The time has come. After months of neglecting them, it’s time to figure out how to my style living room shelves.
We’re probably a lot alike and you also have a bunch of home decor inspo saved on one of your Pinterest boards that you haven’t gotten to yet. Besides the holidays, there’s no reason to switch up your home decor until you feel like it.
Decorative Boxes | Floral Art – similar | Vase | Eucalyptus stems – similar | Decorative bookend | Brown Bohemians book | Decorative wood decor | Carved vase | Matches in cloche | Vintage Black Glamour Book | Everyday MAGIC
The feeling had finally moved me to style my living room shelves.
I talk about this in the book, but aesthetics are important to me. It’s not about aimless materialism, more than it is about safety. When we deem something aesthetically pleasing, it usually makes us feel safe. And if styling my living room shelves makes my home feel safer, I’m all in.
When we moved into our home 3 years ago, I had to wait longer than I wanted to get the shelves built. By the time they were finally done, I hurriedly bought decor from a little bit of everywhere just to simply put stuff on them. It wasn’t great.
Last fall, I bought some season-appropriate decor from Target and styled it to make the house feel like autumn. This styling attempt was a little better, but not where I wanted it to be.
This time around I wanted to find something that was a little bit more aligned with the transitional style of our home. (*whispers* and actually good) It didn’t necessarily have to be attached to a season. I wanted the shelves to feel more styled, elevated and neutral with personal touches.
I really wanted the shelves to feel like it fit and represented our home.
When it comes to styling iving room shelves, you want to find the right styling staples. After researching, window shopping and deliberating for a couple of months, I realized you need these 5 things to style living room shelves beautifully:
-Books
-Greenery or florals (faux is fine)
-decorative details
-vases
-framed art or photos
BOOKS
Let’s be honest, books make everything better – shelf decor included. You can stack books on top of each other to elevate a decorative object or stand them up and make a pretty vignette of them with bookends, a plant or vase of flowers. If you have a book with pretty cover, you can face it out and treat the cover like art. Books are timeless and you can have fun with styling them based on your personal style.
GREENERY
Whether you prefer plants or florals, having some sort of greenery on your living room shelves really livens it up. It adds color and/or contrast and creates a mood. Natural elements make us feel safe and calm. Whether they are real or faux (depending on preference and how much natural light you get), include some sort of greenery.
DECORATIVE OBJECTS OR DETAILS
Early on, I really underestimated how impactful (small or large) decorative objects and details can transform the look and feel of your shelves. Everything from small + medium sized storage boxes, decorative bowls or orbs, small sculptures and statues are great options. Don’t underestimate everyday objects like matches (in a holder), bookends and clocks, as they can be used as a decorative detail as well.
VASES
While they can easily be considered a decorative object, I believe that vases deserve to be called out on their own. Vases can easily take your shelves from plain to elevated just by grouping them together in a variation of sizes or in a vignette with greenery, books, and/or decorative details. I prefer neutral ceramic vases, but vases come in all styles like chinoiserie, mercury glass, metallic, lattice and various shapes & sizes.
FRAMED ART OR PHOTOS
When you style your shelves, including some framed art or photos humanizes the look and feel of it. I found this gorgeous still life of florals (similar here) and it really livened up the look of it. Before that, it felt a little sterile.
Afer styling my living room shelves in a way I loved, I learned almost immediately that these 5 things make the biggest impact no matter your style.
Now, that winter break and Valentine’s Day are behind us, I feel like the end February is the best time to think about giving your home a refresh for the upcoming season. I like to style the house around this time because it aesthetically gets your home ready for the spring.
Click below to shop the items on my living room shelves.
