Styling Ladder Shelves

Jan 7

Ever since I started to slowly move in with my boyfriend I've wanted some tall ladder shelves. I think they look absolutely beautiful and are such a lovely way to store things but they're quite pricey so I've had to wait a while before picking some up. As we have a funny little alcove in our bedroom as it's an old terrace with fireplaces in every room [sadly boxed up] it can make the space a little odd to work with. So ladder shelves seemed to be the perfect solution for this little nook and here is how I've styled them.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO A DRESSING TABLE

I've had my marble topped dressing table for around 5 years or so and I'd become a little bored of that style. My tastes have certainly changed a lot in that time and even though I still absolutely love marble it's just not what I wanted for this space. I'm still after a dressing table but the style that I love come with a pretty hefty price tag attached and it's just not a cost I can justify right now. So I've fashioned a little alternative for myself with these shelves and the small shelve under the mirror. Of course, the majority of my beauty products don't live here but the ones that I do need like my skincare, makeup rotation that I'm currently using and brushes do. It's nice to not to have to look at so much stuff constantly and I'm really trying to cut down on the amount I own.

KEEPING THINGS EQUAL

Like I said, I kinda live with my boyfriend now so that means we're trying to mix two completely separate lives together and we want it to look like our bedroom instead of just his or mine. I quite obviously love feminine interiors and would have blush pink walls if I could. But it's not fair to expect my boyfriend to want that just like he won't put skateboard shelves on the wall [his big dream]. So whilst this little nook of our room is mostly for me to get ready we tried to make it a mix of us both by including some of his colognes and personal trinkets in there too.

PERSONAL > POINTLESS

I love having personal trinkets around and whilst I might have a penchant for minimal interiors and the look of them is great in theory. It's not quite realistic to the vast majority of people as we all have personal possessions we probably don't want to just shove in a box. And to make it feel like you actually live in a space I think they're important. I like to use personal items and trinkets as decoration as they can serve multiple purposes as so often pieces just purely meant for decoration can be pretty useless otherwise. It's all very much a personal preference of course but I've just always preferred personal items to decorate with. Some of my favourite examples of this are;

Books
Childhood treasures
Perfume [try to keep it out of direct sunlight]
Notepads

Vinyls
Cards
Jewellery
Plants

GO GREEN

Of course, there was going to be something in this post about plants, would it really be one of my interiors posts without me confessing my love for them? I think not. Not only are plants great for the environment that you live in but they make such good decoration pieces too. Obviously, you need to remember to water them otherwise they go from beautiful to look at to brown very quickly. It's also great to explore different planter options to make a little more of a statement and you could even just decorate entirely with plants if you wanted to [one of my own personal dreams].

KEEP IT SIMPLE [WELL, SORT OF]

Obviously, I'm not an interiors expert but keeping things relatively simple is something I've always found to work well. I like having things out on display but too much of it can make any space look cluttered and I find that pretty stressful to be around. There are a few things I like to try and bear in mind when decorating anywhere and they are; Is the space functional? Is it balanced? If not try to keep it somewhat balanced! Do the the colours work together? These are things that seem so blindingly obvious but when combined I think they work beautifully together.