Pre-selected bundles of shelves decorations?

[LovelyLovelyWarmCoffee]

I’m not great at decorating / interior design.
I have lots of shelves I need to decorate, I don’t really have strong ideas in terms of styling and colors, just something that looks modern and polished.
Is there a website where you can browse « finished looks» and then buy the whole set to re-create the look? Or pre-selection of bundles of objects that would go well together?
(if not it would be a great business idea!)

I can see myself spending hours online, spending a fortune and ending up with something not that great looking :(

Any tips welcome!

Ikea is quite good for this kind of thing I find. Either the showroom or look at the website room ideas.

Or go by your hobbies /family /sentimental things as others have said!

A plant or two, I have this

Try this lamp

Maybe this vase?

And this website is good for wood quality pieces.
Hope that helps

@dudsville

Can you remove the bookshelves? If the contents aren't going to be meaningful to you and you don't need the shelving then a nicely painted bare wall would be very nice!

No, they are built in unfortunately! The previous owners of this house must have had lots of items to display.

@Peridot1 @IliveonCoffee (love the username BTW) that is great advice! Thank you

I will spend the evening browsing the brands and websites recommended above.

www.kc-cottage.co.uk

Try this. They do collections of items. Look at tray of the week

Not my shop BTW but I do like it and I don't have much idea left to my own devices

can't you just use the shelves for storage of things you already own? It just seems a bit mad to waste money on things you don't especially like, have no connection to, and may not go well together just to fill space?

I'm thinking things like books, glassware or nice plates, perfume bottles, speakers, a laptop, folded blankets, nice bottles of alcohol, etc. (depending on depths of shelves). Or use nice boxes to store non-pretty stuff (just life detrius like random charging cables, matches, batteries, make up, suncream, screwdrivers, cleaning products, blah blah). If you search for 'decorative boxes' you get all sorts, pretty floral patterns, rustic wood, ones designed to look like books or old chests, etc.

Other than that I would find the stuff of yours you do want to display and organise it by colour. No more than two main colours per shelf. Find any nice photos you have that will go with the colours and also any books with matching covers. Hopefully you won't need to buy too much more to add to them and you can start easy with a candle or something in the right colour, or a plain vase with fake/real flower in whilst keeping an eye out for more decorative ornaments.

You could have one shelf just of photos, either use the same, very plain frame for all of them for a bit of cohesion or the same frame but in different colours (e.g. Ikea do a very cheap one in multiple pastels) to create a bit of a gallery wall effect.

I moved into a house with a lot of built in shelves. Approx a third I’ve filled with books, then I put up my frames and ornaments I already had, which were mostly white, pale wood or silver.
Then I went to tk maxx, the range, wilko, and bought a couple more frames. Just whatever caught my eye, as long as they were white,
Pale wood or silver.
Then I added a couple of plants in white pots from Ikea, they do (or did) some nice coordinating ones that have different stripe on the side but all the same shape.
I aimed for no more than two pictures per shelf, and one or two other things.
As long as I keep it clutter free I think it looks nice.

But the whole point is that you display the items that are special to you. Do you not have treasured items/booksyou can display instead?

Don't overthink it. But lots of cheap bits and bobs and fiddle around with them.

Much better to be a mismatched than matchy-matchy. Matchy-matchy is really hard to pull off and look good.

Mix of textures - some wood, some shiny, some rattany. Mix old and new - maybe spend £50 online (zara home?) then wander round some charity shops and just take a punt.

Plants- a few tiny succulents, something that trails, v simple dried flowers in vase.

Arrange some stuff in pairs, some in threes.

Play around with the books. Stack them on top of each other as well as side by side. Can you camouflage the CDs? Or at least don't give them prominence.

Lean stuff on other stuff for depth. So stack of books with small picture propped in front. Or pair of pictures propped up at back of shelf but with sonething in front.

Take a look at Apartment Therapy website- lots of good tips.

In your place I probably wouldn’t buy anything. Even if somebody sold bundles of shelf ornaments there is no guarantee they would look nice with the rest of your room. But I would definitely hide CDs in some pretty boxes. I have yet to see a shelf where they look nice.

Invest in few pretty boxes, display things you love or that just look pretty on shelves. I have memory boxes on top of my shelves where I put memories from my children’s childhood. I’m not a plant person but they can look amazing, especially if it is not too crowded. Same with pictures, they look amazing but only if they’re on their own, with maybe an ornament or two (depends on the length of the shelf).

My shelves are probably too cluttered, but I like the way they look and they make me happy when I sit on the couch to read a book or just rest. Your shelves should do the same.

The point of shelves is to display things you like though. It's not about interior design

I don’t disagree with you, in theory, but practically DH and I are not great at spotting a nice object and visualize how it would fit into our home decor. So we end up with a collection of practical but not especially nice objects, mismatched in terms of style and colour...

Think of it as a learning opportunity. The things I have generally match only in the fact that they mean something to me and/or I like them.

To quote William Morris "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” You don't need to fill the shelves immediately.