The latest social media sensation? The ‘shelfie’

Smartphone owners practically can’t resist posting on social media any number of photographic selfies alongside a favourite tourist site, concert venue or, closer to home, a backyard garden or patio.

As HGTV.com, Vogue and blogs such as Jezebel have discovered, the latest trend in such photo-documentation moves into a more intimate perspective from home dwellers — namely, pictures of people’s bookshelves ... or better known as “The Shelfie.”

Shelfies involve creating pictureperfect arrangements on homeowners’ bookcases and shelves which you can then post to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. In an interview with Vogue, California interior designer Windsor Smith likens shelfies to “curiosity cabinets, a window into what you are thinking, where you have been, and where you wish to go.”

Such esthetic savvy doesn’t solely mean how one arranges books, knick-knacks and other shelf-worthy items. There is an art involved, HGTV.com’s Erica Reitman says.

“Great shelfies are really about mastering one concept: the style vignette.” Smith, for instance, arranges her shelfies using colour coding, layering and stylizing the area outside the shelf. “Mementos, sculptures, frames, elements from the garden, small paintings, collections of coral and shells — all of these work brilliantly on shelves.”

Great shelfies are really about mastering one concept: the style vignette.