Hey there, Interior Collective readers! I'm Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog, and I'm so excited to be visiting today to talk about one of my very favorite decor topics: shelf styling! Now I have to be honest-- styling shelves used to intimidate me. It seemed like everyone else could just throw some cute decor items on their shelves and have them look perfect immediately, and I couldn't figure out how they did it. After some practice and trial and error though, I have my shelf styling technique down to a little system, and now I can create cute shelves in no time at all!

Here's how I do it:

1. Decide on a theme or color scheme.

I always want my shelves to look cohesive, so having a consistent theme or color scheme helps tie everything together. For the shelves in my new entertainment unit, for example, I chose a color scheme of aqua, white, and metallics with some natural elements sprinkled in throughout.
I always try to repeat each element of my theme or color scheme at least three times so that everything ties together well. On a larger set of shelves like these, I'll end up repeating much more than that!

2. Shop your house.

Once I have decided on my theme or color scheme, I shop my house and gather up every possible decor piece that could fit in with that scheme. I gather many more pieces than I'll actually need so that I can try out several different arrangements and possibilities. If I try many variations and still feel like there are holes I need to fill,...