You know we love dusting your bookshelves, but only you can make them shine. Here are five bookshelf organization tips that will let you fill your bookcases with fiction and function. And plenty of style.
Bookshelf Organization Tip #1: The Color Code
We all know books can be masterpieces, so why can’t they also serve as works of art? We love how this homeowner judged a book by its cover and put like colors together. Instead of a hodgepodge of titles and spines, now the bookshelf wall works together with a singular purpose, and its groupings of color also tease out the other colors in the room.
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Bookshelf Organization Tip #2: It’s All in the Story
Another way to consider how to organize a bookcase is to let it tell a story of its own. In this example, the designer pulled colors, textures, topics, and items with a Mediterranean flair. Notice how the general palette is warm, brown neutrals with splashes of that gorgeous deep-sea blue. The result is subtle, and worthy of a closer look. This bookshelf organization idea is perfect for travelers, hobbyists and homeowners looking to evoke a particular memory or feeling in a space.
Bookshelf Organization Tip #3: Going the Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was known for his lean prose and bullet sentences, and there’s no reason a bookshelf organization method can’t use the same techniques. Sparse or empty shelves end up accenting the fuller shelves around them, like white space on a page. If you are looking to make a few items and books go a long way, look at how these homeowners organized their bookshelf, with empty spaces, large frames, like objects, and the perfect balance of books.
Bookshelf Organization Tip #4: Use What You Have
If you have several shelves of books of similar size, sometimes a good mix of color on each shelf is enough for them to feel organized without calling precise attention to them. The actual “bookshelf organization” isn’t what’s on the shelves at all, but rather in the very simple design of the rest of the room. Another fun thing to do if you’re trying to draw some attention to your bookcase: tilt the books in opposing directions on each shelf, or develop a pattern within each shelf or rows of shelves. It’s an easy thing to try without having to organize a bookcase from scratch.
Bookshelf Organization Tip #5: Turn it Around
For a simple, uniform look that brings out the natural look of the paper in books, we love the look of the backwards bookshelf. This bookcase organization technique is best used on hardcover books without their jackets as it lets the slim profile of their cover color pop against the sea of whites, ivories and creams. Without too many colors competing, you can organize your books by thickness and height, lay them on their sides or mix them up as you see fit. We love the way this white bookshelf serves as a blank canvas for the works that fill it.
If you are trying to figure out how to organize your bookshelf, we hope these ideas give you a great start. Which one was your favorite?
