Good Questions: How To Arrange My Bookshelves?

Hello AT,

I love book, have a lot of them and will never try to hide them or put them behind doors, but they don't look so great. People even tell me this. I wanted to have a bookish, library feeling, but all I really have is a lot of visual clutter. Can you suggest a good way to arrange books on a shelf so that they look REALLY GOOD?

Thanks, Willy

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Dear Willy,

We have a few rules of thumb that work well:

After sorting by genre or subject, etc....

1. put smaller books up top and bigger books at the bottom and keep relative sized together
2. try to cull all ragged books (esp. paperbacks)
3. leave a little bit of breathing room on each shelf - @10%
4. put your most attractive books at eye level
5. keep your books straight up and down or horizontal
6. never stack anything on top of book rows

We have two friends who sort all their books by color!

We'll finish by quoting ATLA editor Alec from this post:

"we personally hate bookshelves used solely for displaying “things”. That being said, we separate our books by category (plays, literature, how-to and reference, etc.) and then by size. We love the look of books both upright and stacked so we can create a sort of cross-hatching. This allows books to act as bookends for one another and gives a few flat spots for our favorite things."

Anyone else?

Comments (1)

I like the shabby look with not so much of the shabby... it can be chic & uncluttered in one and I am determined to have both order and frilly, pretty pastels. I am sure the two can work together. What I have the most trouble with is books. I love the resource of having them. I home educate 6 children and I need them, but I don't like looking at educational books and resource books at the end of the day. So, we have an undercover area under our stair case that has a light and nice walls, bricked. I have an ikea bookshelf under there and at the end of the area a small chest of drawers. That contains my stationery etc, and reports and projects and craft assortments, and the shelves contain the books. I group them according to subjects and then on the bottom shelves a strong wireframed rattan basket contains the childrens subject matter books that they use daily. That way they can pull them out for use and store them away at the end of the day. It is located near the study area so we can go in and out easily and I can grab things I need as we work. The whiteboard slides in and out of there as well. Handy little room!
HOWEVER, we have a lot of books that need to be read as reading material ie: Little House on the Prairie Series just to name 1 out of 120 per year minimum (20 books per child). They need a home. I have a large timber bookshelf that is very attractive and has two drawers on the bottom divided into halves to make 4. In there I put our song books and all my Interior Design things that I have for study as I am studying Interior Design at the same time as Teaching and Writing. Upstairs I have the Ikea Expedit (in Beige) that I use in my office and then in each room we have desks with one shelf above that holds personal books. So that = a lot of books! Now I like books, don't get me wrong, they are very useful in training our minds, teaching our minds, instructing our minds and pleasing our minds...but my mind needs rest and I love order, so for me, looking at them night and day gets annoying. I have always dreamed about covering them to make them beautiful. I know my books by heart, as some of them have been used for 5 children and are now being used by Ms 7 yr old, who is the last to use them. I know the stories without reading the words, I can close my eyes and relate the story as the children turn the page...laugh...
I came on line today after I spent the afternoon ironing and thinking about making my home beautiful and functional...why not, I do it for others right? Each garment I ironed and put on a coat hanger gave me more time to decide to put an end to the bookshelf obession I am forming... argh! I want it to look nice in my home as well as be the training ground for budding future would-be wonderful, people.
I am with dig... I think this afternoon will see me gathering all my beautiful collection of card and papers and wallpapers and fabrics and seeing what wonders I can create... so, when I sit back to read a book there are not a thousand differing sized and covered books looking back at me. We even have books that contain CD's and Tapes still for music so our bookshelf hosts a little stero as well. I have often thought, I wished there were a rule of thumb about the size and shape of books; the orderly in me!! But there isn't so, this way, dig, I can make my own order... although it could take me forever to do the name on the spine thing, I think that will have to evolve further.
I want my books to make me feel restful and open up a space of learning and peace. At the end of the day there are my favourites I always look for, so they can be easily found no matter the colour and I agree with those above that say, if you don't use them toss them. I don't reverence the books themselves, as they are only a tool to get them into the mind. Once the mind has the information, pass them on or toss them if they are just clutter bugging you.
I realise not all agree on this, my sister has at least...at least, 1000 books in her living room alone with one bookshelf spanning the entire length of her great room from floor to ceiling and then each child has a bookshelf and even her towels are rolled up on bookshelves with books for luxuriating in her bath.
But....... for those of us who love our time in the land of learning to be separate from clutter.... the colour co-ordinated thing is the nicest way to make home pretty for me.
Thanks.