How to Style a Farmhouse Shelf

Hey friend!  If you were following along on Instagram this week, you saw that we enjoyed the rare snow day down here on Tuesday.  With all of that free time, I decided to give our built-in shelf a coat of paint and restyle, which I shared in my Instastories.  Today, I wanted to give you a peek at the final product and share how I styled a farmhouse shelf.

Tuesday morning, Aspen was pumped to see snow for the first time since she was born.  She had quite the to-do list for a toddler that included snow angels, snowball fights and building a snowman (which she sang to me.)  I woke up eager to tackle my own to-do list.

If you have OCD when it comes to house cleaning like me, then you understand exactly how this day went down.  I started by putting out some valentine’s day decorations which lead into cleaning and rearranging the neglected built-in shelf that we have in our dining area.  This all lead to me looking through my stash of paint samples and deciding to finally give that built-in a fresh coat of paint.

It still had a reddish burgundy color from the previous owners and I had been wanting to give this some lighter and crisper color for longer than I care to admit.  I went to my spare paint cabinet and picked Sherwin Williams Tidewater, a sample I had from our bathroom makeover.  I loved the light blue-green look against our Repose Grey walls.

But what I really wanted to share with you guys today is which elements I picked to style this farmhouse shelf.

I start with the paint color.  Farmhouse style is all about crisp whites with light splashes of color often in blue tones.  I’ve always loved the look of color on the back of a bookshelf, so I wasn’t afraid of adding a little to my own.  I then gave the sides along with the brass tracks a coat of white so that it blended in well.

When it comes to what accessories you are going to add to your shelves, shop your house first.  A few key farmhouse staples that I have here include the hand-lettered chalkboard, books, white serving trays and the cream alarm clock.

Take these items and make small little vignette’s, or styled groupings.  Then place them along with your shelving.  You want to add dimension with items deep on the shelf and closer to the edge.  I used the chalkboard and leaned it against the wall and moved the books and jars up towards the edge.

Once I have the vignettes set, I’ll fill the rest of the shelves with books and greenery.  Since this shelf was in our dining area, I used my cookbooks with these arrow bookends.  I also stacked some of my favorite books in blue hues.  I then added some tulips to the white measuring cup for some greenery.

Oh, and the picture on the middle shelf.  That’s a photo of my great-grandfathers photography studio.  Farmhouse style is all about incorporating those hidden heirlooms.

And that my friends, is how I updated our built-in farmhouse shelf in our dining area with a farmhouse style.  This little update is an inspiration for more changes to come this year.  I can’t wait to share with you all that we have planned, let’s just say it’s very much Jojo inspired.

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