Shelf Decorating Made Easy

Shelf Decorating can be just like decluttering your home. Less is more. It might be time to unload some framed photographs and replace them with your favorite accessory finds.

During our life at the Johns Creek home, decorating shelves was constant. The image above which shows the built-in shelving on either side of the fireplace in the Great Room. This space and these shelves took a while to create, and once I figured it out, I loved it and never changed it. With the help of my sister’s style & her gift-giving, she and I worked to construct the look I wanted.

We incorporated the cool iron features on the bottom two shelves. My sister had given those to me as a gift years before, and they sat at the lake house waiting for their discovery. As soon as she placed the grates, the perfect look for the shelves was born.

Because these shelves had a light background, it allowed for a beautiful display of the iron structures. They stayed put for 15 years.

Different Types of Shelves

Redecorating and updating any shelving takes time. Built-ins, Hutches, mantles, or sideboards, time can be days, not just hours. Shelf decorating in my homes has taught me to dedicate time and focus on this task when ready to attack the project.

Images below are of the built-ins at the lake house using all of my favorite finds. Before we moved to the lake permanently, I took advantage of the one thing I could do because we already owned this home. While I could not start the remodel until we sold the John’s Creek house, I did decorate the shelves at the lake house.

I pulled all my favorites out of the John’s Creek home and spent more than two days decorating the shelves in the Great Room at the lake. Our Great Room at the lake is front and center when walking through the door, so I need to feel great about the shelf decor.

This task required time, thoughtfulness, and trial and error out the wazoo. I was over-focused because this was the one part of the lake house I could organize without the impending remodel disruption interfering. The shelf decor was the only thing staying put during the remodel.

Unusual Shelves

The shelves pictured above present a problem because they are narrow and compact. Based on that dynamic, I used the one item per shelf mantra. Pretty sure I just made that up as if it is a thing, and I felt the only way to introduce more than one accessory with the small shelf space is to use books and fillers.

Looking back, I wish I had filmed the shelf decorating process for this room and these shelves because it would have shown the time, focus, energy, and muscle to get it right. Given this was right before the move and there were more pressing things on the to-do list, documenting my chaos was the last thing that came to mind.

Hours of chaos will continue to arrive in your inbox if you subscribed to Lake and Lime.

Example here of the upcoming chaos.

Shelf Pop

What does shelf pop mean? It means to make the items you choose for your shelves pop or stand out against the background space so you can see them.

The shelving above is in the basement at the lake house. Because the basement is the only location in this home that offers a white background, items like the iron grates need to be displayed there. I love the grates. I had struggled to find a prominent home for them until the Bravo moment shared above at the Johns Creek house.

The office in the Johns Creek home had gorgeous built-in shelving. They were gorgeous until you had to decorate them, ugh. The image above is how I edited the shelf decor when staging the home to sell. I wish this had been done years earlier, ugh.

My image below is what this office usually looked like, embarrassing, triple ugh.

The photo above is a beautiful indicator of how one can evolve with home decorating. It is in all of us, and we don’t need to hire out help. We need to focus.

Hutches ~ Narrow Depth Shelves

My love for gorgeous and unique furniture pieces can get me into trouble. Posts here & here about this dilemma. Another shelf challenge is the Hutch. How in the world do we decorate shelves in a Hutch? There are many answers to this question, but for me, Hutches are typically for china.

Heaven knows I have some china. Stay tuned to this Blog because I am working on an entire post about the abundance of china.

A Dining Room Hutch is the perfect place for fine china. The Dining Room Hutch is now in the office at the lake house. Is the office an okay place for a Hutch with china? Yes. Why? Honestly, there is no other place to display this hutch. Ha.

As a result, I did a hybrid using china and other stuff. I love it. See below.

See below for Christmastime photos using this same Hutch. Changing seasons offer a time for a refresh and a redo to mix things up.

Lights illuminated the hutch during Christmastime at the Johns Creek home.

Trouble ~ Too Many Shelves

Soooo, back to the trouble. Enter the Pine Hutch below at the lake house, originally housed in the kitchen. After the remodel, the Pine Hutch needed a new home. I was curious if using dishes as the shelf decor would work. Hutch is now in the basement at the lake. All good because the pottery dishes remain in this Hutch even though it is not in a dining or kitchen area. It still makes sense.

There were more built-in shelves in the basement at the lake house. These shelves with the white background needed to be updated, big time. Picture of the before shelves, below-left, shows the shelving mess, and then my mini-makeover on the right.

Any shelf decorating can be taxing. For our home, multiple shelf built-ins, multiple Hutches, and open shelving require a think tank.

The above picture shows two pieces of art. They used to be in large gold frames. I removed the art canvases from the gold frames and added them to the shelves. The gold frames are outdated, and there is no place to hang them in our lake house. Not to mention, the gold frames have zero lake feel.

Decorating Shelves is Personal

Unique items are fun to showcase, and there is a Post Here about great places to shop in Atlanta to find similar items as shown above.

Pinterest, Joanna Gaines, and many Bloggers have great suggestions, tips, and tricks to follow when decorating shelves. Decorating is personal, create & use what you love to look at daily. Offset stack, use tall and small, different shapes and textures because the options are endless.

Trial and error, focus, and time are the best ways to decorate shelves. What I love is all of my favorite things are on the shelves. I get to look at them every day. Authentic jars, meaningful art pieces, favorite dishes, lights, rattan, baskets for texture, and greenery are great for pop, just not too much.

If you like the unique accessories showcased in my shelf projects, visit the shopping haunts linked below.

Queen of Hearts, Alpharetta, GA & Buford, GA

Scott’s Antique Market, Atlanta, GA

Lakewood Antique Market, Cumming, GA

Fox Hill, Cumming GA