How To Use Planner Layering for Aesthetic Spreads
For many people, planning is a way to romanticize daily life while organizing their thoughts and responsibilities. I know that I enjoy the way planning combines my love of luxe stationery and paper products with my penchant for goal-setting and reflection. While there are as many different ways to plan as there are people, I’ve noticed that many planner enthusiasts (myself included) want to create planner pages and spreads that are beautiful and inspiring as well as productive.
One of my favorite techniques for creating aesthetic spreads is planner layering. Layering is the practice of using layers of materials in different sizes, colors, opacities, and designs to create more complex, attractive planner pages and layouts. As someone with a minimalist planning aesthetic, layering allows me to add more visual interest to my planner setup while maintaining a streamlined, cohesive look.
To create beautiful, layered planner spreads, you’ll need to keep in mind five essential design elements: size, placement, opacity, motif, and texture.
Size
Experimenting with different sizes is the easiest way to begin using layers in a planning spread. If you’re just beginning your planner deco journey, this is a great place to start! Here, size refers to the size of your planner and all the items it contains, from inserts to dividers, dashboards, and journal cards.
In general, you want to layer planner materials from large to small, with large at the bottom and small on top. So, you might begin a layering stack with a full-page planner insert at the bottom, then add a contrasting half-page insert or note sheet above it, then finish with an even smaller journal card. This method ensures that at least part of each individual item remains visible when other planning accessories are stacked on top. For a visual example of this principle, check out the image above.
Once you feel comfortable with this basic concept, you can mix up the sizes in your layers while paying attention to what elements you hide or bring to the forefront. To keep layers of various sizes looking intentional, you’ll also need to pay attention to placement.
Placement
The next principle of effective layering is placement. When placing items in a layered spread, it pays to keep in mind a simple design concept called “the rule of thirds.” Basically, the rule of thirds is a guideline for visual compositions that suggests placing major visual elements along imaginary lines that divide a design into thirds. For example, in the planner page pictured below, I’ve placed a journal card and magnetic clip along one of these imaginary lines. This approach can help you create spreads with more visual interest.
But don’t get too hung up on this technique — like all design rules, it’s a guideline, not a law. The main thing I keep in mind from this concept is the idea that my final planner layout will most likely look best if I place layers or visual details about one or two-thirds of the way across my page (or spread), both horizontally and vertically. Sometimes I break this rule when I have a good reason to, but it’s a helpful tip for keeping my layers looking intentional rather than messy or haphazard.
Opacity
Once you're happy with the size and placement of your planner layers, it’s time to play with opacity. Opacity defines how transparent an item is. In planning, materials like vellum, frosted plastic, and thinner papers have differing levels of transparency that can play beautifully together in a planner spread. These transparent or semi-transparent materials can be contrasted with opaque materials like thicker papers, opaque plastic, card stock or cardboard, leather, etc.
One of my favorite planner accessories that allows me to easily play with opacity is my set of frosted planner folders from Cloth and Paper. By placing these folders in my planner over opaque materials like my weekly planner spreads or planner dividers, I can play with different levels of translucence in my layers. Any items placed behind my folder will be largely obscured, while items placed inside the folder pocket will remain visible but slightly blurred. Items placed on top of the folder, like sticky notes or page flags, will be most visible and defined. Check out the image above to see how this works!
Motif
Once you’ve mastered size, placement, and opacity, you can kick your layering game up a notch with carefully curated motifs. Motifs come in many forms in planning, from photography used on dashboards and journal cards to typography, illustrated stickers, and embossed designs. Since I have a more minimal aesthetic, I prefer to keep my motifs simple. A floral photo card or a paragraph of handwritten text is often enough to elevate my finished spread.
If you have a more maximalist approach to planning, you may enjoy mixing motifs and adding more detail to your spreads. When mixing motifs, think about both contrast and consistency. For example, you could create contrast by using different types of motifs in your layers — say by pairing bold, block-lettered typography with delicate hand-drawn decorative patterns. Then, tie these different elements together by keeping them in a cohesive color palette.
Texture
Finally, the last element that will help you master planner layering is texture. Add contrast and interest to your layers with a variety of textures — from the subtle grain of heavyweight cotton rag paper, to the bright glimmer of foiled accents, to the subtle dimension of embossed journal cards. Mixing different textures adds a whole new kind of complexity to layered spreads, and can quickly elevate even the simplest compositions.
If this feels like a lot of information, don’t worry — you don’t have to master all of these elements at once. You also don’t need to use any of these concepts if they don’t appeal to you! Remember, planning is personal, and the only right way to plan is the way that works for you. If you want to begin testing out layering in your own planning routine, start simply with a single concept, like size or opacity, and slowly build on these techniques until you’re satisfied with your compositions. Before you know it, you'll be a layering pro!