Shopping Guide: Rustic Decor For Shelves

Struggling to style your open shelves? Mix and match this rustic decor for shelves. From fixer upper style storage bins to farmhouse trays and more, there’s something here for everyone!

Hello again!

I’m so thrilled about the great response I received from a recent post about styling open shelves in 5 easy steps! I’m glad I’m not alone in struggling to style shelves and I’m so so happy everyone found that post helpful.

To help y’all, even more, I created a shopping guide for all types of rustic decor that would be perfect on your own farmhouse shelves.

Oh, if you’re wondering how to make your own farmhouse shelves, girl, I got you covered.  Check out my DIY farmhouse shelves that were actually much easier than expected.

Some of you probably read the last post and thought “ok, I can style the shelves but I don’t have time to go searching for rustic decor that would look perfect on farmhouse shelves”.

Or maybe you don’t have time to DIY a ton of projects right now.

I totally understand!!

Creating a bunch of DIYs or going shopping for decor to fill a few shelves can be overwhelming.

If you find yourself in that boat, this post is for you!

I used my own decor from my styled open shelves as inspiration to come up with a HUGE list of items to create your own rustic-styled shelves.

Guys, this list of rustic decor for shelves took me FOREVER.  There is so so much stuff to choose from.

I hope you find this post helpful and come away inspired with a vision of your own farmhouse shelves.

Just click on the pictures if you want to view more details about each product.

This post contains affiliate links. Please, click here to read my disclosure policy.

Rustic Decor for Shelves

Storage

Ahhh rustic storage options.  It seems as though they are never-ending.  It was so hard for me to choose just a few options to show you guys today.  For rustic storage think distressed white crates, galvanized metal utensil caddies, and wire bins.

Farmhouse Trays

Trays are probably my favorite farmhouse decor item.  They are so versatile: can be styled lying flat on shelves with a vignette on top or lying on their side to create a fun backdrop.  I’m especially loving any rustic tiered tray, though a simple wooden tray is always pretty, too.

Vases, Buckets, and Jars

Buckets and vases are great items to add to your open shelves because they are beautiful (of course) but also can have some fun decor added to them.  Throw a few wooden spoons or vintage kitchen towels in a bucket and you have a pretty and interesting focal point on your shelves.

Jars remind me of buckets, but I prefer to add some faux floral stems to jars.  Alternatively, some jars have enough charm to stand on their own.

Cake Stands and Pedestal Risers

Cake stands and pedestal risers can hold their ground on their own or can have fun items placed on top.  I added a DIY decoupaged pot to my cake stand and I love how it looks!

Rustic Frames

I love the look of open-backed frames on shelves.  I have two open-backed frames on my own open shelves.  They are perfect for a fun vignette or string a wreath from the top to add a different look.

Floral Accessories

Wait until you’re almost done styling your shelves to add some floral accents.  Throw some in those rustic jars or maybe a few clippings on a cake stand.  These can be changed based on the season (daisies in the summer, peach blossoms in the spring, dried wheat in the fall, faux cotton stems in the winter etc).

Rustic Decor Accessories

Lastly, you add in some rustic accessories to complete the look.  These can totally transform the look of your shelves and really brings the whole look together.  The possibilities here are really endless.  I pulled a few of my favorites here but don’t limit yourself.  Be creative!

This post took me a while to get together because I wanted to give you guys a really valuable list of rustic decor for shelves.  I so hope this post, and the previous one on HOW to style open shelves, really help you out 🙂

Wishing you a joyful day!

Note: This article was originally published in August 2016, but was updated in August 2022 with fresh links because almost all of the rustic decor products were no longer sold!