Kitchen Shelf Styling

With the kitchen finished (well, some details still are missing from the cabinet painter) I have been able to enjoy the space and make it work for me. I initially put everything away, organized, and did some kitchen shelf styling. However, as the weeks went by and I started cooking again and I needed to move some things around to make it work for me. I finally feel like my kitchen shelf styling is exactly how it should be, for me.

Kitchen Shelf Styling

I really wanted my kitchen shelves to be functional and not purely decorative. I needed it to work for me but also for the kids. I couple tips on how I finally found the perfect balance in my kitchen shelf styling.

Kitchen Shelf Tips

• The bottom shelf is everything we use daily. Plates / bowls / glasses
• I love the look of porcelain white plates but they felt too heavy. I was not scared of the weight on the shelf, but of my kids dropping them on the floor or countertop. For that reason, I opted for white glass plates. Half the weight and won’t damage my kitchen if the kids drop them.
• I cook almost daily and love to use pinch bowls. I guess they are called “dipping bowls,” but I put my herbs/ingredients in them while I chop and cook. So those are on the first shelf too.

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Moving on up. The second shelf still has many items I use but I did add a couple of decorative/memorable pieces that make me happy.

I placed two serving platters and two serving bowls, plus one salad bowl. All white ceramic or glass pieces. I added in Chilean Terra Cotta dipping/pinching bowls, again, I use these to cook, BUT also, to remind me that I have a large collection in the butlers closet.

In other words, there are pieces on my kitchen shelves that are part of a larger collection. This helps me remember what I have when it comes time to setting the table.

Other items that are part of a larger collection: the candlesticks, the blue vintage Indiana glasses, and the terra cotta bowls

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Here are two memorable pieces for me. The wooden statue is from our family trip to Maui. It was the best vacation and I wanted something that reminded me of Hawaii in my kitchen. I like how it is wood, so it ties in with my butcher block countertops and some other wood pieces in the kitchen, plus it also ties in with my Chilean Pisco Statue. This is the bottle from pisco. Which is like a Chilean drink/tequila type thing. A few Chilean pieces here, from the pisco bottle to the terra cotta bowls. My parents were raised in Chile and Chile will always have a special place in my heart.

I also added my moms lemon squeezer. I use it when I make salad marinades and it reminds me of her cause I remember her using it all the time. Plus a vintage ice bucket that was also my parents. Pieces I remember them using when I was younger.

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Since I won’t be jumping up to the top shelf every day, they do not have pieces I use consistently but are functional for my kitchen.

For instance, my ikea water pitcher that I love! A wine decanter for parties that I backed it up with a wooden charger to give it depth and focus, BUT again, to remind me that I have wooden chargers in my collection that I can use for parties. Plus my favorite golden mixing bowls.

My kitchen shelf styling truly does have 98% of pieces I use in the kitchen with a couple of memorable/decorative items. Plus, I know it sounds weird, but I forget what I have in the “butlers closet,” so having a few pieces out on this shelf reminds me of what I have to work with when it comes to table-scape styling.

PIN FOR LATER