The most special rooms in our homes are the ones that reflect who we are and the things that are important to us. We want our homes to be a treasure box of sorts, a place where we can admire the little things that define our lives. Usually, these personal touches occupy the rooms that we choose to relax and spend time in. That being said, we do not want to overcrowd the spaces in our homes that are supposed to act as a calming haven.
Jeremiah Brent's ever-evolving decorating technique urges us to think about what we are choosing to surround ourselves with and its purpose in our homes. The concept gives a whole new meaning to stylized media room ideas by focusing on creating a space that's full of stories, photos, books, and memorabilia rather than installing a TV and calling it a day.
What especially caught my eye in the design guru's media room tour was the vibrant fullness of his wall-to-wall bookshelves, which Jeremiah calls a "living thing that always changes and evolves". Bookshelves aren't just a place to store our tomes, they're a vignette to hold all our most treasured items without accidentally over-cluttering a space. After watching Jeremiah's styling tip on Instagram, I'm reconsidering what it means to decorate these corners with memories.
CMO at String Furniture, Bo Hellberg, says that styling a bookcase basically comes down to your own personal style preferences. "Open shelving, like in Jeremiah's space, provides a neutral base for people to experiment with. From there, you can coordinate different colors on your shelves to make these special pieces stand out and decoratively tie a room together," says Bo.
The best part of working with a big bookcase space is curating the right pops of color, texture, and detail to catch the eye and add visual interest to the room. So when you are sitting snugly in your favorite accent chair, enjoying the space, you can look around and admire your favorite moments and memories.
Bo shares that he has found "that selecting just a few beautiful pieces to display can make the most decorative impact and be the most sentimental". The key to a curated bookshelf is to balance practicality and aesthetics. The decor additions are fun, but you still want to be able to have a storage place for books and other media room items. "As far as stocking the shelves goes, choose an assortment of items that complement each other in terms of color and finish, then find the books that work alongside your accessories," suggests interior designer Caroline Kopp.
Caroline says she love adding pieces picked up from travels, sentimental photos and artwork. "Featuring art inside bookcases gives it such a soulful feel," she says. "An easel to hold up the art can be really successful in taller spaces, or hanging art on the face of the bookcase fives more depth and dimension."
Personally, I love to collect a good nic-nac or decorative box, they add special moments of charm and make a house feel more like a home. But the potential problem with this habit is not being able to find the space to properly display all the lovely things you have collected. Open shelving in your living room is a stylish and easy way to merge form and function. "Many people forget that storage can be a fun part of the interior design scheme," says Bo. Bo adds that "displaying and styling our favorite objects on our bookshelves gives us endless possibilities on how to curate your style through the seasons."
Decorating your shelving is not set it and forget it type of deal. Caroline says "things need to consistently be reset and refreshed." Whether that's with seasonal greenery, or just pulling out new things from storage. Bringing meaning back to the 'media' that makes up your media room, is such a special way to elevate a room and reclaim the focus from the technologies that inherently dominate such a space. Ready to start memory decorating?
