Sharing treasures both old and new, everything has a story to it and I am proud to have a mini rattan bookshelf in my apartment that does just that! Back in Fall of 2022, I updated my furniture including getting this beautiful mini rattan bookshelf from Home Goods (when they were also available for online shopping!). Today, I have styled that mini rattan bookshelf to share pieces that share meaningful stories from my family, travels, and *just* a few newly purchased items! Overall, I hope this provides you with some rattan bookshelf styling inspiration, in the case that you’re interested in purchasing your own someday (or already have!).
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Let’s stop from the top of the rattan bookshelf styling inspiration! Atop of the bookshelf hangs a beautiful woodworker’s cross painted pink saying “Amazing Grace”. My best friend from high school and church’s Dad has a beautiful gift for woodworking and made this beautiful cross for me as a graduation gift. Her Dad is an extremely thoughtful human being and, to this day, I always felt cherished by my friend and her family for thinking of me to make and gift me such a beautifully handmade design. It is something I’ll LOVE for years to come, too!
Below the cross is a floral canvas designed by Carrie Schmitt. In our college apartment, my roommate Sophie got us a canvas designed by Carrie Schmitt that hung in our living room throughout our Junior and Senior years of college. That canvas brought me SO MUCH JOY that I knew when I got my own place I needed to get a Carrie Schmitt canvas of my own!
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The top shelf of my rattan bookshelf styling has SOOOO many treasures on it. Starting on the left side, some of the many treasures are including: a mini mannequin that my Mom and Step Dad found at a vintage shop in San Antonio, Texas, a flamingo candle holder (that *still* remains candle-less!), a floral candle holder that once belonged to my Great-Grandparents on my Dad’s side, a copy of the book Notorious RBG which documents the life and story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg whom I got to watch speak live during my Junior year of college, and a decades-old copy of Vogue Sewing that I likely thrifted or picked up for free alongside someone’s curbside. And, ending on the right side, the bookshelf’s top row includes: a stainless silver duck ice bucket that my Aunt Kim gifted my Papa and Grandma years prior and has since become mine, an Eiffel Tower figurine that my Dad’s parents got as a souvenir during one of their many trips including one to Paris, France, a plate that presents a replica of the signing of the United States Constitution, and a Rifle Paper Company x Target memento box.
And, the second and third rattan bookshelves styling also contains several other treasures, too! Most notably, on the second shelf, I have a Seaton family buffet dish from my Dad’s Mom’s side of the family’s family china set and teapots which I have since inherited. Another memorable piece is the painted seashell that I found in Isle of Palms, South Carolina and painted on my beautiful trip there last summer with my best friends Hannah and Alanna and Bryn. I also added several books to the shelf, including some beach reads, cocktail recipe books, a travel guide to my mainly ancestral homeland of Great Britain and a childhood Christmas gift favorite of mine …. A book on New York Fashion Week! But, last but not least, I have two gorgeous boxes on display that are considered shabby chic and Parisian inspired that my late Grandma got for me to store cards/mementos from loved ones for years to come.
Right next to the bookshelf, I have a gorgeous fake Lilly pad-looking plant that has been in my family for decades. I switched out its original planter for a gorgeous rattan bucket that I thrifted back in the Fall of 2021, yet, remained without a true place and purpose in my apartment up until recently. Today, I am glad to re-home both that fake plant and that rattan bucket.
My mini rattan bookshelf is a treasure to me! And, it is a treasure of a bookshelf that holds SOOOOO many of my *very own* treasures, too!! I love that I have been able to style this gorgeous bookshelf of mine and make it meaningful to me and filled with several amazing memories of mine! I hope it inspires YOU with your own rattan bookshelf styling, too!!!
XOXO – Katie <3
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