Resources: Coffee Table Books

Does anyone decorate with books? Do you choose your prettiest ones and place them on your coffee table for everyone to look at? We have a few we keep out - books that are beautifully bound and printed and full of inspiring content. Real Simple shares a link to the Wexner Center for the Arts bookstore, which is packed with such books.

We also recommend the Urban Center Books locally. They're full of books that are great to display and full of information on decorating the home.

Comments (11)

One stack of "coffee table" books makes a casual end table for my sofa and as often as not there are two to three such books on the coffee table. Sometimes those are selected at random, but sometimes I'll do a bit of staging and select titles that make some sort of statement or comment to a guest or about a circumstance.

I love libraries but what I really love are library ladders. The kind that have wheels and slide along rods.

We've got a set of Ballistic Publishing's computer graphics art books out on the table.... we're nerds.

Does anyone know the name of that fabulous architectural bookstore in Chicago or have a link? I feel like it has "Prarie" in the title. It's the best bookstore ever!

Becky

I have hundreds of books and divide them by category.
Several books on Italy are displayed on a round bistro table; many of my books (with black and white covers) on NYC are on three end tables, etc. Any time someone visits, they reach for the books and we end up discussing them. I have always had books out on "display" and love using them for this purpose, but I never thought of it as decorating with books, which I guess it is.
CR

In academia, staring at the walls is an acceptable activity for many social events because the walls are often lined with books. While the books are often not beautifully bound or even inspiring, they are a quick and entertaining entry into the homeowner's personality.

becky - You must mean Prairie Avenue Bookshop? I've never been...guess I should go, eh?

yeah a friend "decorated" her house with books and that was found to be the reason for their crumbling house foundation. :)

I "decorate", more like engineer my home, with books but I only buy texts I am going to read, not because they look good. If the coffee table book ends up on the coffee table, it's because I'm referencing it at the moment, not because I want to show it off. And yes, for better or for worse, I have the library ladder.