Styling Modern Farmhouse Bookcases

Styling your Modern Farmhouse bookcase can strike fear in even the most confident person.  Finding just the right balance of items with the right texture and color can make your bookcase sing and give your room interest.  Seriously, there is nothing I love better than a well-styled Modern Farmhouse bookcase! 

Having a blueprint to go by makes this scary endeavor so much easier!  That’s what I’m here for….right?  So let’s go through the steps that will get you the most envied bookcases in town.  Shall we?

Steps to a well designed Modern Farmhouse Bookcase

Step 1

When I know I am going to be working on a project like this I start looking for different things in my travels or antiquing trips that will make an interesting piece for styling my modern farmhouse bookcases. Who am I kidding,  I’m always looking for decor items.  If only I had more homes to work on….  lol.  I’m obsessed with home decor if you can’t tell by now.

Here are a few examples of items I’ve found on Amazon that would look great in a Modern Farmhouse bookcase.  Click on the image to link to Amazon’s site to purchase.  If you make a purchase I will recieve a small fee that will result in no additional cost to you. 

White Oak Farmhouse is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

JUSTOYOU Artificial Hanging Plants

Step 2

Begin with the Largest Pieces

Now for the fun part!  Let’s get all these amazing pieces arranged in a cool way.

Start with the largest pieces.  Sometimes your bookcases will determine where these pieces go.  As you can see in the picture below, my living room bookcases are taller in the top section so I need larger pieces there.   A pro-tip that will make it much easier to get the height you need is to use books stacked underneath another piece to make it taller.   

Step 3

Bring in some artwork

This step can help you bring in a little color if that is the feel you are going for when styling your Modern Farmhouse bookcase.  Since I was going for a more neutral color scheme I used black and white pieces with a mix of greenery for an organic feel.  I like to prop my artwork pieces in the back of the bookshelf and layer other things beside and overlapping.  It helps to have some small pieces to layer and stack.

Another fun thing to do is to create your own artwork. It fun for me to go into Illustrator and design something of my own.  I don’t know about you but I always have an idea or picture in my head of what I want and I can’t find it anywhere.  This helps me get what I’m looking for and I have a Christy original. HaHa!

Step 4

Bring in your books…because after all, they are bookcases.  lol.

In all seriousness, you don’t have to use books.  It’s perfectly acceptable to use your bookcases to display a collection of whatever you love.  It is your home, after all.  I have a definite love for antique books.  Love the texture, and love the history of them.  We have collected some books from the 1800s and that’s really cool for me.  Here is another thing, I think the paper side of the books is super cool so I display my books both ways.  I love the color of the old paper.  Some people think this it’s crazy.  Don’t care.  I love it, and Joanna Gaines loves it and she knows everything about styling modern farmhouse bookcases in my book! HaHa

Step 5

Bring in your decorative pieces.

The next step when styling your modern farmhouse bookcases is to bring in personal pieces that mean something special to you and your family.  Sculptural pieces that you collected on vacations that bring back memories from that trip.  Mix it up.  Now that you have books and art you have paper.  Bring in the metal, wood, concrete, and glass pieces.  The more personal the better!

Step 6

Add some greenery to the mix.

Plants give a room an organic and fresh feel.  I’ve worked really hard in the last two years to have an indoor green thumb. lol   After tons of research and reading lots of books on the subject, I can proudly say that I can keep my plants all looking good.  This was not easy.  So feel completely comfortable with using artificial plants.  I always use a mix of real and artificial plants because some areas of your house won’t have the lighting it needs to grow the plants you want there.

As far as style goes, my favorite types of plants for bookcase styling is a mixture of trailing plants like and small succulents.  I love how the trailing plants hang down over the sides of the display and you can stick small succulents around for a layered look.

Step 7

Edit.

Stand back and take a look at your newly styled modern farmhouse bookcase masterpiece.  I always end up moving a few pieces around when I consider color, texture, etc.  You don’t want two plants together or two similar pieces of art or metal in the same area.  This will help you to create a sense of balance.  Try not to make everything symmetrical.  Your bookcases will look way to staged and unnatural.

When you feel great about what you’ve put together, pour yourself a glass of wine and celebrate a job well done.

Now, who has the best looking bookcases in town?  You, that’s who!

Cheers!   I hope you have a great day!

Christy

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Love Modern Farmhouse Style?  Check out my recent posts for more inspiration!