One of my favorite spaces in our home is my kitchen shelving. When I share a photo of the kitchen, I often get the question how do you know what to put on your open shelving or how do you keep from making them too cluttered. Well friends, I am here to share what tricks I have that work for me. When I decide to change up my open shelving, I began with a clean slate. Even though I am going tor reuse some of the pieces that are on the shelving, I like to have the shelves free of everything so, I can start envisioning. Once I have everything taken off the shelving, I do wipe them down that way they are all clean.

Next is the fun part, I start gathering all of the pieces that I want to put up on the shelves. My number one thing is to make sure that I have some of the dishes we use in the pile of items to go one the shelves. I say this because I honestly love the fact that I can just grab a plate or mug right off the shelf and do not have to go hunt for it in a cabinet. The next pieces that I find is the vintage pieces that I want to have on the shelves. This is where everyone is going to have something different. One of my favorite vintage pieces to always bring into my open shelving in the kitchen is a sugar mold. These are so cute and can be used in many ways. I like to use mine to layer or to put a little bit of greenery in.

Some other fun vintage pieces I like to put on the shelves is of course my vintage cutting boards.These are my absolute favorite, because they come in many shapes, sizes, and textures. They are so easy to layer as a back filler on your shelves. Now after I pick my vintage pieces, I start picking out my greenery and the planters to hold them. I do like to have fun with the planters that I use for the greenery because, I love having something that is unique for a planter. Bringing in houseplants creates a since of freshness in our kitchen and I love it. After the greens comes the dishes. I love to layer the shelves with dishes by using them to add dimension and height in certain spots of the shelving. Many times I have been asked where did I get so many dishes, well the goodwill. I do layer in some of the dishes the we do use daily but in other spots I bought some super cheap ones from the goodwill because they are most of the time vintage ones and they are great for just putting up on a shelf.

Finally the last pieces to find are the seasonal ones that I want to layer in. Since it is between seasons right now, I just use more greenery that way it creates that since of freshness. When I have all of the pieces collected and in the kitchen I then start deciding on which side the pieces will go. I then move the pieces to their side of the shelving and start layering.

Personally I like to start at the top shelf because this is normally where I layer my cutting boards and I want those to be the main focus point of that side of the shelving. Once the cutting boards are up I use smaller white pieces to layer in front of them plus a fresh houseplant. When I have the top shelf how I like it, I then move onto the bottom shelf on that side. Typically on the second shelf, I layer this with plates. mugs, and vintage items. If I am going to add in any color this is the shelf that I would put it on.

Does your opening shelving have to match when you have two sides? This is something that I do get asked off and my answer is no. I love having the shelves different but balanced. When I say balanced I mean if you have something tall on ones side of the open shelving on the top shelf, you need something tall on the other side but, it does not have to be the same item. For example. I do cutting boards on the top shelf on one side of my shelving and on the other one I put a large food scale to create the height on that side. My biggest tip is to layer with texture and dimension but always have balance.

My opening shelving is a space that I always try to have three elements too; vintage pieces, wood texture, and balance. I feel like these keep my shelves cozy but still functional because do use pieces that we use on a daily to layer them with. I really hope these tips help you style your shelves in a fun but cozy way. Thank you for stopping by the blog today and everyday, XOXO