How do you display your goods?
I love books. I can never have too many of them. I not only fill my house with them, but I normally have a spare or two in my purse and car in case I ever get the urge to read. Going to the library thrills more than you will ever know. I get to “shop” for books and then leave without paying for them! Amazing. Plus my hubby likes it, because my bills from Barnes and Noble can get pretty high.
Due to my love of books I always dreamed of having a library in my own home. I wanted a room dedicated to only my books and a comfy chair to read them all in. Our current house doesn’t have space for this unless I turn my empty shell of a dining room into it. (Hmmmm)
So for now I just have to deal with placing my books in nooks and crannies throughout the different rooms in my house.
Here are some of my favorite ways to display books:
The most recent piece of obsession comes from Living Etc. I love how it not only hold your books, but also displays your covers as little works of art.
Another favorite that makes me totally jealous is this amazing library nook from Making It Lovely. Warm chocolate walls: check, comfy chair and ottoman: check, amazing bookcases with glass doors from IKEA: check. Love this room!
This library setup below also makes my heart pitter patter. First off love the built in’s to hold all the books on the top and you can fill the bottom with games! I’ve always wanted a ladder in my library so that is a major plus. Lastly how amazing is the idea to put up that amazing green curtain so you can make all the mess disappear?
Not certain if you like all the color your book spines bring into the room? Then the solution is easy just wrap them all up in white or kraft paper. I’ve been thinking of doing this in my living room and I’m really loving the way it looks in this room.
Below is the look currently going on in my house. I try to find little empty spaces that would seem like wasted space and fill them up with my books. Now if only I could get my hands on that lucite console table we would be in business!
So my loves I’m throwing the question back at you. How do you display your books or favorite possessions? Do you have any tricks of the trade for great storage solutions?
Share! Please.
Images are from Living Etc, Making It Lovely, AT, and Domino (a tear)
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ON THE BLOG
My living room is one of the rooms that evolved drastically from when we first moved one. Originally I painted the walls chocolate brown and did accents of white, blue and orange. That lasted maybe 2 years.
Our dining room sat empty for months. Okay maybe it was empty for just a handful of weeks and then we couldn’t take it anymore and put in a folding table and plastic outdoor chairs, but in my mind that was still empty.
On the main floor of our house we have a Florida room. Being that it’s a Florida room it is a considered a 3 season room, because there is no heat in the room. The previous owners used it as an indoor patio with outdoor furniture and it looked like this when we moved in.
I don’t have any tricks! I just put mine here and there… like under the lucite console (except I don’t have one of those!!)
I LOVE books. Books from the library… and also coffee table books. I am trying to add to my collection- I feel like I don’t have very many. I love opening a magazine and seeing the collection of books in a room- it just makes it!
Mine never looks just right. I’d love to hear tricks of the trade though. Ive read other peoples tips but I can never seem to apply them correctly.
I love the idea of covering them with craft paper… how cool would that be and then to handwrite the titles with a thick black pen on the spine… ohhh ahhhh!
i really like that acrylic entry way table in the last photo. (i have soooo many book, i don’t know what to do with all of them!)
ugh I love that last pic from Domino..I ahve a few places, the coffee table ovbi and my bookcase in my office that has different shelves dedicated to dif books, and i have vintage oneson my nightstand in my bedroom
I love displaying our books-especially the ones that are antiques. We have some gorgeous kelley green linen covered biooks with gorgeous camel colored binding (I’ll place a picture up this week) and undoubtedly they’re my favorites. The color is so unexpected!
Currently their atop my upright piano.
As for tricks, I grew up loving Jackie O’s method of stacking them around her rooms. There was no rhyme or reason, it just was. Interestingly enough, my daughter has grown up adopting that same mthod of keeping track of her own books in her bedroom.
Maybe it’s just easy!
I am exploding at the seams with books. Both my boyfriend and I are big book lovers, so we’re constantly buying books, people give them to us as gifts, etc. We have bookshelves in practically every room. In the living room, we have the Ikea cube bookshelf- Expedit I think? It’s nice because you can put photos or art in one cube and books in others, kind of break up the eye. I’ve also seen books used as a side table next to the couch, it’s surprisingly cool looking- we do that for a nightstand in our bedroom. I’d LOVE to have floor to ceiling built-ins though. Maybe one day.
I also love the library. So convenient and budget friendly. I have a small bookcase (boring) but one day hope and dream to have a library like in Beauty and the Beast.
I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I found my rental online and was totally sold because of the built in bookshelves in my bedroom. See January 28th on my blog for a pic. (100 year old home downtown Colorado Springs)
Thank you for loving books without shame.
Once those were full, we moved onto some IKEA shelves and accented them with vases or other decoartives.
I have tons of books (via our freeeeee book store) and have book shelves, but I also have stacks of them. I am not wild about this, but it’s the only way it works.
I love the library nook with glass doors! I must convince my husband to let me do this!!!!
Um, well, all our books (and we have a lot) are stacked ever-so-neatly (thanks to hubby) ON THE FLOOR of our office, because I, too am having a library crisis!
P.S. – Great pics – don’tcha just love art hanging on the front of bookcases?
My books are all in barrister bookcases-so I change, edit and give away a few times during the year. My-I do love books though-a real weakness for me!
I love #2 & #3…I will have to take a pic of my "library" because I am kind of obsessed with it…books make the best decorations {in my opinion}!
The other question is…how do you organize your books??
haha I just did a Barnes and Noble post!! excellent! I could spend hours and hours in there! 😀
Ah! Those libraries make me so jealous!! One of my favorite movies as a child was Beauty & The Beast mostly because of the adorable bookstore Belle visited in town and the incredible library in the Beast's house. It's since been my dream to have a huge library in my house complete with a rolley ladder.
I love the second to last image from domino–make me miss it so much!
I love books and I have them displayed in little sections throughout the house..all my cookbooks are in an open shelve in the living room and in the bedroom I have design books somewhat neatly stacked. I have the real problem with magazines!
I love all of these library pictures, wish I had the room for one of my own!
In the meantime, I’m a book-stacker, I keep them in piles on tables, on my radiator, in my kitchen! And I color code them; which I think makes them look less cluttered.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/domestikatedlife/3331846384/in/set-72157617354758874/
I like to color coordinate my books ROYGBIV style. It becomes its own piece of art and really adds some nifty visual interest to the space. Congrats on a beautiful blog!
xo Katherine aka. Urban Flea 🙂
http://www.urbanfleadesign.com
I agree with the Southern Lady!! Just stacks here and there – usually piled up on the floor next to the bed or fireplace – we have no real method to our madness, LOL.
Great inspiration! I love the one with the green curtain!
Great post – I think book shelves can be tucked in small spaces, either down low or up high. I love books and when they call my name. I start to shake when I go near Barnes and Noble or the Library….I never walk out empty handed.
pve
oh, my sister has a lovely book rack right in the powder room. Each time I go – I think that is great, cause I never sit long enough….lol.
Her bath is all black and white…you’d love it! (full of books!) books, bath and beyond….
i try to just borrow books from the library…saves money! but my magazines…they are just stacked here and there. i want a lucite coffee table.