Where should your bookcase go?
One of the great mysteries of interior decorating is what room a bookcase should go in. The living room, your bedroom, the dining room, a hallway? While there is no definitive answer, besides a study or home office on the off-chance that you have one, the most common choice for bookcase placement in the UK is the living room. This may not come as a surprise to those who have seen all the “bookshelfies” online displaying perfectly curated bookcases sparsely decorated with inspirational art pieces and globally collected Tchotchkes. However, for those of us who aren’t so well-versed in the art of styling a bookcase but excel at owning tomes and trinkets, some more inspiration may be needed.
Show your personality
Cushions are a great form of expression. Take a sofa in your favourite colour and add a cushion with a pattern or emblem of something you love. Your lounge area is where you’re most likely to entertain and spend most of your time, so you want to be surrounded by things you love as well as the people you love. Floral patterns are a great way to show off a passion of gardening or a more feminine personality, and a very popular pattern to match other objects in the room for a more cohesive space.
How to organise and style your shelves
As well as the number of books on each unit, it would be prudent to consider the aesthetics of each one that you do decide to keep. Larger works of art and literature - and large storage baskets - are better on lower shelves, while smaller items should be kept higher up to create a visually appealing set-up. If you want to create a more natural aesthetic, or if you just want to deviate from the norm, try turning paperback books’ spines towards the wall and have their pages facing the room. This brings a rustic and vintage air to any room, especially with well-read novels. Add a large trailing plant higher up and small potted succulents towards the bottom of the unit to enhance this effect.
If you prefer a colourful shelf, use a dark unit to make the colours pop, and order the shelves in rainbow sequences or choose a small group of dominant hues to repeat throughout. This works particularly well if you have a key accent colour in your room, as you can match it with small accessories so your bookcase ties in with the rest of the space. Some people prefer to sort their book collections by author or genre rather than colour – which helps to keep series together when they have different covers. Another popular method of organisation is alphabetically as it makes finding your favourites much easier. For children’s bookcases, however, a rainbow order helps to keep things tidy because kids can put their own books away in the right place when they’re done with them, and will often recognise their favourites by cover rather than name or author.
Turn spines towards the wall for a more natural look
In order to create interest and draw the eye, be sure to vary depths and heights within the shelves. Take vinyl albums and intersperse them with singles, lean books against each other to introduce a less regimented look, and add organic shaped vases for contrast against the solid lines of the unit itself. If you want to display photos, try putting an ornament in front of the frame, or angling the pictures slightly behind one another to vary positioning on the shelf.
Surprisingly, bookcases are an excellent way of showcasing your personality. All of these little touches help to demonstrate who you are as a person, and placing items together that reflect your character is a great way of making the whole home feel cohesive and intentional. Using practical yet stylish pieces like decorative bookends helps to bring the room together.
Vary heights and depths
