One thing I tend to struggle with is how to design the look of a shelf, meaning what goes where. I love shelves since I love little knick knacks so I figured I’d share with you how I try to combat this issue (1st world probs) in hopes that I can help you if you ever find yourself in a shelf styling dilemma!

We had a big blank wall in our kitchen that I knew I wanted to put something on, whether it was additional cabinets someday or even a sliding door to our back yard, but until then, I decided to fill that void with fun shelves that my husband made for me! I initially envisioned chunky floating shelves without brackets, but when he told me he could make them faster and cheaper using a 2″ X 10″ X8′ board, I was okay with that. He cut them to the size of the space we had available and stained them a dark walnut color, which I love. I found these fun brackets at Lowes and decided to put them at the very ends to try to get more of that “floating” look. Tip: if you do end up making these on your own, be sure to put the brackets either into a stud or use dry wall anchors. We had a mishap where one of ours came crashing to the ground, so take my advice and make sure they’re solid in the wall.

Now, next came the styling. I’ve probably re-arranged these shelves several times to go with holidays, color schemes, etc, but this is my favorite configuration that I’ve had and it’s stuck!

I like the look of shelves that aren’t too cluttered but still have enough on them to make them look full. Trust me, I can definitely get carried away sometimes with what I put on shelves or table tops, so I have to remind myself to real it in haha!

I started with what I’ll call the “anchors” on the top shelf. I got these two blue antique glass containers from an antique show in upstate NY a few years back. I look for them every year but haven’t been able to find that vendor since or I would grab a few more! These have been so handy to have, my mom has used them to decorate bridal and baby showers as vases with fresh cut flowers, I’ve stored wine corks in them, they’re really versatile and pretty! They each stand about 15″ tall, so they’re the perfect glass pieces to put on the top shelf to gain some height in the kitchen. I added a few sprigs of faux greens to the left one from Magnolia Homes and love the height they add, too!

Next, I wanted to add a main center point on the top. I found this “farm to table” sign at a local shop and thought it was perfect for our house, not really sure what to do with it at first, until I noticed it would look cute on the top of the shelf!

My mom gave use these cute glass cupcake holders to use at our wedding to showcase different cupcake flavors and they were adorable! I put these up on the top shelf to compliment the glass jars and really love them! During the holidays I fill them up with fun bulbs, there are lots of options for these, too!

On the bottom shelf, I really didn’t have much rhyme or reason, other than I have this big white bowl that I didn’t have space for in my cabinets that I knew I wanted to put on display somehow! I love the look of white, wood, and iron altogether, so this look was pretty obvious for me. I wanted to compliment the big white bowl as well as the blue shelves with some fun little bowls, so I found these blue at TJ Maxx! I like that it ties into the top shelf with the blue color but not too much that it’s really noticeable. I mentioned above that we had a shelf come crashing down when my husband bent over to pick something up and knocked his head on the corner of the bottom shelf, and the original little bowls I got from my bridal shower suffered that consequence, so I replaced them with these! Somehow, the big white bowl survived, although I’m not sure how since it is ceramic!

One of my besties gave me the “Love” sign that I put on the outer left side of the shelf to sort of balance the sign on the top shelf. It gives a little height and dimension to the look and I love the message on it! I have a little ring holder in front of it that my husband puts his wedding ring in most nights after work, and I’ll thrown my rings in it when my hands are dirty in the kitchen or I need to go do outdoor work. The hand carved wooden cat next to that is a gift from my sister and brother in law from their honeymoon, my husband loves cats and they love that he loves cats, LOL!

I went back and forth on if the bottom shelf is too full, but like I said before I tend to over do it, so I probably did, but I put this fun candle holder from Pottery Barn on it to go with the blue/gray theme in the kitchen. I decided to put sea shells from different beach trips we’ve taken inside of candles inside it to have a fun place to store those momentous! Next to that, I have a cute juicer that’s handle did break when it fell, but I love that it says “when life gives you limes, add tequila” haha! I have it sitting up a little higher on a vintage pot holder to add more dimension.

Lastly, I think everything looks better with some greens, whether they’re real or faux. These faux greens were originally in another vase from TJ Maxx that broke at some point, so I saved the green part and popped them into this colorful vase from my mother in law! I love that the colors in the vase are pretty much my kitchen’s theme, so I figured we could go with it!

So, those are my tips for decorating these types of kitchen shelves. I have lots of cabinets in my kitchen, so I don’t really need to store plates and everyday items on it, I definitely use the bowls on it quite a bit, but I’m not really on the open shelving bandwagon yet when it comes to mugs, cups, etc. I have so many fun mismatched mugs that I like to keep them housed altogether out of sight! 🙂

If you end up trying these DIY shelves send me pics of how you style them! I always love to see what other people do with open air shelves, its such a fun way to put things on display, bowls, vases, photo frames, candles, so many ways! I’m excited to see what you create!

Until next time! xoxo