How-to Shelfie

rae.desrochers

16 Aug, 2021

How-to Shelfie

As a Disney collector, I am faced with the challenges of my collection displays regularly. When I order a new piece online, I usually know where I am going to place the item before it is even delivered. Like many collectors, by the time it arrives I am super excited to open my new item and place it in its new home. Sometimes this process and seamless and it fits right into its new home perfectly. The other times, it can be too tall by all of a couple of millimetres, and you are then forced to redo an entire display to accommodate your new arrival. I have even measured the space of one of my shelves before ordering an item for that movie to be sure that it was going to fit there before I made the purchase. 

Unlike some collectors who regularly love to pull their whole displays apart and start from scratch, I actually get quite overwhelmed when I have to do this. I definitely prefer to redo small sections or one movie at a time. While the process I follow to set up my displays isn’t always 100% the way I set every shelf up, it is a good method to follow in order to help your displays look amazing and maximize the space you have. 

Steps to Follow:

  1. Dust and wipe down your shelf and the items you will be adding to it
  2. Figure out what the biggest pieces in your collection are and on which shelf you want them to sit and adjust your shelves to the appropriate height for those pieces 
  3. If you own books or prints that go with your collection add them to the back of the shelf to fill in the negative spaces
  4. Place the largest pieces for each shelf in the center and in each corner of the shelf (You want each shelf to look as balanced as possible and spreading out the large pieces will help you achieve this)]
  5. Place the medium size pieces for each shelf in-between the large items
  6. Place smaller items randomly to into empty spaces to fill gaps

Tips:

  1. Use acrylic risers to help give some height to the items at the back of your shelves so that they don’t get lost behind other items. (See links below)
  2. Use acrylic step risers if you are an OOB Funko collector to help maximize the space that you have (See links below)
  3. Try and keep similar height items together so that you have room for an extra shelf above it if you need it. If you have a very large item on every shelf, you are going to have a lot of negative space once you have filled the shelves.
  4. I like to place my big items near the middle shelf of the display or at eye level. If you place them up high most people won’t really see them.
  5. If you have a lot of repeat characters or outfits try and spread them out between different shelves or cluster them together. 
  6. If you have a lot of repeating colours try and spread them out through the display so that they colour are balanced throughout the display.
  7. Try and purchase a bookcase that you are able to buy extra shelves as your collection grows vs. purchasing another bookcase before you need to. I love the Billy bookcases from Ikea, I opted for the ones with glass doors as I have kids and a dog. It also helps me have to dust my collection less often. 

Helpful Links:

Ikea Billy Bookcases – https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/search/products/?q=billy%20bookcase

Acrylic Step Risers – https://amzn.to/3m607f9

Acrylic Risers – https://amzn.to/2VUruxQ

Alternate Display – https://amzn.to/2VWz8re

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