I'm still head over heels in love with my amazing Milo Baughman brass etagere (You can get this exact one here). I still can't believe I found it, and for $60. I pay so much attention to this thing, I am always restyling it and arranging new things on it to make it happy and cared for, almost like its my pet. Yes, I'm a little decoratingly weird like that. Anyway, as I am styling up my bookcase for a little feature I wanted to share a few tips on how and why I add and arrange things. You can see the BEFORE styled up bookcase here.
1. Top your bookcase with something BIG and statement making. I prefer one or two big items on top to add some weight and height, especially if you have high ceilings like I do. Also, I don't want anything up there I need to get to because I just can't reach. I love the way my big gold shell looks up there.
(I prefer my bookcase open, there are some that like to display the bottom closed. I just think the bottom open is cooler and provides more shelf space. I also put a brass wine holder I found at a thrift shop underneath to add extra bottles. I clearly need to go stock up now.)
2. Just add art. Before this bookcase came in, this wall was an art wall full of femme art pieces. I didn't want to lose them so I placed them behind the book stacks and other items to add interest and a mood to the whole situation. Art conjures up emotion and these pieces give feeling to my personality.
3. Style in threes. On my bookcases you will notice that I like to style in threes for a balanced look. On the more open shelves you will notice I have a piece of art, in front of that a taller object and next to that a stack of books with an object on top to give some height. It keeps three different height levels looking pulled together and I keep that flow pretty consistent throughout. I'm a little OCD like that.
4. Color coding. I like to keep the spines of my books in somewhat of a color coded arrangement. I remove the dust jackets off of some books if I feel their spine underneath is a better color. Also, notice how I placed the striped book spines on each end of the book grouping for balance. Then added a striped vase of flowers to balance out the striped items to 3.
5. Unique objects. I'm a unique person and I am attracted to cool accent pieces in all shapes and sizes. I like to place fun objects on top of books. You can very well leave stacks of books alone, but to me they just seems so naked without a fun topper. I also love cool bookends, so play around with fun and interesting ones. I like my bookcase to have gold, black or white objects on top of my book stacks. Feel free to use unique shapes and sizes to keep your stacks fun and interesting.
I sort of like this black box with a gold skull, boxes are always a chic way to hide things. I have these marble bookends on my bookcase, so chic. These brass horn bookends are way cool too. I love temple jars, in fact i'm obsessed, especially the black ones like this or this one. I also think that striped vases make the coolest flower vases. A reed diffuser is a great way to keep that area smelling great without having to burn a candle, this one is Kai, its full gardenia and so yummy. My gold shell is from Zgallerie and I just love it, as does everyone who ever comes over. This is the gold skull bank I have but I also think this brass camel would be such a cute addition to my shelf. I also want to add this gold zebra dish on the case as a place to throw my keys.
