How to Create a Bookshelf Display

Arranging a Beautiful Bookshelf Display

In response to a request from a guest, here’s some advice on decorating and arranging bookshelves!  This is actually a harder question than it sounds, because arranging book shelves is almost an art and definitely equivalent to the artistic effort needed to hang pictures and art work! (click on photos to enlarge)

Here’s some advice:

• Empty your bookshelves. Gather a few laundry baskets and empty the shelves completely into the baskets.
• Examine your shelves while they are empty. Are your shelves adjustable?  If so, rearrange their placement so that the shelves are at varying heights.  This way you will have some shorter sections and some taller sections.  Visually this will be more interesting.
• Consider painting or papering the walls behind your bookshelves. This is especially great if the walls in the room in which the book shelves are located are painted in a neutral color.  Use this chance to add a pop of color!  Pick out a rich shade of red, yellow, blue, or green from an item in your room or fabric on an upholstered piece.  The warm color will set off anything that you put on the shelves!
• Shop around your house. Look in china cabinets, kitchen cupboards, and storage areas for any interesting objects that might look good on your shelves.  Keep an eye out for heavier items that could serve as book ends.  Some nice finds that are probably in your home right now might be:  children’s silver cups, glass containers that you can fill with something interesting, small faux greenery or topiary decorations, small decorative lamp, candles, small silver trays, bowls, or framed pictures of your family.
• Sort through your books and the items in the laundry baskets. Do you have more than one set of bookshelves in the house?  If so, you can make one set, perhaps in the living room or office, dressier, and the other, perhaps in a family room or basement, less dressy.  True favorites and hard backs can stay on the dressier bookshelves, and the paperbacks can be relegated to the more casual shelves.  As you sort through the books in the baskets, make piles:  keep, store, donate, and trash.
• Put the books back on the shelves. Spread the books across all of the shelves, but never fill an entire shelf.  The empty space is needed for accessorizing with the items you’ve gathered from the house!  Start some stacks of books from the left, and some from the right.  Stack some of the larger books flat on the shelf.  The idea is to mix up the arrangements and create visual interest.
• Add the accessories! Take the various items and set them onto the shelves.  Pictures, a sentimental plate on a plate holder, a glass container filled with rocks, shells, faux robin’s eggs, buttons, or any special collected items.  Try to avoid uniformity and objects in even numbers!  Three candles are better than two, one framed picture is also better than two!
• A last thought- Consider starting a collection of something you love.  For example, if you love decorative alphabet letters, start collecting letters that have meaning in your life, perhaps your last name initial, maiden name initial, and first name initials in different materials such as  fabric, metal, wood, and shaped wire.  They will make a great addition to any display!  If you are interested in letters or other decorative elements, try: potterybarn.com, ballarddesigns.com or anthropologie.com.
• Sit back and enjoy your hard work!

You May Also Enjoy:

• Beautiful Spring Table Settings
• Displaying Kids’ Artwork
• Easy Seasonal Decorating
• Creating Memory Collections

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