Interior styling tips.. Shelf shuffling

A few weeks ago, photographer Alex Sedgmond paid a visit to my home to capture some shots and I’ve been dying to share the pictures with you all!

Alongside running the physical and online shop, I’m also working more and more on interior styling for businesses and homes. My years of visual merchandising at Topshop + Habitat, have shaped the way I see windows, walls, interiors + the products that are in them. So excitingly this is an area of the business I’m expanding on.

Obviously, my most regularly styled space is my own home, the real home byKirsty. I only carry products in the shop that I would love to have in my own home… which inevitably ends up in the house looking like a showroom!

So what better way to show off Alex Sedmond’s excellent pictures than with some interior styling hints and tips.

Over the next few months I’ll be sharing more styling advice so be sure to sign up the the HBK newsletter at the bottom of the page to stay in the loop.

First up, shelf styling.

Having styled shelving in a room is a really easy way to change the mood, and with a few product shuffles you can turn a blank space into an eye catching and interesting feature. The shelves here are an Ikea staple, the Mosslanda Picture Shelf.

I love the shape of this picture shelf, but I wanted something a bit deeper and more interesting to stock in the shop. Cue House Doctor’s brass and black shelf ledges! They are the right blend of stylish and practical, the work perfectly for an injection of personality. You can find links to them at the bottom of the page.

So here’s some tricks and tips for styling your shelves at home. I make an effort to really consider every purchase for my shelves - only get quality items you really love and you’re off to a good start!

1. Negative space

Negative space works really well to create balance, and means the carefully chosen products you do have will be much more prominent.

Look at how the shapes of the products work with each other. By mixing up items that have different shapes and heights, the negative space works to create a realy interesting feature.

Remember, you don’t need to fill every bit of space!

2. Colour palettes

Choose either the most prominent product, or your favourite product as your base colour for your shelving display.

Then add other products that have a complimentary colour to your base colour.

My base colour here is the navy typographic ‘anything’ screen print by Tom Pigeon. I’ve added lots of neutral toned products to compliment the navy, like the cork clock and pin board calendar.

These neutral shades make the navy print even more eye-catching.

3. Function

What’s the function of the space?

Take time to decide want you want the focus to be for the space. This might change depending on the room that you’re styling.

It could be that you want it to be aesthetically pleasing area, or perhaps a particular product sets the function - like a bold clock or a useful calendar.

4. Quick changes

Use simple smaller items like cards to add quick pops of colour or some typography to your walls.

Indie cards double up really well as a mini prints, and it’s so easy to change the feel of the styling depending on the season, or how you want to feel.

Here are a few of the products from the shop that I have on my shelves at home, plus some extra shelving and storage items to get wall spaces looking great.

Comment below with any other tips you’ve picked up on your home styling adventures, I’d love to hear them!

KP xx