How to Decorate Kitchen Shelves |16 Practical and Pretty Ideas

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While a kitchen is a highly used area for cooking and entertaining, it often gets left behind when it comes to decor.

With that being said, the reality is that you can add tons of personality and visual interest to your kitchen if you utilize your shelf space.

Open kitchen shelving in particular can feel intimidating to decorate. There are almost too many options to choose from, making it difficult to know where to start.

Should you go the practical route or opt for more fun pieces? Or perhaps a blend of both is the sweet spot you should strive for.

Learning how to decorate kitchen shelves is a wonderful skill as you create a pretty and practical space. Whether you just remodeled your kitchen or you’re looking for small ways to freshen up your space, these kitchen shelf decor ideas will help you achieve an inviting end result.

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How to Decorate Kitchen Shelves

One important design element to keep in mind is that your kitchen shelf decor should be cohesive with the style you’ve used in the rest of your home.

If you typically prefer a boho look, continue that design style into your kitchen shelf decor. If you design with a more traditional style, incorporate traditional decor into your kitchen styling. And so on.

With that in mind, here are the best 16 ideas for how to decorate kitchen shelves. I will expound upon each below.

1. Minimalistic styling
2. Everyday dishes
3. Pretty serving ware
4. Pantry staples
5. A cozy lamp
6. Favorite antiques
7. Coffee bar
8. Collections
9. Holidays/seasonal
10. Plants
11. Artwork
12. Kitchen related decor
13. Herb drying rack
14. In front of a window
15. Country style
16. Decor + everyday essentials

Basic Shelf Styling Rules

Whether you are styling a kitchen shelf, bookcase, china cabinet or display cabinet, use these basic shelf styling rules.

• Play with height variation. Using items that are all the same height, and essentially end up in a line, ends up looking boring. Choose the items you use to decorate your kitchen shelves with at least three to five different height variations.
• Use groups of odd numbers. If you’re going to group items, make sure it is done with odd numbers. That is most visually appealing. 1 or 3 items looks best.
• Keep a color palette. Choose 3 or less colors you want to incorporate into your kitchen shelves. Plus a neutral, if your 3 colors don’t include one.
• Styling with a triangle in mind. Using your color palette, place items of like color in a triangle to break up where the colors are placed. This bounces the eye around the shelves rather than it remaining stagnant.
• Use texture. Most people tend to think that kitchen shelves = glass or pottery based items. This makes sense since dishes are a traditional option for styling. However, add in more texture for interest. Items like baskets, plants, a stack of tea towels, metals, or wood cutting boards are great options to ramp up texture.

16 Kitchen Shelf Decor Ideas

1. Stick to a Minimalistic style

If you prefer a minimalistic kitchen, it can feel challenging to style kitchen shelves.

You will want them to remain practical, without overwhelming them with too much clutter.

Only display the number of mugs, bowls, plates or cups that you actually need for your family size. Additionally, keep the items you place on the shelves strictly for items you use daily.

Plus a plant.

Because plants take your shelf from sterile to inviting. Bonus: plants help clean the air and are visually life giving!

Minimalistic kitchen shelves benefit greatly from using whitespace. Leave those large gaps between items and don’t feel like you need to fill every nook and cranny.

2. Use Everyday Dishes for Shelf Styling

The most obvious answer for how to decorate kitchen shelves is to use everyday dishes.

When done well, dishes are a beautiful option that can make your kitchen shelves functional and decorative.

The key to going this route is to choose everyday dishes that are either:

• beautiful and cohesive with your design style
• perfectly neutral and will go with any style (solids, whites, or clear are great options)
• heirlooms

You can keep it simple and pair your everyday dishes with a plant grouping, or mix in kitchen items like cookbooks and pantry staples.

3. Showcase Pretty Serving ware

I love to make kitchen shelves into storage that is pretty. One easy way to do that is by using kitchen shelves to display/store your serving ware.

Platters, pitchers, dutch ovens, gravy boats, cake stands, and serving bowls are all great options.

In the image above, you can see they used all white dishes to keep it cohesive, then they added two wood tones and a basket for texture. Incorporating a third coordinating color with the deep brown dishes gave this space even more dimension.

These three colors are all very calming — and you can see that they placed the white dishes in a triangle formation to break things up. This is a wonderful example of how to decorate kitchen shelves if you’re open to a more maximalist style.

4. Display Pantry Staples

If you are continuing on the theme of using kitchen shelves as practical storage, try storing your pantry staples in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Decanting pantry staples into jars is a great way to not only see what you are running low on, but it also looks beautiful.

You can see some of my favorite storage containers, labels, and neutral dishes here.

5. Cozy things up with a lamp

There are few items that cozy up a space quite like a lamp.

I know that the kitchen might not be the first place you think to incorporate a lamp, but it’s that unexpected touch that makes it so charming.

Set one on your kitchen shelf for some mood lighting (ideal for keeping on in the late afternoon and evening.) Bonus: There are several LED options now that don’t require a plug.

6. Set out your Favorite Antiques

There are few things that add more character and charm to a home than antiques.

If you don’t need to use your kitchen shelves for practical storage, then make them a design statement.

Antique pottery is an amazing choice for kitchen shelves. If you think back to how each piece was used, it would have been for food storage, water, or oils. What better way to honor the past?

If you don’t have many antiques to work with but you love the style, Etsy is a stellar source for unique finds!

7. Create a Coffee Bar

If you have the counter space below, a coffee bar is a fantastic way to decorate kitchen shelves.

Not only can you store glasses and mugs, but you also have the opportunity to display pitchers, creamers, coffee canisters and more.

Plus, this idea will create a cozy little nook in your kitchen that’s useful on a daily basis.

8. Display a Kitchen Related Collection

Another fun way to decorate kitchen shelves is with a kitchen related collection.

I love my antique mortar and pestles. These would have been used in kitchens for centuries.

In my last home’s kitchen, I displayed them in a line going down in size.

In our current kitchen, I have them in those groups we talked about earlier. One is solo on a shelf with a group of three below.

9. Holidays/Seasonal Kitchen Shelves

I love seasonal decorating.

There is something so nostalgic and comforting about pulling out seasonal and/or holiday decor each year. Many people don’t include the kitchen in seasonal decorating, but I think it adds a cozy charm.

Summer, fall, and spring decor in the kitchen is very easy. Simply add seasonal florals like tulips, hydrangeas, or fall leaves.

Christmas and winter decor can be even more layered and fun. I like to use garlands, pine trees, candles, and sometimes artwork. The trick is to intersperse it with kitchen items that make sense to include, like mugs or glassware that have seasonal details.

10. Use Plants for Kitchen Shelf Decorating

As you might have noticed, almost every photo I’ve chosen to include in this post so far has included plants as part of the kitchen shelf decor.

Like I mentioned above, plants can bring so much life and coziness to any area of your home — and that includes the kitchen. If you don’t have shelves positioned near a window, faux plants are a great substitute.

If you have higher shelves, try vining plants like these as they add extra interest.

11. Incorporate Artwork into Kitchen Shelves

While it might not be common, I love to add artwork as a way to decorate a kitchen.

If you have space, utilize it with large art. If not, add in 5x7s or 8x10s intermixed with your other decor for a fun pop of design. Picture frames are also an option!

12. Utilize Kitchen Related Decor

Another practical option is just to use a variety of kitchen related decor that is aesthetically pleasing. These could also be items you use on a daily basis.

Include items like:

• Oil dispensers
• Cooking utensils
• Neatly folded kitchen towels
• Pantry canisters
• Spice lazy susan
• Olive wood cutting boards

13. Consider adding an Herb Drying Rack

When I designed my kitchen, I added gallery rail to the shelves.

Turns out, it is the perfect spot to hang herbs and florals to dry.

If you don’t have gallery rail, you can easily do the same by adding two c hooks under the bottom shelf. Simply place one on each end and then tie a string between the two to act as a “cloths line” for the herb bundles.

14. Don’t underestimate the space near a window

Who said kitchen shelves have to only be hung on a wall?

Some of the most beautiful and interesting kitchens I’ve seen have shelving in front of windows.

Not only does this give you wiggle room to add more light without sacrificing storage, it also lights up your shelf decor!

15. Go with Country Style Kitchen Shelf Decor

I’m a sucker for a draped apron and good old fashioned mason jars.

There is something so charming and homey about this type of country style shelf decor in a kitchen.

While this wouldn’t work for every design style, it would incorporate easily into these styles:

• rustic
• organic
• organic modern
• traditional
• country
• farmhouse
• french country
• shabby chic
• southwestern

16. Mix Decor and Everyday Essentials

Finally, the most interesting way to decorate kitchen shelves is to mix everyday essentials in with non-practical decor. Think: a little bit of pretty and a little bit of practical.

For example, you could display a few cookbooks that you often reach for and find a cute bookend to keep them in place.

Don’t be afraid to combine the two for an interesting look that also serves a purpose.

Kitchen Design and Decorating Resources

I hope that this article on how to decorate kitchen shelves has been helpful to you!

If you are in the design or decorate phase of your home journey in the kitchen, make sure to check out these articles next.

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~Sarah