Since starting my design Instagram feed the most asked question I have gotten has been on this topic. How do I style my bookcases? Well girl, I got you. There is a lot of info today, so I’m just going to cut right to it.

7 tips to styling your bookcase

There are two MAJOR things to keep in mind when styling a shelf  in my opinion, and everything else is just bonuses to bring it to the next level. So if you only remember 2 of these tips, remember these first two.

1. NEGATIVE SPACE- it is important to have it! Don’t feel like every shelf needs to have a million things on it. You want there to be room for your eye to not get overwhelmed. You also want to try and divide out negative space evenly. For example on the picture above the 2nd and 3rd shelf both have the same canister  (other than one is shorter) notice how I placed one on the left and one on the right. This helps to equally balance what you are viewing. They literally are taking up almost the same amount of space on the shelf meaning that all the empty space around them, the negative space, is pretty equal. Using the canisters is an easy example- so what happens if you aren’t using any of the same objects? Look at how much space is being taken up by your object on the left and then make sure the shelf BELOW it on the RIGHT has about the same visual weight.
2. LEVELS- it is so easy for things that “go on a shelf” to all be really similar in size. It is really boring to your eye though if everything IS all the same size. So make sure to pick objects that help to have different eye levels on each shelf. 
   3. FIND OBJECTS TO CREATE LEVELS- the most obvious thing is to use books, but you could also use wood trays and flip them over to create additional height on your self to place objects on. 4. SOFT COVER BOOKS- instead of having the bound part of the book facing out turn the books around so the pages are showing. Again it will simplify the colors going on from maybe several different colors, to just shades of white/grey. 5. HARD COVER BOOKS- I love using hardcover books, but to make them look super professional in your styling pull all the slip covers off! You will be surprised how many really ugly slip covers have a really pretty solid colored hardcover. 

6. USE DIFFERENT MATERIALS- Use wood, metal, ceramic, paper- don’t get too crazy. But you also don’t want everything to be the same material. Doing this is what adds “texture” to your shelf.

7. GREENERY- I am never opposed to adding greenery anywhere. I always thinks it adds just that little bit of life that any space is dying for without it.