Personalise Your Shelves
Image + Design by Studio McGee
Think of open shelving throughout your home as the perfect opportunity to reflect your style and inject your unique personality.
Open shelving can make beautiful additions to any living space and bedroom. They have also become very popular additions to kitchens and bathrooms, injecting much needed warmth to these hard surfaced areas of the home.
The key to styling a shelf is creating a balance between materials, colour and scale. When I style shelves, I like to use a range of objects with varied heights. This might include a lamp, small pieces of artwork, photo frames, plants, books and a variety of vases and ceramics. Adding meaningful objects that I have collected over the years adds a personalised touch.
Image + Styling by Brodie Jenkins
My key tips on styling your shelving
1. LARGEST TO SMALLEST
Start with the largest items first such as artwork, small baskets and plants, then add your smaller accessories.
2. LAYERING
Layer your objects by positioning them slightly in front of the other to add depth and interest to your shelving.
3. GROUPING
For a balanced and cohesive look, group objects in threes such as a small piece of artwork, a vase and a candle. You want to ensure the grouped objects are varied heights, textures and colours.
4. BREATHING SPACE
Practice restraint by giving your objects room to breathe. Whether you are a minimalist or maximalist, negative space allows you to take in each object and allows the eye to rest.
5. PERSONALISE
Personalise your shelf by adding meaningful objects that you have collected over time. They don’t have to be expensive to be meaningful. In fact your most treasured items could be found at op shops, local stores or found while on holiday reminding you of happy times.
6. TAKE YOUR TIME
Styling always takes a few tries (or more), so as you place objects down, stand back and re-position until it feels just right.