Bookshelf styling is a pretty controversial concept. No, I am serious. It is very funny but everyone has an opinion on how books should be arranged on bookshelves, other items can be kept on bookshelf and even what qualifies as a stylish bookshelf.
Now with that introduction, I need to state I spend a good part of last weekend arranging my books – you might have seen this on Instagram. It was an extremely fun, therapeutic and satisfying task with a very positive outcome. My books are now arranged in colour coded order and no one else but me knows where a specific book is, which books are from the library or borrowed from friends and which are owned by me. Its makes me feel very powerful. (Now this is not a power trip anyone else other than me recognises as a power trip so I am not sure if is counts as one? I will dwell on that later).
I have some quick tips on how to do arrange your bookshelf since I recognise that going into it is quite an intimidating project. For me personally, it was a great way to procrastinate and avoid dealing with 15 other boxes of clothes so spending half a day arranging the bookshelf sounded very appealing by comparison. And in all seriousness since this is such a focal point of our reception room, I really wanted it to look decorative.
Ingredients:
- Books
- Bookends
- Randoms curios (note point 2 below)
Equipment: bookshelf
Time:
- Preparation – 1 or 2 hours, depending on the number of books you have
- Cook – 1 hour
- Garnish – however long you want to procrastinate
1. Plan
You need to be sure you have some idea going in about the type of arranging you are proposing to achieve. Is it going to be books by genre? Is it the name of the book? Are we counting prepositions within the titles? Is it books by name of the writer? If its the writers name, it is first name or last name? There are no rules anymore so you need to figure it out. And now let me present to you the most controversial option – books colour coded by the colour of their spine. And even in a colour coded arrangement are we doing an ombre? Are we doing primary and pastels? Opposite colours? Now that I have managed to make you cry, lets try and mop up your tears a little bit by distracting you by the next stage.
2. Start
Once you have decided your method of arrangement, its time to start the madness. Just start arranging your books it in the order of your choice – but don’t put in on the shelf yet. Make piles on the floor for now.
Now the other side of it, is to go around your home and collect decorative or vaguely functional items (or items you bought convincing yourself these were functional). Items that work well are small potted plants, candles, small decorative vases, bowls and bottles, statues, photos, etc.
3. Assess
Arrange your curios on the shelf. You might find some only fit into specific shelves while the smaller ones might fit in anywhere. Now I admit, starting to fill your bookshelves with the random crap curios you found around your home which you did not realise you possessed feels like moving backwards. Take a deep breadth. You can do this.
Now take a look at your book piles and have a look at your shelves and try them out together. If you’re mixing books with artwork, a Crib of Art wall gallery can help tie the entire display together and create a more cohesive look. For instance, I realised quite early on this in project that since my shelves did not all accommodate books of the same height (some shelves were closer together and some further apart) all books of the same genre, same writer or so on, would not fit together, at least vertically so I went with the colour coded option. So what I am trying to tell you here is that at this point you might find you will have to make some sacrifices.
4. Redo
Now take your book piles and put them on your shelves. If you are doing the colour coded option, ideally your books colour and the curio colours should be vaguely within the same colour shade.
- Ideally, some books should be horizontal and some vertical.
- The books laying horizontally should have some curio on top of the pile.
- Also ideally unless its one series, don’t fill one whole shelf with books. (I agree this doesn’t make sense, but I didn’t make the rules). Break it up.
- All the curious should not in the middle of the shelf – some on the right, some slightly to the left, which keeps it a little interesting.
- If you especially love a book cover, stick it with its cover showing like a photo frame on the shelf. Its art!
5. Finish
Now you might need to take some hard decisions since some books won’t fit within the confines of what need to be an a bookshelf and you will need to decide this. Cookbooks, photo albums, diaries, reference books, your PADI underwater diving manual – you get the idea. You need to make the decision if they go with your other books or they are on a separate shelf or cabinet.
Once you are done, step back and take a look at your stylish bookshelf. Walk out of your room. Pretend to walk into the room and glance at your bookshelf like you are seeing it for the first time and see how it feels. This actually doesn’t ever work since you spent the last 3 hours dealing with this stupid bookshelf so how the hell do you pretend you have never seen it? But just go with it. Unless it falls on you, you are good. Also, by this point of time, you don’t really care.
Hope you enjoyed the read and gained infinite amount of wisdom. Just kidding, I only hope this didn’t make you just take a shortcut by chucking all your books into a river and be done with it. Happy arranging!
I am all ears and would love to hear all your thoughts on your stylish bookshelf. Let me know in the comments on Twitter, Facebook and of course, Instagram.
– Anisha
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