Affordable Open Shelving with a Few Shelf Styling Tips

Is it just me or do y’all swap all your pictures and decor around until you find just the right spot for it? It seems to take me a few tries, but when I find the perfect place for something it makes my heart happy! I know that sound silly. Tell me you know what I mean? LOL. I share this because I’ve recently swapped a few things around and now I’m really happy with the newly decorated corner in our living room. I added some affordable open shelves. I also figured I would share a few shelf styling tips while I’m at it!

I don’t know if you remember this space from a previous post when I wrote about hanging the old chippy door. This is what the space looked like.

I wasn’t 100% sure my DIY botanical prints had found their home there. I decided I would swap them out and put them in our bedroom corner around the corner windows. I think they have finally found their home!

Now the question was; “what would I hang on the wall in it’s place?”

I decided on adding a few farmhouse style open shelves. While I’m at it, I’ll share a few shelf styling tips.

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I found these simple shelves from Walmart. I thought about making my own DIY pipe shelves, but for a little over $20, I couldn’t make them cheaper than that.

These shelves aren’t anything fancy, but sometimes I feel like less is more.

Affordable open shelving with a few shelf styling tips

I’m pleased with how this wall is coming along! Now for the good stuff;

Tips on how to style open shelves

Styling open shelving is similar to styling any sort of ledge. I wrote about a few ways to style a fireplace mantel, and the principles are exactly the same.

Always keep your shelf balanced. What I mean is if you have a large item on the right, counterbalance it with an item with similar weight on the left
For some reason, groupings of three always look great together.
Add items with different textures
Add items with varying heights
Try to coordinate colors. Don’t use more than 3-4 different color groups as it might start to look like clutter and not a styled shelf.

Affordable open shelving with a few tips on shelf styling

For my open shelves, I’ve chosen a color palette of greens, muted blues and a few natural brown colors. I’ve tried to tie it all together by blending the blue in the chippy door, the blanket, and the chippy corbels. You can see the browns in the desk, the tobacco basket, and wood tones. The greens are obviously from the greenery.