I recall one of the pearls of wisdom Coco Channel said, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” This advice applies perfectly to decorating wall shelves too. Books for home staging companies can seem like an endless expense, so stagers are almost always happy to cart off any old hardback books or booksets you’re not planning to take with you when you move.Sometimes there’s a fine line between styling a shelf and overloading it. If you’ve got old books that you’d like to get rid of, call your local library or let your local stager know. And, and our very best-kept secret is to turn the covers inside out so that you have crisp, clean white covers and a streamlined look overall. We like to remove the dust jackets from hardbacks for a less busy, more uniform look.
#Shelf decor how to#
Think small framed city scenes, photos of nature, and travel photography. It’s especially nice if the items tell a story that related to the home, like groupings of beachy photos, driftwood, and large shells or starfish perched on naturally-colored books for a coastal property.įor a cleaner, more uniform look, you can spray paint books white, but most fabric book covers will require several coats of paint, so we prefer to wrap them in white paper, brown butcher paper, or gift wrap (check Pinterest for diagrams on how to fold paper to make book covers). Using smaller framed artwork or generic photos on shelves helps fill space and can be more cost-effective than books alone. Stacks of coffee table books or open books, like an atlas opened to a beautiful map that happens to color coordinate with the decor, can be just enough to visually complete a lower shelf. Grouping books by color or intermingling one specific color, like the Hermes Classic Orange shown in the photo, or vertically arranging them by size, helps make arrangements that are most pleasing to the eye. This could be a collection of vintage cameras or typewriters, or an art glass collection. For kitchens, we clear the existing shelves and use attractive cookbooks, white pottery or clear glass repeated on open shelves and in glass cabinets. On occasion, we’ll stage bookshelves with a single type of object repeated over and over again for continuity. Organic and textured items such as driftwood and geodes are all the rage right now and they make great additions to an artfully arranged shelf. We also love using lamps, design-forward or sculptural items on shelves. Horizontally stacked books make great bookends and perches for objects d'art like silver trophies, orbs, boxes, pottery, and greenery, but try to keep decorative items larger than a cantaloupe or shelves can start to look junky in photos. You can remove shelves or change shelf height to add larger singular items like vases as they will photograph much better than small clusters of items. More asymmetrical design is best in the more casual areas like offices and family rooms where you can achieve a balance by placing like-sized or colored items in a Z-pattern to carry the eye pleasingly from one end of a shelf to the other end on the shelf below it and so on. Symmetrical design where items of the same size are opposite each other works best in more formal areas such as living rooms, dining areas, and stately dens. Whether the items are books or accessories, they can be grouped by theme, color, shape, or material and propped up with bookends. So edit accordingly, then everything else gets packed away and will be ready for the movers once your house has sold. If your shelves are full, it will leave the subconscious impression that there’s no room for their stuff. Also, you want them to see that there’s plenty of room for storage, not that the space is maxed out.
After all, buyers will be paying for square footage and a house will always feel bigger with less stuff. Leave a few strategically spaced shelves empty to help create the feeling of more space. As you begin to stage your shelves remember-less is more! The House Whisperers uses the interior design industry's 30% rule as a guideline when decorating shelves, so we recommend minimalism and filling only about a third of a shelf. Remember, you’re selling the built-in, not the items on display, so leave empty space on the shelves for the eye to rest. This is the time for your Lladro or Himmel collections to be put away and to make way for more generic items like books, vases and boxes (this is #4). Staging shelves beautifully is an art form in and of itself, but remember, staging is not decorating, so pack away heirlooms. Repair any scratches or dings and paint the shelves if necessary. Start with a clean slate. Remove everything from the shelves.
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