Stack it up! Bookshelf Design
“.. our objects, bibelots, whatnots, and knickknacks-
say the most about who we are.
They are as honest as a diary.
Charlotte Moss, A Passion for Details
Libraries and the bookshelves that organize them are like windows into people’s souls. Have you ever wandered into someone’s personal library and taken a look? The collections people own often speak volumes about their interests, desires and tastes. Take this snapshot for instance, my father adores his library. If you wander into his wood paneled reading room, you would find medical textbooks from his residency days to historical biographies written about his medical mentors he has grown to admire. You would find yearbooks from his high school and college days and you would find book after book on various historical moments in American history. Interspersed amongst his treasured volumes, he has scattered small mementos like a silver trophy from his division winning Squash team during his sophomore year in college and framed pictures of the family.
I often hear from clients that they love their books but don’t know how to arrange them. They often comment on how disorganized their bookshelves look. Visual chaos! So here are a couple tricks that I like to do to make my and my client’s bookshelves look visually calming and appealing.
First, take off the book covers! Have you ever looked under that cover? Usually the bindings are a nice color that when grouped together with like colors, create a nice rainbow of tones. If you have a lot of paperbacks, arrange them according to color as well. Let’s call it “color blocking.”
Second, consider the weight of color. Black or dark grey or brown are “heavier” weighted colors. Think about arranging your bookshelves from darkest to lightest going from bottom of the bookshelf to the top.
Finally, accessorize! Shelf after shelf of books can look monotonous. Break up that monotony with a framed picture or a sculpture you picked up in your travels. I added a small Buddha figurine on a shelf below from a trip my husband Peter took to Thailand to add a personal memento.
Like my father, I have the beginnings of an ever-expanding library of books. Most of mine are Interior Design books that I have gathered over the years. I have an early edition reference book on American Textiles to a more current title written by the design great Bunny Williams. I have a lovely Distressed Black Storage Unit that houses these beautifully.
How did I arrange my bookshelves to illustrate these pointers? Here is a step-by-step guide:
Shed those book covers! I started by taking off all the book covers and putting them into piles by color. Once the “color blocking” was complete, I placed the darkest books on the bottom shelf arranging them also by size, widest book at the bottom of each pile.
Colorblock!
On the next shelf, I continued color blocking. I put the darkest color at the far left hand side of the shelf, the lighter ones to the right. Think about placement of the books; place some vertically and some horizontally. For example, I lay two books flat across the shelf that act like bookends on one side. On them, I placed a decoupage round plate to add visual interest.
Accessorize!
On the third shelf, I used another decoupage plate and another pile of books. Keep in mind the balance of each shelf to one another. If you have one shelf that is filled with books and then the next shelf with just one accessory, the bookshelves will look like awkward. The decoupage plate on the third shelf is not the shape of any book, but has a weight to it that balances with the second shelf.
You can store more than just books!
On the top shelf, I placed two green rattan boxes. These are great storage pieces (for my endless collection of scarves) and a nice strong block of color. I placed two sterling candlesticks flanking the boxes to add symmetry and replicate the two stacks of books on the first shelf.
And don’t forget the top of the cabinet! I used a stone Buddha head that sits majestically to add height and whimsy to the bookcase. You may have a treasure from your travels or maybe a tall vase or bowl that would be better out of reach from little (or big) hands and would look lovely from a distance.
For many of us, our library consists of many types of books. History. Non-Fiction. English Literature. The list goes on. This organizational tool can be applied to all your categories of books. Before organizing your books by color, put them into categories by subject and determine where you would like to place these books. A bookshelf in your study? A cabinet in your den? From there, apply the steps above.
Your books say a lot about you and your interests. They reveal to your friends and family not only what you like to read, but also what you like to learn about, your travels and hobbies. With some thought of placement and use of accessories, your bookshelves will look less like a hodge-podge and more like a well-organized and visually interesting design component of your home.
To add a library to a house is to
give that house a soul.
-Cicero
Posted on January 5th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Nice post! We recently moved into a house with a lot of built-in bookshelf space and just tossed books in as we unpacked them. Now I’m fired up to make it aesthetically pleasing as well as organized!