Dreamy Shelf Styling

Write about your dream home.

When people think about their dream home, they often think about the broad architecture. They might also dream about the interior space, structure and design. But their imaginings often miss considering the tiny decor details like the composition and likely colours needed in styling their shelves, open storage and library bookcases. Instead those finer details are left to chance. Then what we see at best their shelf display is about arranging things neatly. And at worst the shelf seems to curiously be like an exposed front draw with tens (or 100s) of items drowning in layers of sticky dust.

This post gives a few ideas for styling your shelf. It especially shows you how to use pieces of shelf art to anchor the colour scheme and inspire what items should go on the shelf and how to artfully display them so the scene is an amplification of the art.

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Brushes with colour therapy

Recently I’ve been experimenting with colour intensity and they’re beginning to convey my sense about how we work and contemporary working environments.

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Abstract Saturday/ Sunday

Below is a collection of paintings and initial drawings I did at the City Lit Abstract Painting Weekend Course. It was fun. There were lots of other painters there.

Some of us ate at Itsu Covent Garden on the pavement at lunch and watched as the Free Masons tried to recruit more members from people (men walking by. Our lunchtime vista was a strange mixture of men wearing dark Crombie coats, hell’s Angels, and a couple of Harley-Davidsons on the pavement.

Perhaps that inspired me to create this really feminine piece of work below. Some of the feedback in the crit was that I have a really light hand. I felt light creating it, so that was nice to hear.

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Colour scales & tone

I got painting in colour this week. The still life got me to experiment with light and shadows.

I did the shadows and dark s without using pure black on the page but instead using primary colours to create a neutral. That dark neutral would also create a lovely grey when white was added to it.

Finding Affinity in The Black Fantastical

I saw the In the Black Fantastic exhibit at the Haywood Gallery. A big show of artists from the African Diaspora. Including Chriss Ofili, Nick Cave, Hew, Locke and others. Below is the full list of artists at the In the Black Fantastic

Artists at In The Black Fantastic

  • Wangechi Muto
  • Lina Iris Viktor
  • Hew Locke
  • Nick Cave
  • Tabita Rezaire
  • Rashaad Newsome
  • Ellen Gallagher
  • Chris Ofili
  • Cauleen Smith
  • Kara Walker

I was excited to feel a sense of affinity developing as I saw the work of these artists. That sense of like mind arose because many of these famous artists used gold or gold leaf, some used gems or Swarovski crystals. I saw gemstones sprinkled and how some used raffia trim as fringing on the edge of a painting. Others used fringing within the painting.
I loved the idea of fantastical art as it is an escapist emancipatory healing kind of space to work within as an artist.

I get a sense of hope, but it is not blind hope. It is the kind of surreal conceptualisation of the future that recognises the hurt that has gone before in a beautiful way.

In the Black Fantastic is showing at the Haywood gallery London until 18th September 2022. It is a little awkward to get there. The nearest entrance is on the south side of the Waterloo bridge,