Shelf Styling Tips for Thrifted Treasures

Today I am excited to share different shelf styling tips for your thrifted treasures! Styling shelves and decor can be tricky and even overwhelming, but hopefully these tips will inspire you!

As many of you know, I am pregnant with our fourth and this first trimester has been a lot easier for me than past pregnancies in regards to nausea, but I have still been very tired. This past weekend I suddenly felt the urge to deep clean. My husband was so sweet and helped me tremendously. We dusted, vacuumed, washed bedding, slipcovers, you know what I mean – a good deep clean. 

After cleaning the whole house, I was still so motivated and since I haven’t had this much energy in a while, I wanted to take advantage of it and decided to paint my dining room as well! I probably pushed myself a little too far between cleaning and painting, but it feels so good to have gotten these things done. 

I lightened up my walls quite a bit in the dining room with a color called Swiss Coffee, the same color I painted the living room this fall. As you can see in the photo above, we need to paint our cove ceilings, as well. They are off white and right now they just blend into the walls.

I love this color, but in order to paint I am sure you know I had to empty out the entire room. I am still in the process of putting the room back together, but as you can see I have my shelves back up and decorated. 

While I was putting my shelves back together, I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to share with you the process I go through with some shelf styling tips for my thrifted treasures. 

If you want to watch the whole process of how I styled my shelves, be sure to watch the YouTube video linked above! Here are the things I consider whenever I’m styling shelves –

Color Palette

The first shelf styling tip I want to share with you is choosing your color palette. I chose to stick with whites, blues and wood tones. I have two sets of shelves on both sides of my mirror, and while each shelf holds different treasures, it is important for the decor to be cohesive. 

The thrifted treasures you see on my shelves include a few pieces that I love to collect. I’ve already told you guys how much I love the older Pfaltzgraff pieces from the Heritage Collection, which I wrote an entire blog post about here.

I also love beautiful glass pitchers, the Currier and Ives blue and white dishes and of course I love anything that is wood and vintage. My wood pieces range from cutting boards to tenderizers that are just thrift pieces I have collected over the years that help me stay within that color palette. 

Group Similar Items

Another shelf styling tip for your thrifted treasures is to group similar pieces together. Your piece will have a greater impact if it is grouped with other similar pieces.

As you thrift and shop, be sure to look for pieces so you are able to group them to make a beautiful impact on your shelves. A lot of smaller individual pieces can easily look cluttered, be distracting or even compete with themselves in your space.

Your goal is to give each piece a purpose to be its own statement piece and grouping them will help you achieve that goal. 

Balance 

Balance is a huge tip for shelf styling. For example, if I have a grouping of glass pitchers on one side of my mirror I want to balance those out with something that is similar on the other side. The heights and rough sizing of the pieces being across from each other help to balance each side out. 

Again, be sure to watch the YouTube video above to see the whole process of how I styled these items!

I had to get creative a bit with balance in my dining room to hide a few things, such as the doorbell and the thermostat. You may need to get creative too, so don’t rush yourself. The process of styling takes time. Play around with things and don’t be disappointed if it isn’t perfect on the first try. 

Sometimes the best thing you can do if you feel stuck is to leave the room. Give yourself a break from the space and come back with fresh eyes and try again. 

A Touch of Green 

Sometimes when you feel like something is missing, you would be amazed at what a little bit of green will do. Spring is around the corner, and a little bit of faux greens will help bring your shelf styling to life and break things up a bit. 

I really hope these tips helped you, not only in shelf styling your thrifted treasures, but also when you go thrifting or antiquing – look for the right decor. Knowing how you plan to style your shelves can help you decide what you are purchasing to help achieve the look you are going for in your space. 

Thank you so much for reading, if you have any more questions please feel free to leave them in the comments. I am always happy to hear from you!

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