6 Quick and Easy Tips to Styling Perfect Kitchen Shelves

Date
Apr, 15, 2020

In under and hour you can take a kitchen shelf from unorganized and messy to a cohesive collected display of your favorite items. Today, I am sharing 6 quick tips to styling kitchen shelves and creating the perfect shelfie. And the best part…. you probably have it all already in your kitchen!

Empty out all the shelves completely

The best and only way to start is to begin with a blank canvas. Completely remove all the items from the shelf. 

A SHELFIE is a photo taken to show off what is on someone’s shelf. Typically, the person taking the photograph is also in the picture. SHELFIES are usually taken to show off books, figures, or collectable memorabilia.

1. Cleaning Shelves

Chances are this is not a space that you often get to clean. I take this time to thoroughly clean the shelves by vacuuming and then washing each shelf with wood cleaner.  After the shelves are clean I then dust off all my cookbooks and accessories. Some pottery and dinnerware stay on the shelf and others head straight to the dishwasher. 

2. Displaying Cookbooks

A successful shelfie is not complied soley of books or in this case cookbooks. I love to cook and have a soft spot for cookbooks and collecting recipes. I weed out the the older ones or off season books and stash them in the pantry or a doored cabinet. For instance, I swapped out my Thanksgiving and Christmas cookbooks witht my Summer entertaining and BBQ grilling favorites. 

For a cohesive look, stack books from largest on the bottom to smallest on the top.  Group together by color blocking like colored books for a collected look. A successful shelfie has both horizontally and vertically stacked books. 

3.  Add Decorative Platters & Plates

The back of the bookcase is often overlooked. If possible, readjust heights of kitchen shelves to allow for your favorite decorative plate or larger platter to stand up in the back. (If your stack of books doesn’t keep the plate or platter tight to the back consider using a plate stand or removable adhesive putty.)  Not only does this add color and pattern but it can brighten up a darker shelving unit. 

Bookcase Tip: Wallpaper, decoupaged paper or paint on a poster board can add color and interest to an ordinary kitchen shelving or open bookcase. In most cases there is enough space in between the back of the unit and the shelf to slide in a poster board or wallpaper sheet. It is an ideal solution to making glassware or barware pop! 

4. Display Favorite Pottery, Dinnerware & Vases

Bring out your favorite pottery, vases, and dinnerware and show them off!  I have a specific kitchen cabinet dedicated to my love of small vases, and decorative pottery. Each season I switch out and bring more color to our kitchen by artfully displaying these gems. For this shelfie I chose blues making sure I had all shapes, varying heights, and coordinating groups. 

5. Share Something Sentimental

I don’t have a lot of things that remind me of my Grandma Hill but her vintage tin recipe box is one of them. It’s old, rusty, and all her cherished recipe cards are discolored. In a day where we get baking and coolking recipes and inspiration online I believe there is nothing better than seeing a generations handwriting and the love of a recipe by its wear and tear. 

Gramma Hill’s recipe box takes center stage on the top shelf atop three of my current favorite cookbooks; Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines, The Southern Pantry by Jennifer Chandler and Tacos by Stupak and Rothman.  All easily accessible for unlimited culinary inspirations and delectable creations. 

6. Faux or Real Greenery

Any shelf that I style always has greenery! Most often there isn’t ample natural light or the shelf is up high and not easy accessible to water.  In those cases, I opt for faux plants. Whether it’s grass, a succulent garden or moss orbs greenery adds texture and a spark of life. Here I added a collection of moss orbs that resurface every Spring. I simply arranged them in a turquoise thrifted low bowl. 

My design assistant Bo checks out my styling handiwork

Often cookbooks dust jackets get dirty, ripped and worn from multiple uses and love.  I either discard the covers or store in my pantry with my cookbook overflow. Sometimes the beautiful canvas covers and metallic titles are too pretty not to display. 

These are a Few of My Favorite Cookbooks 

In under and hour I have cleaned, changed the look and displayed my favorite cookbooks, pottery and momentums ion my kitchen shelves.  Come Fall there will be a total different look.   For more kitchen shelving inspiration I share our lakehouse kitchen our upcycled sideboard decorated for the holidays that houses all my white dinnerware collection.   Getting organized and making your kitchen look stylish is simple. I have gathered some of my favorite kitchen organizing tools for recipes, restaurant menus and hand me down favorites.

See something you like? Feel free to pin any and all of these images to your Pinterest boards. And if you are looking for more decor or culinary inspiration follow along on the Meme Hill Pinterest Page

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