Home Decorating Guide: Shelf Decorating

As a finishing touch, illuminate your shelves to spotlight the arrangements you've created there. The options for shelf lighting abound: Add track lighting to the ceiling and focus a few spots on shelf displays; mount a picture light above a shelf, or a series of picture lights above a series of shelves; affix small puck lights to the underside of one shelf to highlight the contents of the shelf below; or discretely tuck tiny up-lights behind a vase or other item to backlight the arrangement.

Finally, you can place a small lamp near or on the shelf (drill a hole in the back of the shelf for the cord, or camouflage it with artfully draped greenery). Designer Megan Samuels likes using desk lamps with a pivoting, adjustable arm and rotating head, while author and shop emporium owner Mary Carol Garrity opts for tiny lamps on the shelf itself. "A lamp adds an unexpected touch," she says. "It draws your eye to the arrangement and gives it importance." Plus, what better way to spotlight your newfound creative knack?

Leah Hennen is a freelance writer in Oakland, Calif., who writes on interior design topics. She details her design finds and decorating obsessions in her blog: More Ways to Waste Time.