Home Decorating Guide: Shelf Decorating

Unite your shelf displays by grouping items by theme, color, shape, texture or material. "Like things together give the biggest bang," says Megan Samuels, ASID, an interior designer in Manhattan Beach, Calif. "It creates a really nice, curated feel to your treasures." A grouping of white pottery and other light-toned objects looks stunning on dark wood or brightly painted shelves, for example, while an assemblage of boxes, bowls or spheres adds instant emphasis that's lacking when they stand alone. For beach lovers, create a tableau using shells, starfish and driftwood, along with a small seascape to tie it all together. If your style is rustic, pair a metal urn with a group of patinaed finds from the flea market and a black-and-white photo in a metal frame. Speaking of photos, designers agree that a gallery of family snapshots on a shelf packs a much greater punch than would the same photos displayed throughout the room.

You can unify a shelf display by function, too. Mary Carol Garrity, author of Feather Your Nest: It's All in the Details and the owner of Nell Hill's, an accessories emporium in Atchison, Kan., likes to turn a shelf into a bar or a serving station. "Take out the shelf above to create more room, then top a tray with pretty cut-crystal decanters and glassware," she suggests. Or mount shallow ledges on the bathroom wall and line up a row of vintage apothecary jars — they make striking and useful vessels for everyday items like cotton swabs, makeup and hair accessories.