookends rounds out the decoration and helps keep them upright.
Pick a horizontal stack and top it with an unexpected ornament, like a vase, lamp or jar. The piece acts as a paperweight, a cherry on top of the cake.
Coffee table books can weigh as much as 10 pounds. Their heft quickly adds up and may be too heavy for standard shelves. Rethink their fasteners because hanging them with brad nails — which are usually just an inch long — without using complementary screws is a disaster waiting to happen.
Add Stunning Brackets
Style plain shelves with conspicuous hardware to spice up their design. Take a cue from your home’s architecture. Ornate pieces can blend seamlessly into the interior of Queen Anne, Victorian or other styles that value highly decorative spaces. Hardware with simple, clean lines looks at home in modern and contemporary residences.
Custom brackets are worth the cost with the right idea. Consider sustaining a recurring motif found throughout the house.
Incorporating a pattern into interior decoration is a surefire way to achieve a cohesive home design. If you haven’t started one, begin with shelf brackets. Think of a motif close to your heart. It can be your birth flower, a Poké Ball if you’re an avid card trader, the Greek letter that sounds the closest to your name’s first syllable or your favorite car brand’s emblem.
Match the Wall Color
Let decorations shine by painting your shelves and walls the same color. Black is intriguing because it absorbs light and blurs the lines between the foreground and background. Anything bright or reflective, like a chrome or gold accent, would effortlessly pop and create an illusion of levitation. A darker hue will obscure unsightly scuffs if your shelves have seen better days.
Conversely, a light-colored paint with a semi-gloss finish causes illumination to bounce around, which is beneficial optically in the kitchen or another busy area. It can make limited space look bigger since the shelves and walls visually become a unified surface.
Stick Wallpaper
Cover walls with wallpaper to spruce up built-in shelves. Peel-and-stick sheets are available in a vast array of designs. Let your imagination run wild with all the decorative possibilities.
Floral wallpaper is a terrific alternative to actual greenery. Although solid colors are timeless, choose from striking designs to create an accent wall. Brick or tile patterns can diversify your interior design’s textures and geometric shapes.
Decorate Your Shelves With Flair
Beautifying your shelving doesn’t need to cost a fortune and involve messy construction. Draw inspiration from these ideas to make your shelves as decorative as they are practical.
