How To Creatively Style Shelves For Summer

Let me share with you how to creatively style shelves for summer. Pretty decorated shelves that are styled well, will add a wonderful touch to any room in the home.

Decorating shelves in your home doesn’t need to be hard or too challenging. In fact it can be a fun challenge to take on redecorating a shelf or shelves with new home decor for the season. I’d love to show you how to meet this challenge and how to creatively style shelves for summer or any season.

I am going to take you through step by step and share my process. Hopefully I can make it easy to follow. Now go find a shelf in your home to decorate with summer decor.

Where to Use Shelves in the Home

Shelves can be found in most rooms of a home. The kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom or bedroom are all great places to hang a little or a big shelf perfect for displaying home decor.

I have two fairly large white shelves on my dining room wall that I like to decorate and rearrange fairly often. I’m going to be using these shelves today and style them with summer decor to show how easy it can be.

Steps For How to Creatively Style Shelves

• Empty the shelf or shelves and clean
• Decide on a colour or theme
• Gather decor items
• What decor to use
• Styling the shelves
• Assess….How do my shelves look?

Empty Shelves and Clean

Try to completely empty all the decor and stuff off the shelves. I left a few plants on the shelf because I didn’t want to move them, but ideally it’s nice to start with a clean slate.

After removing everything give the shelf a clean with a damp cloth to remove any dust. I also quickly wiped off the previous spring decor and stored it away.

Colour or Theme for the Shelves

Deciding on which colour or style of decor that will be used, will depend greatly on what the surrounding room decor consists of. Look around the room where the shelf is hanging and see what colours and style would fit in nicely. What colour are your walls, furniture and other decor pieces? Try use a cohesive look that will tie the overall room together. If the room colour is neutral, it’s usually pretty easy to add pops of colour or a theme. You may choose to go bold with this or just add subtle touches.

Need some summer theme ideas? Check out my recent blog post all about this topic. https://behomeinspired.com/2022/06/23/simple-home-decor-ideas-and-themes-for-summer/

Gather Summer Decor Items

Now that a colour or theme is decided, gather the decor items that you want to use on the shelves. I like to shop around my home first and look through any decor tucked away in storage bins. After this it’s fun to shop for a new piece or two.

Spread all of the decor close to the shelf where you will be working. This makes it easier to see what you have and what to use while decorating.

What Decor to Use

What decor do I use on my shelf? This is a pretty large question, because it’s going to really depend on your colour, theme or style.

I wanted to have a light and airy coastal theme, so I used white and aqua colours with natural elements of wicker and greenery. Here are some ideas of great decor. Many of them I used on my shelves.

• Old books or books with the outer edges showing
• Plants, either real houseplants or artificial plants
• Baskets- in many varying sizes and shapes
• Mason jars- clear or coloured in all different sizes and style
• Candle sticks with candles
• Containers- wood, tin or glass
• Lanterns- I used a really large coastal one

Styling the Shelves

To begin styling the shelves for summer, start with the larger pieces first and then work down to the smaller pieces. This usually involves lots of trial and error with arranging and rearranging decor around in lots of spots to see where it will look best. One tip is to try use varying heights with different pieces. Also use a variety of textures. For example wicker, glass, wood or plants. This makes the arrangement interesting to look at. Another tip is to arrange in groups of three. This look is generally more pleasing to the eye.

How Do My Shelves Look?

Stand back a ways and look at your shelves. How do they look overall. If you are starting to feel fustrated with rearranging for the hundredth time, take a break and take some time to look at the shelf over a day. Inspiration will come to you, honest, and you’ll come up with fresh new ideas or decor to use.

Often taking a picture of the finished shelf and then looking at the picture, can help with visualizing things better too.

Creatively Style Shelves For Summer

I hope that the process I’ve shared with you today has inspired you to go decorate a shelf in your home. It will make such a pretty statement in any room of the house. Have fun being creative and decorating.

Have a wonderful week.

Rachel