How to Design a Shelf Display

By Kathy Wilson
The Budget Decorator

Arranging a shelf display with interest and creativity can go a long way towards turning your hum drum accessories you already own into a dynamic display that delights your visitors, and saves you money! (No expensive Ming vase required!)

First thing you need to remember is that you are not just trying to fill shelf space, you are trying to share something about yourself or your family. Make it special! Choose items you love, or have meaning for you, and then combine them in ways that bring out their best.

When arranging a shelf or cabinet top space with accessories, one has to keep in mind that the most important thing to avoid here is boredom! This has a lot less to do with the objects you choose than how you choose to display them. Start with your main, most important object, and place it slightly off center. If its small, feel free to prop it up on books or decorative boxes to give it height and importance. Now think in terms of a triangle, with the top of your main object being the point, and work down from there.

Make sure that the items you are using fit into the scale of the shelving space… you want to steer clear of using a huge ceiling high arrangement of flowers on a tiny end table or shelf, or a tiny seashell from vacation all alone on a huge armoire shelf. Most people tend to use things that are too small for their surroundings. If you have small accessories you would like to display, but need to give them more oomph in the arrangement, try grouping them on a plate or a fabric covered box. You can also give them height by perching them atop stacked books or baskets.

Once you've chosen your objects for the space following the design principles above, now it's time to layer and soften. After placing your main focal object, work to the outer edges in layers…Add a taller background layer, a middle sized medium height layer, and your tiniest objects in the front. Keep the eye moving up and down as it purveys the arrangement from left to right for interest. Add some fabric or twisted ribbon to soften the edges of the shelf or table, to bring in color, and to highlight certain objects.

To keep an arrangement from putting the neighbors down for their afternoon nap, remember to keep a balance of harmony (things that feel like they go together, like similar colors or styles) and contrast (things that spice things up by being different…smooth against texture, round against straight line, et…) You want a bit of both in your arrangement. If your arrangement feels bland, add some contrast in color or texture. Seems too busy? Take some contrast out and add some harmony…group all like colors or textures together, use smooth textured objects, and keep the colors in the same family.

Above all, keep trying new combinations of items until you find an arrangement that works for you. Use things in unusual ways. Tuck flowers or a live plant into an arrangement that seems too static. Even professional designers will occasionally be surprised by trying things in a new way! And remember, if your arrangement still looks cluttered and lost, chances are you are trying to display too much. Develop a prop box or closet where you can keep some of your treasures, and switch them our a couple of times a year for a fresh new look without spending a dime!

Kathy Wilson is an author, columnist, and editor of The Budget Decorator, Decorating Your Small Space, and Decorating Cottage Style. For thousands of free budget decorating ideas, visit her at http://www.TheBudgetDecorator.com. Be sure to sign up for her free newsletter while you're there!

Designing for Small Spaces

From LoveToKnow Interior Design

Whether your whole apartment is sized petite or you are researching ideas for a small bathroom, a grand assortment of multiple tricks exists in designing for small spaces. Essentially, in our real estate market, space is expensive. In order to afford our own place, many of us are sizing down our dreams. Keep in mind the notion of small is relative, dependent on variables such as the amount of square footage per person, plus the layout of the home and furniture.

If you possess a small house or rooms, remember the benefits that these petite spaces provide: they are less wasteful and more cost effective. Requiring less heat, light and cleaning, a smaller space can actually be quite desirable.

Basic Designing for Small Spaces

Flexibility and versatility are the two main components in designing for small spaces. Think of the miniature interior of a car, boat or plane and imagine you are driving your smaller room. An undersized area needs to encompass a sense of control and order to enable it to maximize the best it has to offer. The ability to work and play in your space effectively is key, as a usable room feels less small.

Rather than fighting it, focus on the benefits of your smaller space. Maximize the favorable concepts found in all small spaces such as coziness, security, intimacy, charm and functionality. Find the natural character of the room you are designing and draw in the visitor. Look for extra space, such as under a sloping ceiling, and find ways to utilize these smaller treasures.

Planning is always an important component in interior design, but it is particularly crucial in designing for small spaces. Sit down with pencil and paper, not only drawing the layout of the room or floor plan, but also forming a list of the quarter's necessities. Scrutinize the potential uses of the room, the furniture requirements, storage needed and personal interests. Design a budget determining the financial means at your disposal, future changes in your life and the amount of time you plan to spend in your current home. Previewing all this information before you start designing for your smaller space makes all the difference in your success.

Structural Elements

If the cost fits into your budget, some relatively simple structural changes make a smaller home or room feel and behave larger.

• Built Ins – Nothing provides the utility of additional space better than a built in. By creating a bookcase within your wall or cabinets in your closet, the floor space is not compromised and the room offers more functionality.
• Doors – Removing or replacing doors can enhance light and airflow within small rooms. For example, re-hang a door so it swings differently, make a pocket door, install a window door or simply remove it altogether.
• Design a mid-level area - The half space in your room can be utilized to create instant square footage out of mid air. Depending on the height of your ceiling, lofts, half walls or even hanging beds will create extra mid space in a room.
• Removing all or part of a wall - Cut out an internal window between rooms or take out the wall completely, like between a master bedroom with a smaller bath.
• Maximize your closet space - The more effectively the space in your closets is utilized, the better it contains your clutter, freeing up space in the rest of your home.
• Moveable walls - Contemplate creating a sliding wall turning part of the family room into a guest room or office, balancing the need for privacy with the desire for openness.
• Look up - The ceiling is the most underused “floor space” in a room. Consider hanging artistic pieces instead of cluttering the shelves or placing storage at the ceiling level with shelving or cabinets.

Light and Airy

Maximizing light and airflow is the key to the feel of spaciousness in a room. Relatively simple changes can make a difference in enhancing light. Analyze the materials of both your furniture and decorations: metal, glass, polished wood and leather all reflect light improving the brightness of a room. Bring the outdoors in by drawing the visitor’s eyes to windows. Exploit mirrors for their ability to enhance the feeling of space and reflect light. Place a large mirror opposite a window to reflect the outdoors on the opposing wall or frame a mirror in a windowless room to give a sense of a mock window.

Avoid single overhead lighting in small spaces as it has a tendency to draw the walls in. Instead, increase the number of your light sources, placing them near walls to reflect glow. To avoid glare common in a smaller space, conceal your sources of light creatively with lampshades, directed spotlights or recessed lighting.

Furniture and Storage

When designing for small spaces, keep the furniture appropriately compact. The size of the space needs to balance with the size of its belongings. When selecting furniture, consider maximizing the utility of the piece. For example, in a small dinning room, benches around a table provide more seating than individual chairs and consume less floor space. Furniture should always work double duty in small spaces.

Storage is usually in high demand in small areas; therefore, creative storage options are always a plus. Clutter makes a room look smaller and quickly fills up an undersized space. Find ways to stash your clutter with baskets under coffee tables or tucked into storage benches.

Decorating

When decorating your small space, always focus on simplicity. Visual unity among decorations enables the room to maintain a sense of class, without becoming cluttered and closed in. The details, furnishings and decorations, should be simple and balance each other. One method of balance is to make the surfaces of the room consistent.

Paint and color easily achieve this consistency.

• Use a higher gloss paint to reflect light.
• Paint only one wall a rich color, leaving the rest neutral.
• Paint insets, such as wall nooks, bookcase backs, and between shelves, a richer color to draw the eye out of the middle of the room creating a sense of space.
• Most of the color palette of the room should be neutral adding to the sense of space. Use darker and richer colors as accents.
• Cool colors, like blue and green, are best for a smaller room, as they are distance colors.