10 Tips To Style your Bookshelves

For those of you following me for some time, if you recall, a LONG time ago (because sometimes I get distracted with life and all the things I do!) I started to redo my family room and bar. Remember that? That was this past November. See it HERE. Why HELLO MAY! It’s SO delightful to see you here and YES we DO plan on finishing this project soon! Like truly… I have 2 small things more to go and then the reveal. They’re not THAT small but they’re not THAT big. But I am excited to show you what I’ve done with my space! (insert excited little jump!)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Bookshelves. Those can be quite a challenge for some of us. Mine are massive, tall and wide. So I have to get some creative juices flowing on how to do them up. I think I’m done with them but here’s a sneak peek at a “shelfie”.

So then how do we do up our shelves to look nicely styled?

1. Turn books on their sides and use them as risers upon which you can stack other lovely things.

2. Use larger books that are actually beautifully covered as a stand alone item and let it stand up and out on its own.

3. Create small groupings or clusters of items.

4. Less is more. Don’t feel like you must take up the entire space, especially if you have interesting shapes and sculptural items to show case.

5. Mix textures. Books, glass, coral, wood, greenery, gold, silver, pottery. Find ways to mix things to make them interesting.

6. If using picture frames, use varying heights.

7. Put things in your shelf that actually have function. Select some baskets if you want to store something in it out of sight. Use a pretty decorative clock to fill a space, but it will really tell the time for you when you glance up.

8. Use collections of old magazines as stacks for something interesting and different than books.

9. Use odd numbers when arranging groupings.

10. Make it personal. Use things that might have meaning to you. Special pictures, items you picked up from a special vacation, even your kids art framed beautifully all give your space that personal meaning.

Here are some shelves that were a bit of “pinspiration”.