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Do you ever find yourself wishing you had more extra storage space in your living room? Perhaps you wish you could showcase beautiful design elements of your home that might normally be tucked away. Your collection of 1950s cookbooks (hello, jello food trends) or antique pottery deserves to be a focal point. That’s where shelving can serve you best, and floating shelving keeps a minimalist approach while ensuring the real showstoppers are your sentimental little somethings.
Whether you’re craving a new DIY makeover or you are specifically on the market for a new way to store your items in an aesthetically pleasing manner, this guide will serve as inspiration to get your creative design juices flowing. Not all interior designers take the same approach to their wall shelves, which is good. After all, what fun would that be?
There are many different reasons to use floating shelving — and, like all water returns to the sea, all decor idea hacks return to your personal interior design style.
If you’re a minimalist at heart, floating open shelving is a dream come true. The sleek features of the lack of hardware have a subtle aesthetic that doesn’t detract from what’s actually decorating the shelving. Even if you’re not a minimalist, you can find funky and interesting ways to decorate with floating shelves, some of which we’ll discuss today!
One of our favorite ways to decorate with floating shelving is in the kitchen. From pantry to kitchen cabinets, floating shelving can bump your kitchen storage game up to the next level and add interesting design elements to your dining room.
Here are the kitchen decor ideas that really get our design brains cooking.
One trend taking over kitchen design articles is replacing cabinets with open shelving, specifically upper kitchen cabinets. Replacing upper cabinets with open shelves helps reduce our inclination to clutter. It suddenly becomes much less appealing to shove all that annoying mail next to your mug collection when everyone can see it out in the open.
One of the most classic ways to create open kitchen cabinetry is with naturally sliced slabs of wood that still retain their natural imperfections. Natural wood adds a touch of outdoor-inspired beauty to the room. Walnut and white oak are some of the most popular choices but feel free to think outside the shelf.
When possible, go for reclaimed wood. Reclaimed wood shelves are more environmentally friendly, easier to finish, and truly one of a kind. Not all reclaimed wood is safe to use inside, though — check to see if the wooden shelves are free of nails, insects, wood rot (yuck), lead paint (double yuck), and outdoor-only preservatives.
Keep your shelf design in line with your home theme. For instance, white floating shelves are at home (pun intended) in your modern farmhouse kitchen, showing off your collection of handcrafted terracotta bowls. A modern or industrial kitchen will come together with glass shelves and walls painted in cool, subdued tones.
Match your tile backsplash to the shelves’ paint color for a seamless look. You can go white on white or very matchy-matchy with a dark blue backsplash and dark blue painted shelves.
Finally, look into a sturdy varnish to keep your surfaces safe in an environment where spills can be frequent.
When we think of open shelving in a kitchen, we don’t just think of kitchen cabinets. The pantry has always been storage made up of naturally open shelving. Sometimes the pantry gets all the functionality and none of the fun. No more. Why shouldn’t your pantry bring you as much joy as the other design elements in your house? That’s why we’ve come up with some easy ways to spruce up your pantry’s design and take advantage of all that open shelving.
With the rise in consciousness about sustainability, that sentiment has also seeped into home design. It’s become increasingly popular to use reusable containers for food storage in bulk: Buying in bulk promotes environmentally conscious decisions.
Buying in bulk is also a great way to use recycled and reusable containers to store your food, which adds a beautiful, natural design element to your kitchen shelving and pantry. Some prefer to upcycle thrifted containers, while you can also find other containers that are meant to be purchased as a matching set. Nothing quite feels like happiness and home like walking into a fully-stocked pantry filled with glass containers that feel oh-so-very Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Does your bookshelf already have open shelving as part of its design? Or do you want to create a bookshelf out of floating shelves? Either way, open shelves display your favorite reads and your favorite knick knacks in a way unlike any other.
Here are some of our favorite ways to use floating shelves for book storage in home decor.
Nothing is quite as whimsical as a reading nook where you can lose yourself in your favorite story, enjoy the company of reading to your little one, or just spend some time with friends and family engaging in your favorite hobbies.
That’s why a reading nook is a must-have for any home, whether it’s a home library or a small corner of a room. We recommend using online design tools to try out different floor plans when prepping your nook.
One way to store books in a reading nook is with an open shelving wall or bookcase wall. If your floating shelves don’t have ends, bookends are your friend. They’re totally functional and serve as decorative items. Let your imagination run wild — lava lamps, giant sparkling geodes, matching ceramic dog statues — basically anything you’d find in the Spoak discovery feed.
Beyond bookends, portion off sections of your bookshelves just for decor, like a vase, local artwork, or even plants. Portioning adds a gallery wall-like element and breaks up any visual clutter.
Add a velvet chair or chaise lounge by your bookshelf to complete the picture. You can use design inspiration, like creating a mood board, to start planning out what styles, colors, textures, and patterns you want to see brought to life in your reading nook.
Sometimes we find it easy to tuck away artwork and decor when we’re waiting for that “perfect spot” on the countertop to showcase it. But it’s also easy for time to pass faster than you realize, and suddenly, it’s been months or even years since you’ve taken your decor out of storage. Ugh.
Let your big pieces command the room by finding a way to use up that awkward extra space that seems to be in every home for some reason. No one puts Baby in a corner, but you can put your random stuff on floating corner shelves.
Free up VIP wall space by installing floating shelves in that odd entryway corner that you’re fairly confident was a mistake on the contractor’s part. Rustic apple crates or vintage-style lunch boxes hold those odds and ends that you need (like important tax returns or holiday decor) on floating shelves. Now you can get rid of the filing cabinets or the wall storage unit that was hogging the area you wanted to give to that dramatic art print you picked up last summer.
We’re big fans of utilizing plants in home design, and it’s easy to understand why: Indoor plants are beautiful, boost your mental health, purify your air, and so much more. So what better design idea for decorating with floating shelves than to create a plant wall?
We often see plant shops that have used floating shelves to show off their different plants, and it got us thinking: Why is that? Well, the simplicity of the floating shelves provides a subtle backdrop while the plants provide the main show. So if a plant shop does this to show off its different greenery, why not do the same at home?
Bring home life into your home office with a plant wall that is always thriving, even when your work day is dragging. Small bathrooms seem so much grander when filled with humidity-loving hanging vines.
You might be wondering: “Using floating shelves to store bathroom toiletries and necessities? Really?” And the answer is yes! Much like with the pantry, floating shelves can be used to display bathroom toiletries and necessities in an elegant manner.
Every bathroom needs washcloths and towels an arm’s reach away from the shower, and a floating shelf is perfect for this. We recommend installing shelving made with coats of water-resistant finish, considering how moist a bathroom can get. We also suggest installing a towel rack on the bottom of your shelf for towel storage, so you can hang your towels out to dry. One of our favorite materials for this is industrial-style metal piping.
You can also use floating shelving to store your everyday bathroom toiletries in a cute, minimalistic way. For example, pantry containers, recyclable, reusable glassware, and containers can store items like Q-tips, cotton balls, and toothbrushes.
What is the best way to install your floating shelves so that you can be confident in their weight-bearing capabilities and the structural integrity of the shelving? There are a few common methods we want to discuss, but first, let’s make sure we have all the tools we need:
You can also use digital design tools to plan out where you want your shelving to go on your wall. Our room visualization tool helps you get a feel for what a design project will look like digitally before you implement it physically. It allows you to try different layouts risk-free!
Using floating mantel brackets to secure your shelving to the wall is one of the most popular and trustworthy methods for floating shelving. These brackets give added support to the interior of your shelving and are completely hidden. If you want your shelf to truly be “floating,” this is the method you should check out.
A bit like mantel brackets, traditional floating shelving brackets provide support for the shelving, but these brackets are visible. If you like the industrial look of the visible brackets, this would be the option for you. This is also typically the more affordable option.
Another option for installing your floating shelving is hanging them with rope or macrame. We still recommend using some type of mount along with this for added support, as the rope tends to be solely decorative, but it does add a nice texture and design element and is perfect for plant walls.
Good shelving is useful in any area of your home, and one of the most elegant yet subtle types is floating shelving. Whether you redo your kitchen cabinets to be open shelving or you install floating shelves to create a bookcase or reading nook, this mode of shelving is easy to DIY and a design game changer.
We hope we were able to bring some dynamic design ideas to the table that leave you feeling ready for your next shelving makeover.
Sources:
Reclaimed Wood: What To Know Before You Buy | The Family Handyman
Why Indoor Plants Make You Feel Better | NBC News
Kitchens With Open Shelving Pictures and Advice | The Spruce
Do you ever find yourself wishing you had more extra storage space in your living room? Perhaps you wish you could showcase beautiful design elements of your home that might normally be tucked away. Your collection of 1950s cookbooks (hello, jello food trends) or antique pottery deserves to be a focal point. That’s where shelving can serve you best, and floating shelving keeps a minimalist approach while ensuring the real showstoppers are your sentimental little somethings.
Whether you’re craving a new DIY makeover or you are specifically on the market for a new way to store your items in an aesthetically pleasing manner, this guide will serve as inspiration to get your creative design juices flowing. Not all interior designers take the same approach to their wall shelves, which is good. After all, what fun would that be?
There are many different reasons to use floating shelving — and, like all water returns to the sea, all decor idea hacks return to your personal interior design style.
If you’re a minimalist at heart, floating open shelving is a dream come true. The sleek features of the lack of hardware have a subtle aesthetic that doesn’t detract from what’s actually decorating the shelving. Even if you’re not a minimalist, you can find funky and interesting ways to decorate with floating shelves, some of which we’ll discuss today!
One of our favorite ways to decorate with floating shelving is in the kitchen. From pantry to kitchen cabinets, floating shelving can bump your kitchen storage game up to the next level and add interesting design elements to your dining room.
Here are the kitchen decor ideas that really get our design brains cooking.
One trend taking over kitchen design articles is replacing cabinets with open shelving, specifically upper kitchen cabinets. Replacing upper cabinets with open shelves helps reduce our inclination to clutter. It suddenly becomes much less appealing to shove all that annoying mail next to your mug collection when everyone can see it out in the open.
One of the most classic ways to create open kitchen cabinetry is with naturally sliced slabs of wood that still retain their natural imperfections. Natural wood adds a touch of outdoor-inspired beauty to the room. Walnut and white oak are some of the most popular choices but feel free to think outside the shelf.
When possible, go for reclaimed wood. Reclaimed wood shelves are more environmentally friendly, easier to finish, and truly one of a kind. Not all reclaimed wood is safe to use inside, though — check to see if the wooden shelves are free of nails, insects, wood rot (yuck), lead paint (double yuck), and outdoor-only preservatives.
Keep your shelf design in line with your home theme. For instance, white floating shelves are at home (pun intended) in your modern farmhouse kitchen, showing off your collection of handcrafted terracotta bowls. A modern or industrial kitchen will come together with glass shelves and walls painted in cool, subdued tones.
Match your tile backsplash to the shelves’ paint color for a seamless look. You can go white on white or very matchy-matchy with a dark blue backsplash and dark blue painted shelves.
Finally, look into a sturdy varnish to keep your surfaces safe in an environment where spills can be frequent.
When we think of open shelving in a kitchen, we don’t just think of kitchen cabinets. The pantry has always been storage made up of naturally open shelving. Sometimes the pantry gets all the functionality and none of the fun. No more. Why shouldn’t your pantry bring you as much joy as the other design elements in your house? That’s why we’ve come up with some easy ways to spruce up your pantry’s design and take advantage of all that open shelving.
With the rise in consciousness about sustainability, that sentiment has also seeped into home design. It’s become increasingly popular to use reusable containers for food storage in bulk: Buying in bulk promotes environmentally conscious decisions.
Buying in bulk is also a great way to use recycled and reusable containers to store your food, which adds a beautiful, natural design element to your kitchen shelving and pantry. Some prefer to upcycle thrifted containers, while you can also find other containers that are meant to be purchased as a matching set. Nothing quite feels like happiness and home like walking into a fully-stocked pantry filled with glass containers that feel oh-so-very Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Does your bookshelf already have open shelving as part of its design? Or do you want to create a bookshelf out of floating shelves? Either way, open shelves display your favorite reads and your favorite knick knacks in a way unlike any other.
Here are some of our favorite ways to use floating shelves for book storage in home decor.
Nothing is quite as whimsical as a reading nook where you can lose yourself in your favorite story, enjoy the company of reading to your little one, or just spend some time with friends and family engaging in your favorite hobbies.
That’s why a reading nook is a must-have for any home, whether it’s a home library or a small corner of a room. We recommend using online design tools to try out different floor plans when prepping your nook.
One way to store books in a reading nook is with an open shelving wall or bookcase wall. If your floating shelves don’t have ends, bookends are your friend. They’re totally functional and serve as decorative items. Let your imagination run wild — lava lamps, giant sparkling geodes, matching ceramic dog statues — basically anything you’d find in the Spoak discovery feed.
Beyond bookends, portion off sections of your bookshelves just for decor, like a vase, local artwork, or even plants. Portioning adds a gallery wall-like element and breaks up any visual clutter.
Add a velvet chair or chaise lounge by your bookshelf to complete the picture. You can use design inspiration, like creating a mood board, to start planning out what styles, colors, textures, and patterns you want to see brought to life in your reading nook.
Sometimes we find it easy to tuck away artwork and decor when we’re waiting for that “perfect spot” on the countertop to showcase it. But it’s also easy for time to pass faster than you realize, and suddenly, it’s been months or even years since you’ve taken your decor out of storage. Ugh.
Let your big pieces command the room by finding a way to use up that awkward extra space that seems to be in every home for some reason. No one puts Baby in a corner, but you can put your random stuff on floating corner shelves.
Free up VIP wall space by installing floating shelves in that odd entryway corner that you’re fairly confident was a mistake on the contractor’s part. Rustic apple crates or vintage-style lunch boxes hold those odds and ends that you need (like important tax returns or holiday decor) on floating shelves. Now you can get rid of the filing cabinets or the wall storage unit that was hogging the area you wanted to give to that dramatic art print you picked up last summer.
We’re big fans of utilizing plants in home design, and it’s easy to understand why: Indoor plants are beautiful, boost your mental health, purify your air, and so much more. So what better design idea for decorating with floating shelves than to create a plant wall?
We often see plant shops that have used floating shelves to show off their different plants, and it got us thinking: Why is that? Well, the simplicity of the floating shelves provides a subtle backdrop while the plants provide the main show. So if a plant shop does this to show off its different greenery, why not do the same at home?
Bring home life into your home office with a plant wall that is always thriving, even when your work day is dragging. Small bathrooms seem so much grander when filled with humidity-loving hanging vines.
You might be wondering: “Using floating shelves to store bathroom toiletries and necessities? Really?” And the answer is yes! Much like with the pantry, floating shelves can be used to display bathroom toiletries and necessities in an elegant manner.
Every bathroom needs washcloths and towels an arm’s reach away from the shower, and a floating shelf is perfect for this. We recommend installing shelving made with coats of water-resistant finish, considering how moist a bathroom can get. We also suggest installing a towel rack on the bottom of your shelf for towel storage, so you can hang your towels out to dry. One of our favorite materials for this is industrial-style metal piping.
You can also use floating shelving to store your everyday bathroom toiletries in a cute, minimalistic way. For example, pantry containers, recyclable, reusable glassware, and containers can store items like Q-tips, cotton balls, and toothbrushes.
What is the best way to install your floating shelves so that you can be confident in their weight-bearing capabilities and the structural integrity of the shelving? There are a few common methods we want to discuss, but first, let’s make sure we have all the tools we need:
You can also use digital design tools to plan out where you want your shelving to go on your wall. Our room visualization tool helps you get a feel for what a design project will look like digitally before you implement it physically. It allows you to try different layouts risk-free!
Using floating mantel brackets to secure your shelving to the wall is one of the most popular and trustworthy methods for floating shelving. These brackets give added support to the interior of your shelving and are completely hidden. If you want your shelf to truly be “floating,” this is the method you should check out.
A bit like mantel brackets, traditional floating shelving brackets provide support for the shelving, but these brackets are visible. If you like the industrial look of the visible brackets, this would be the option for you. This is also typically the more affordable option.
Another option for installing your floating shelving is hanging them with rope or macrame. We still recommend using some type of mount along with this for added support, as the rope tends to be solely decorative, but it does add a nice texture and design element and is perfect for plant walls.
Good shelving is useful in any area of your home, and one of the most elegant yet subtle types is floating shelving. Whether you redo your kitchen cabinets to be open shelving or you install floating shelves to create a bookcase or reading nook, this mode of shelving is easy to DIY and a design game changer.
We hope we were able to bring some dynamic design ideas to the table that leave you feeling ready for your next shelving makeover.
Sources:
Reclaimed Wood: What To Know Before You Buy | The Family Handyman
Why Indoor Plants Make You Feel Better | NBC News
Kitchens With Open Shelving Pictures and Advice | The Spruce
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