DIY Entertainment Center-Bookcase Styling

Update: Welcome!  This space has transformed leaps and bounds since my original post, and my technique for styling has too.  See the updated space HERE!

To see even more updated spaces, take the 2016 Home Tour HERE! Original Post Below

Hello!  I hope everyone is having a good day today.  So far so good here!  I’ve been itching to post about the bookshelves on the entertainment center I built, for a while now.  I was going to save it for when the doors were on, but I’m up early this morning, and the lighting in the room is so beautiful that I was inspired to do this post today.  I’ve always loved the look of a styled bookshelf, but I’ve also loved shelves styled without any books on it at all.  More of a display shelf, if you will.  Over the past few months, I acquired quite the collection of random items from mini shopping trips to HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, and Target.  You know, that, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this, but I have to have it!”, kind of shopping?  Well, it all worked out, because after a few different versions, I’ve settled on this setup.  I’d say it falls into the “coastal eclectic” category, which pretty much sums up my aesthetic this summer.  I don’t have plans to change it up with the seasons either.  I feel like coastal décor can work year round, and honestly, since the beach is my favorite place to be, it gives me a nice claiming vibe when I see it.  Lord knows I need that most days. I’m only sharing the left bookcase today.  I haven’t completed the right side just yet.  So here we go!

Here is the bottom shelf.  I chose to display the only books you will see throughout the bookcase, on this shelf.  They are all photo books of Rordan, and I can easily say they are my favorite books ever.  I chose to stack some decorative bowls on top of a beautiful storage box.  In the picture frame you can see a tiny bit of yellow.  It’s just some DIY abstract digital art.  I wanted to add more color to the shelves, and I didn’t want to spend anymore money, so I chose to go that rout.  

Moving on up to the second shelf.  The ball on the left is made up of tiny shells.  I had my eye on that one for a long time. Finally, one day it was on sale and I snatched it up before anyone else saw it.  I picked the vase up because of its color.  I knew I wanted this room to have a pop of coral.  It’s actually almost red, but just coral enough for me.  The large shell on the left is either from Ross, or another HomeGoods find.  They have the best selection out of the three stores, so most of this stuff came from their.

I played with these three items for a while to come up with this look.  It looks simple enough, but as anyone that’s styled a bookshelf knows, it’s not.  I liked the irony of the large sculptural sphere on top of the small little box, so I kept it that way.

The top shelf houses a display of blue, green, and aqua vases.  I couldn’t pass any of these up and in the end I’m glad I didn’t.  They look great together!  

 

And here is the whole thing!  I chose to use the triangle/zig zag method of styling.  You can see, if you follow the tallest objects on the shelf and move to the next, you will follow it in a triangle/ zig zag pattern.  It was a helpful tip I picked up from Pinterest!  

In the end, it was a lot of fun to play around with, and I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome.  I hope you have found some helpful tips in this post!  Thanks for stopping by!