It’s a universal truth – we all need more storage. In the kitchen, we love working in wall shelves or a hutch to display favorite dinnerware, linens, and cooking essentials. But knowing how to style your kitchen wall shelves so that they’re both functional and pretty can be challenging. We’re sharing our best secrets for creating a beautiful and storage space in your dining room or kitchen.
1. First Function
Above all, your kitchen wall shelves needs to be functional. This is a hardworking room, so you want all of your most-used items handy and placed on the most accessible shelves. Start by setting aside those pieces you reach for the most, then add those to the shelves first, placing them on the lowest shelves.
2. Stack, Stand, and Space
More than likely, you’ll be using your hutch or shelves to store and display dinnerware, but we like to incorporate plates in different ways. For plates with decorative patterns, we like to stand them up to display the color and textures. For your everyday plates that you use the most, stack them so they’re easy to put away.
3. Add in Linens
Typically, we think of adding table linens to drawers, but we like to work them into our kitchen wall shelves too. With glasses, ceramics, and metals, it’s nice to bring soft goods into the mix. Here, we neatly folded linen napkins, then let just the corner of our placemats hang over the edge of the shelf.
4. Create Order
To keep your hutch from feeling too cluttered, symmetrically place items on a few of your shelves. We filled one entire shelf with mugs stacked in perfect straight lines and lined up glassware on another. For any set of shelves, you want to give your eye a place to rest, and tidy shelves help balance other more layered ones.
5. Books
Cookbooks are a great way to bring color to your kitchen shelves. Stand up books with spines facing out, and stack books to bring height to favorite serving pieces. One of our favorite tricks is to flip to a favorite photograph or recipe and place it facing out to fill the back of your shelf with color.
What do you think? Do you feel confident about how to style your kitchen wall shelves?
Browse our tabletop pieces and serve ware. For more inspiration, check out the posts below:
- How to Style a Bookcase
- Our Complete Styling Guide to Consoles, Bookshelves, and Coffee Tables
- Best Breakfast Nook Ideas for a Small Kitchen
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Amber
Help!! I have floating shelves in my kitchen and they aren’t wide enough to put stuff on I need suggestions!!
Thank you!!!
Abbey Nolte
Hi Amber,
We have a team of interior designers who would love to help you figure out your decorating dilemma. Simply upload images of your room and your question here.
Abbey
Tiffany mitchell
Id like to get some ideas or tips on how to decorate living room bookcases.i try to make it look non cluttery and elegant but am not having any luck..??
Abbey Nolte
Hi Tiffany,
We actually have a couple other posts on styling bookshelves here & here. Hope that helps!
Abbey
Elisa Ledwon
Could you provide ideas for a china cabinet in a formal dining room?
Caroline McDonald
Elisa,
In terms of styling, I would follow all of these same suggestions for a formal dining room. If you’d like, go a little more symmetrical in a formal china cabinet, but overall, these tips apply to formal spaces as well!
Happy Decorating,
Caroline