Styling (Not Stuffing) Your Built-In
At Habitar Design we create and build some extraordinary custom built-ins and shelving for our clients. And after we’re done, they always ask, now what? So we brought in our designer, Mackenzie Cain, to give us 3 simple tips for keeping your built-in shelving chic, stylish, and useful.
1. Books
Books are probably the biggest culprit when it comes to overstuffing your built-in. Moderation and style is key. Place your larger books on the shelves first, spacing them out across the built-in and stacking vertically and horizontally for variation. Then stack in smaller books, keeping in mind size and color as you go. But don’t fill in every nook and cranny!
In this example artwork is hung on the back wall as well as on the outside to add depth.
2. Artwork
If you have enough room in the back walls of your built-in, consider hanging or even just leaning a few pieces of framed artwork. Don’t worry about books or objects covering it up later, this layering will help add depth to your built-in and make your space feel bigger.
Don’t be afraid of dark colors for a built in! Adding sconce lighting on the top makes for a dramatic statment piece.
This built-in credenza has lots of books but by keeping the top clean and full of plants it stays sleek, while being useful.
3. Fun stuff!
Now comes the point where start filling in the gaps with all the objects in your home that inspire joy. This can be a beautiful sculptures, stylish book ends, family photos, and of course plants! Use trays to divide spaces into smaller “cubbies” to display trinkets and other treasured pieces. And remember, restraint! Ideally you should have enough space for all your objects to breath and to actually see your walls.
Organizing books by color is a popular trend, but changing up the orientation keeps things dynamic.
