Decorating your shelving entails not only painting your shelving, it always entails adding wooden ornaments and actually arranging items on your shelving. The term “decorating” is indeed so broad and covers so many different options, that decorating your shelving can be a full-day task in and of itself. Here are a few ideas to help you decorate your shelving in many different ways. Depending on your tastes, budget and desires, you can choose all or a few of these options.
1. Paint.
Painting your shelving is a quick and easy way to ensure that you receive a complete shelving redo. Painting your shelving can help to make your colors stand out, or it can help to make your shelves blend into your wall. Many people choose to paint their formal rooms with shelves in a two-tones scheme, the back of the shelf can be the color of the wall (usually a darker color) and the trim of the shelf can be the same color as the trim of the wall around the windows and doors. Painting shelving in this manner helps them to match the tone and theme of the rest of the room.
2. Stain.
Staining your shelves means adding a wood-colored stain to the actual wood. You can stain just about any wood to look like another wood. For example, if you have shelves made of pine, but prefer a cherry or mahogany look throughout your room, you can stain your shelves cherry or mahogany. Likewise, as with the paint, you can even stain your shelves in more than one tone of wood to give them added interest and depth.
3. Lighting.
It is very sophisticated to decorate with lighting. Lighting can enhance any mood and truly set a tone for an entire room. When decorating with lighting, be sure that you choose the right wattage for your bulbs so that they are not too bright or too dim. Also, make sure that you place combustible items, such as books, far enough away from your lights so that they do not catch fire while you have the lights on.
In general, you will most likely use recessed lighting when decorating your shelves with lighting. The lighting will be placed into the ceiling or upper shelf if you place it within the actual shelf. Otherwise, you can place lights around your room to direct them onto the shelf. Direct lights onto the shelf if you have items, such as a collection of books or statues, that you wan tot highlight. Lighting also works well if you have items behind glass that you would either like to highlight or display with a backlight.
4. Organization.
Believe it or not, organizing your shelves falls into the classification of actually decorating them. Because decorating is so far-reaching, the organization will help to create a mood. Cluttered shelves will make your space feel lived-in. On the contrary, clean shelves will help to make the space appear streamlined and tidy. In any event, having well organized (even if they are messy) shelves will help them serve their purpose as the home for all of your items.