How to Properly Group Items Together to Decorate a Shelf

Placing items on a shelf in a way that makes them look good together is a bit of an art, but there are also a few easy formulas you can follow. Here’s how to group items together to decorate a shelf.

Do you ever wonder why some items look good when they’re grouped together on a shelf or a tabletop, while others just look like a cluttered, unrelated mess? You might be surprised to learn that there’s an easy way to make things look good together, and that it’s more of a science than an art in a lot of cases. You don’t necessarily have to have a natural talent for decorating or just be very lucky to create a cohesive, balanced look for the shelves in your home. In today’s post, I’ll go over some easy formulas that you can use to decorate a shelf with beautiful groupings of decorative pieces.

Whether you’re looking for room ideas for your dining-room shelves to accent your favorite curtains and lamps, or inspiration for your family-room bookshelf next to the new sofa with the pillows you love, these concepts will guide you through grouping items together in a way that works.

Designer credits are listed below for each photo. All photography by Art & Spaces (us!)

Decorating on a Budget: 5 Things to Know Before Buying Washable Rugs

Tools and Supplies Needed to Style Open Shelves

Built-in desk above by Oak Barrel Cabinetry.

There are so many different stylish, decorative, or sentimental items that you can use to style your shelves. The best decorating methods usually use a mix of store-bought, vintage, and personal items. If you’re looking to create a professionally styled look like you would see in a home decor magazine, here are a few of the basic types of items that you’ll want to gather up to style your shelves.

• Beautiful books
• Decorative bowls
• Framed prints, photographs, or paintings
• Baskets, bins, and boxes
• Real or faux houseplants
• Vases, vessels, and canisters
• Decorative sculptural objects
• Dishes, glassware, and culinary tools (for a kitchen, bar, or pantry)

It’s important to remember that just because an object fits the criteria of being an item listed above, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right object for you to use for yourself. First and foremost, you should feel that the object is beautiful or striking in some way before you decide to use it. It can be easy to get caught up in looking for a bowl of a certain size to complete a grouping and neglect to consider whether or not you actually like the piece you’ve found. Using items that you think are beautiful individually will lead to beautiful groupings on your shelves when you know how to pair them up properly with other things.

Learn where to place groupings and how many to use on your shelves: Shelf Decor 101 – My Easiest Method for Styling Shelves in Any Room

Easy Ideas for Decorative Groupings

Even if you feel that you have no idea what to do or what you like when it comes to home decor, there are a few groupings that you can consider “easy wins” and lean on when you’re drawing a decorating blank. I like to use these simple solutions on a shelf in combination with busier, more complex, or more personality-filled groupings to keep things feeling calm, well-thought-out, and refined.

Decorate a Shelf  With Matching Sets

I love a matching set of two or three vases or canisters. You might think that buying items that were made to go together is a little like cheating on the home decorating exam, but there really is a time and a place where a matching set just makes things come together so beautifully. If you find a set you love, go ahead and try it. Don’t make things more complicated than they need to be.

Living room built-in by Oak Barrel Cabinetry, interior design by Erin VanderSluis Design.

Identical Items

Using two or three identical items in a row is a powerful tool for making your shelves feel cohesive and like they have a well-formed design direction. Three identical items feels peaceful, symmetrical, and a little bit quaint, while using two identical items is a more bold, modern-leaning design choice. Consider two identical vases or decorative bowls, or a group of three identical plants in planters, canisters, or baskets.

Current home decor ideas for shelving: Bookshelf Wealth is the Trend That Needs to Not Be Just a Trend

A Bowl on a Book Stack

There is probably no simpler, more reliable grouping than a stack of two to three books with a decorative bowl placed on top. It works beautifully in almost any setting, with any type of decor, and with any other type of groupings you decide to use.

Books and Bookends

Of course, books are almost always at home on bookshelves, whether you stack them horizontally or line them up side by side. When you group together a few books, whether they’re a traditional matching set, or a mismatched group of favorites, and frame them out with a pair of bookends, you create a bibliophilic stand-alone grouping that can make a beautiful statement.

Pictured above: Cabinet Hardware | Greyhound Print | Floral Pillow (under $30!) | Scarf (used as a throw)| Travel Home Book | Habitat Book | Similar Blue and White Ginger Jar | Sconces

Grouping Mismatched Items

The really fun part of shelf styling comes when you learn how to take several seemingly unrelated items and make them work beautifully together. This creates the most visually interesting groupings, and it gives your shelves character and life. The best way to do this is through trial and error guided by the few simple formulas below. Set up two to four items together according to one of the following concepts, stand back, and see how they look.

Inspiring Decorating Tips for Your Home: How to Paint a Lampshade

Combine Items of Different Heights

The formula to try here is either a tall item + medium item + short item or a tall item + short item. You will be amazed at how paying attention to the heights of your items and how they compare and interact with one another will make pieces suddenly work together to decorate your shelves so beautifully. If you’re using three items, aim for them to create a sort of triangle when placed together on your surface.

Cabinetry by Windmill Cabinets.

Combine Items With Different Footprints

You might be surprised to find out what an impact paying attention to this one little thing can have. When pairing items together, look at the size and shape of their bases and their footprints. If you have two items that are different in every other way, but they have nearly the same size base, they just won’t look right together. Instead, try to group items together with varying base shapes and sizes for the best effect. Try a piece with a large, round base with something thin and angular or with more straight lines.

Decorating inspiration for your home and garden: How to Age Terracotta Pots With Paint

Combine Straight Edges With Curves and Organic Shapes

Looking at the lines of your pieces is another way to determine if they will work nicely together for decoration purposes. Pair items with straight edges, like stylish boxes, framed photos, small mirrors, and books, with items that have a curve or an organic shape to them. A pair of framed photos are beautifully accented with a rounded vase with greenery, or try a round cutting board grouped with a collection of straight-edged bottles for a simple kitchen shelf grouping.

Livingroom built-ins and open shelves by Oak Barrel.

Keep in mind that shelving units as a whole have many straight lines to them, so curved objects will complement not only other straight-edged objects on the shelves but the entire composition as a whole. Use curves and organic shapes of all kinds frequently and liberally.

DIY home decor project idea for your shelves: Embroidery Hoop Decor Orbs

Consider Color and Material

The color and material of your objects are both factors that are less important to your overall styling plan than you might think, but they’re still worth considering. Items in hues or finishes that might not seem in keeping with the decorating style of the room can still work if you find them beautiful, and there are a few ways that you can ensure your success.

First, if you’ll be using several items in the same or similar finish in your shelf styling, try to locate them at a diagonal from one another so that your eye travels around as it identifies and locates these similarities.

Custom basement shelving and slat wall by Level Custom Designs.

Also, consider the color and material of the wall behind your shelves. Light-colored objects on a dark background will stand out boldly, but darker objects on that same background will have a more subtle and moody effect and, at times, almost disappear. Both can be useful effects in creating the look you want.

Room decorating ideas to read next: How High Should a Chandelier Hang Over a Table?