Fashion To Interiors: 3 ways to show your personal style on your shelves
When it comes to interior design, our fashion taste can often have a significant influence. Whether it be the clean lines of classic looks, bright colourful statements or the call to comfort with high texture. Our individual style often shines through in simple ways. With this in mind, Nicole is here to show you how to translate your favourite vibe into a shelving moment with these top tips.
The Elegant Expert
Inspired by classic lines, simple colouration and high curation, the elegant shelf is brought to life with traditional elements and a modern twist. Using candle tapers for a historic flare, I add the books in opposite corners to include layering. The biggest thing to remember in shelf styling is balancing, keeping the glass and darker accents on opposite corners so one side doesn’t feel heavier than the other. Then I finish the look with some green in a neutral pot to give the shelf some life. What arguably makes something elegant is highlighting simplicity without overlooking clean lines and items with a sophisticated element.
Extra Tip: If you don’t have enough books to keep your pallet neutral, turn them around! I love this trick, mainly because most pages are white or off-white so you keep the pallet the way you want.
The Minimalist Maven
This style tends to be focused on the finer details without filling up space. Our shelf features a warmer pallet in off-white, sandstone and blush pink to ensure the look feels a little more full but still simplistic. Using the two ceramics up top on a coffee table book helps create a “peak” for the eye to focus on before it settles on the lower shelf. Below I include a unique ceramic to hold some dried greenery for an organic element. Next, I add a framed item to include some angles to match the structure of the books, and finally finishing it off with a small neutral candle and a wooden dish with a few rocks. When it comes to minimalist styling it’s all about highlighting the uniqueness of the items being presented. ut plainly, display things that make you wonder if they’re facing the right way, then you’ll always have visual interest!
Extra Tip: I love to always include an element of nostalgia in my shelf displays, especially when doing minimalist styling as it brings a warmth and personal touch to a simple look. The framed item is actually a handwritten “Recipe for Happiness” by my great-grandmother, it’s one of my favourite things in our home.
The Colourful Queen
High colouration as a style is all about curation. There is something so beautiful about nailing down a pallet and helping it thrive with the right hues and tones. To bring this colourful shelf to life, I’ve brought together vivid jewel tones that compliment each other with a few textural and visual pieces of interest. Starting tall on the top shelf with tapers on one side, a sketch mannequin and vase on the other, I capture all of the pallet’s major colours, while keeping one side more full than the other to have a starting point for the eye. On the lower shelf, I flip the ratio to include the heavier items on the right side and simpler items on the left, however the blue is tied by both pieces to create balance. The trick here is to know that not every part of the shelf needs every colour, there just needs to be visual symmetry.
Extra Tip: Missing the right thing to finish your shelf look? Start thinking outside the box and pull things that may be odd but are in your desired colour pallet. The green box on the top shelf is actually a Christmas ornament box left over from the holidays. Anything is fair game if it’s the right colour!
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