You have asked, and we have answered! One of the most common struggles that homeowners can come across when getting their home market ready is how to accessorize their built-ins. Almost everyone has some sort of open faced built-in, either in a Kitchen, Living Room, Laundry Room, Pantry, etc. Here are seven different tricks you can use to achieve our designers look:
1. Don’t fill every space.
Our general rule of thumb is fill every other space. You do not have to fill it all. This rule applies to your typical listing, show homes are an exception. Floating shelves like in the Living Room below are all too common, a go-to feature for builder’s spec homes right now. Here we played with the asymmetry of the fireplace wall, and brought that same idea to the built-ins by having the empty spaces contrast each other.
2. Place heavier items on the bottom.
This does not always mean physically heavier. It sometimes can refer to the visual weight that an item has. For example, an easy way to achieve this is by placing baskets along the bottom shelf. Baskets are not typically physically heavy but they do give a good visually stable, filled weight of space. When building a tower, you typically want the foundation to be the strongest, because it is what holds everything above it up. Built-ins use the same concept.
3. Layer heights.
This is as easy as it sounds. You want some tall items, some short items, and some items in-between. One of our designers’ favorite tricks when it comes to layering is stacking items on top of each other. The most common way to do this is by placing items on top of either books or boxes. This allows you to use more smaller scaled items but visually increase their height to balance out the shelves. In the office built-in shelves below you can can see how we heightened the visual scale of a blue vase by placing it on top of a stack of books.
4. Use variety.
Whether you are staging a small Bar or a large Great Room, a variety of decor items add a definition of interest to built-ins. Some of our go to categories include: vases, greenery, books, objects, and storage solutions (boxes/bowls/baskets). It also keeps it from looking like you just threw some random items up there and called it a day. A fun trick we use when trying to add variety is by using a pair of the same thing together in the same space.
5. Add a pop.
Just like when selecting furniture and accessories for a staging, you want a fun pop to any design. This could be a pop of color, the addition of a fun pattern, or even just a funky piece. Accessorizing built-ins is no exception to this, just on a smaller scale than furniture. The easiest way to do this is by adding in a pop of color. A textured blue vase, a bold striped container, a faux plant, etc. It does not always have to be in your face, some pops can still be subtle. In the image to the left, we added a fun accent through the double sculptures on the bottom right shelf.
6. Single doesn’t always mean lonely.
A repeated trend you will see in almost any set of shelves that we accessorize is a single vase on a shelf by itself. This goes back to the same concept as not filling every space. Your eye needs a place to rest when looking at several things at once otherwise it will be overloaded and cause you to just see clutter. The key is to choose your vase strategically, usually using one of the other points to allow the vase to stand on its own without looking empty. The built-ins above we chose both a pop of color and a fun texture/pattern.
7. Art isn’t just for the walls.
A common misconception is that art can only be hung on a wall. Why? Who says you can’t lean a piece of art in a built-in? Art is another great way to accomplish layers as discussed in #3. Also, when you are not getting your property ready for market, art is a quick and easy way to personalize your built-ins to feel more like you!
If you want more helpful Luxury Home Staging tips, check out our website at www.elizabetherindesigns.com or follow us on any of our social media handles (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest). But don’t forget to check back in two weeks for the next Katie’s Corner blog here. You won’t want to miss new tips and tricks like How To Make Small Feel Luxurious & Large Feel Comfortable. Have a topic you want us to discuss further? Shoot us a message on one of our social media platforms or email and let us know! You can also always reach us at 515-986-1895 or office@ElizabethErinDesigns.com if you need more info!
Until next time friends!
