Coffee Beans and Bobby Pins

Bookshelf Styling

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its
advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WicklessWonders
#CollectiveBias 
As soon as we moved into our house, I knew I wanted to put an Ikea shelving unit along the back wall of our living room. It would be inexpensive for our almost non existent furniture budget and I love the mixed of industrial looking with our more traditional sofa and coffee table. We opted to buy the single and double shelf and stick them side by side. You can barely tell they are two separate shelves unless very up close. For awhile, I thought about spray painting them gold, but have since kept them their black and glass look-  can always go back and do it if I change my mind. 

I love how our bookcase is styled, old and new. So I thought today I would share some bookcase styling tips that seem to work for me. 

1. Add something that tells a story: old, new and blue perhaps? The magnifying glass below, the pineapple and the white milk glass vase are all items I found meandering through at antique stores. They probably are worthless, but I love the story they tell and the visual appeal they bring to the shelves. Every time I walk by, I am reminded of antiquing with my mom and dad or Aaron and I remember the exact day and time I found the item. 

2. Use Books to your Benefit: I love decorating with books. They are in almost every room of our house and we have a ton, so it’s a good thing. Although my favorite books aren’t all out, I picked some that either were the right color, or the right shape and used them to create inexpensive appeal on my shelves. Stack them, keep them upright- regardless use them! I love this design book. 

3. Use Color in an Interesting way; On the bottom shelves, I stacked three stacks of books and kept them all either black or blue depending on the stack. I love how uniform it is without being the same.

4. Hide Useful items within your shelf: Since our units are glass, I don’t like to actually light the candles we use on our shelves. However, the elephant below is my secret weapon. While wandering through Walmart, I found this little Aroma Breeze and I couldn’t resist, I love elephants (but they also come in other amazing animals, shapes, etc.). This thing is amazing because it makes our house fragrant without me lighting a candle (it can run on battery or electric) so it’s not only safe, but also clean. The little discs last forever and come in an array of different scents. We are using Sweet Pea right now and is ahhmazing. I use it as a bookend and it served dual functionality! Just make sure to follow directions! Useful items can also include little storage boxes, candy dishes, etc. 

5. Get creative with Bookends: Sure, actual bookends are super cute. I am thinking about getting these, however, think about everything else you can use decor wise that’s great for keeping your book erect. Candles, vases, etc. This is an opportunity to get creative!

6. Lastly, don’t forget to add dimension. You can see from below, I try to use dimension in decorating my shelves. Add pictures in the back of loved ones to keep it personal and then some fun/funky items in the foreground. You can also get creative and hide wall items (i.e. our thermostat can’t be seen b/c of that pate when looking straight on). 

I hope that helps a little. I am in no way a professional, but I do love home decor styling, so I hope you find some of these tips helpful. I love places like HomeGoods, Amazon, Walmart, One Kings Lane, and Target for cheap and unique filler pieces. Antiquing and used book stores are ALWAYS a fav of mine too!

Also, can you tell Jodi Picoult is a favorite author of mine? Her books are amazing. 

What are your tips and secrets for decorating these types of spaces? Make sure to check our AromaBreeze products!

Also, poll- bookshelf, gold or leave as is? I appreciate the feedback!

!function(d,s,id){var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? ‘http’ : ‘https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)) {e = d.createElement(s);e.id = id;e.src = p + ‘://’ + ‘widgets.rewardstyle.com’ + ‘/js/shopthepost.js’;d.body.appendChild(e);}if(typeof window.__stp === ‘object’) if(d.readyState === ‘complete’) {window.__stp.init();}}(document, ‘script’, ‘shopthepost-script’);

JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.

Comments

  6. AvatarKatie says

    Pretty! Bookshelves are so fun because you can kind of make them look scattered, even though they look really put together as a whole. And I love black, so I'd keep it as is, but gold would be so gorg. too!

  9. AvatarJenna Wood says

    I love all the textures your shelves have going on, but they still feel like one cohesive styling, it's great! I have a big accent wall in my home and I just might borrow your double + single shelf idea to help fill the space! #client