Thursday Tip #7- Editing a bookcase

Control your bookcase

If you're like me this is easier said than done.  I don't like a bookcase to look too edited, but grouping objects and books is a must.  I won't go so far as to suggest covering books with the same colour paper  or lining them up by colour as I've seen in some magazines.  

What works in his arrangement ?

• the bookcase has been treated as an accent wall by painting the back a beautiful blue
• sculptural objects are massed and are  the same colour - white- which shows against the blue
• there's a range of objects including books, vases, photos and found objects
• the books have been sorted by height
• books are placed both horizontally and vertically

If you wanted to further edit this arrangement you could consider:

• removing the photos; they are lost in the display
• if you are arranging books horizontally, keep to that, don't start to stack vertically on top of the horizontal ones; stacking some horizontally and some vertically on the same shelf works
• don't add a piece of sculpture on top of a books (see bowl) , this is sculptural enough to display alone and gets lost otherwise.
• if you have an arrangement of vases, bottles etc.  don't add a picture behind it- it gets lost.

 From one extreme to the next...

 Quiet and unobtrusive, this bookcase provides a lovely backdrop for the two chairs grouped in front of it.  This is a room I would like to sit in .

 

HGTV

This is a whole other way of  organizing a bookcase.  While is is ordered, it has a very vibrant almost chaotic feel to it.  It has way too much visual energy for my taste, but there's someone who loves it. 

If you want more inspiration check out The Lennox,  a great blog that I follow.

Did you find a useful tip  in this post or do you have one to add?

Happy Shelving