We had a guy friend in college that used to check out books from the library to impress his dates. He'd check out super pretentious authors and titles and lay them around his apartment and his unsuspecting date was none the wiser (until after date two when she would realize he'd never read any of the books). We'd never check out books at the library to impress guests but we have considered checking out books to decorate. Read why checking out books at the library (other than for the purpose of reading) is a great idea after the jump.
Two reasons why checking out books at the library is a great idea
- Decoration You're planning a party and have little money left to decorate. You can check out books by color and arrange them accordingly or stack them interestingly on the wall. A large grouping of books can make a room feel cozy or a few select books on design or art will keep your guests busy while you're cooking up a storm.
- Rotation, Rotation, Rotation Art Museums stock a huge quantity of paintings and art and usually only display twenty percent of their collection at a given time. That way, when you visit your favorite museum three months later, there's new art to look at. You can apply the same principle to your library books. Your library books can be the one thing you change to give the space a fresh look.
Books as Adornment
Books-as-art-as-colorblocks!Have you ever checked out books at the Library to decorate your apartment?
[Image on front from frankjmtz]
Related Library Posts
Alexis' Modern Glass House 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Tom Black Espadrille
20 Scrumptious Brunch Recipes 
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (29)
Er... no, I can honestly say I have never done that.
Books arranged by color are just silly. And if you're that panicked about empty shelves, why not just cover bricks or boxes with paper, and put them up?
But library books as decoration? It's only Thursday--no one can be this desperate for a post.
Okay, I definitely think that checking out interesting art books and such for guests to look at is a cool idea.
Using them as decorations... not so much.
This may be one of the most ridiculous posts on AT I have ever come across. Never mind someone may want to read one of the books you have selected because it has a pretty cover/spine...
Yeah, chiming in with the "eh, not so much" - it would feel really selfish to me to be decorating my house with something that someone else may have wanted to read - it's so frustrating when someone else has the book I want, I couldn't imagine keeping a book any longer than it took me to read it!
The LA library has a book sale about once a month. Why not drop $10 and buy some books? At least you won't have to worry about late fees! Or go to the thrift store!
And pardon the pun but I'm totally on the same page as Melanie, hate it when the books I want are indefinetly checked out!
I use my books for reading; that they also look good in my space is a bonus. As for using library books to decorate... that's ridiculous.
Silly.
shallow.
Stupid.
this is a rehash of the same idea presented on this site some time ago. it's just as vapid now as it was then. come to think of it, given the times we are in, maybe it's even more vapid now.
Palmetto, LOL. yes a lot of the posts come off as pretty desperate sometimes. this is definitely one of them.
the only thing i'm getting from this is from the comments: MAYBE not a bad idea, if one is having weekend guests or something, to get a few really cool library books for your guests. thats if you don't have any of your own to keep them occupied.
fortunately my guests can pore over the ridiculous amounts of coffee table books and magazines i get. seriously i have so many subscriptions, i'm embarrassed lol
After the other book post, my mouth is shut on this one.
Aside from all the other reasons this is bad, books are effen heavy. Books make moving a misery. The "looks" shown here would probably be 5-10 heavy boxes worth. Books are a pain in the ass to accommodate. If you don't read or collect stuff, just go with minimalism. Done.
Is this post for real? It's too silly and elaborate to be a joke, right?
you are kidding, right?
if not, we are not amused. if that is a serious post, we think it immensely dumb. sorry - but we do.
Librarians are glad, in principle, to shelve and reshelve books that people take out with the intent of reading. But what a bummer to go through the hassle of reshelving because someone wanted to decorate their apartment for free. "Free" here means "at the library's expense," which also means "at the public's expense" -- and that's a valid expense for the sake of supporting an intellectually free community. Kinda a sucky expense for the sake of one person's pretension approach to decorating.
besides being a ridiculous idea, what do you do about the stickers libraries cover the books with (e.g. call numbers, bar-codes)? seems to me this would keep them from blending in.
I'm a librarian, and this offends me.
this is the stupidest thing i've ever read. 'nuff said
Agree with everyone above...silly and why not read the books? But also, don't library books have stickers and plastic and such to help protect them and help librarians re=shelve them. Wouldn't it be totally obvious which books were from the library?
I regularly buy books at library sales and have to take the stickers off. There often stamped on the inside too...which I think is kind of neat in a historical sense.
I'm a library clerk, and what annoys me about this idea is imagining myself explaining to a patron that the 100 books they checked out and are now late are costing them 15 dollars a day. Why not check out design books from the library and get better decorating ideas than this one?
mmmm I like this idea, unfortunatelly of my own books xixi I would go broke with late fees :)))
How very Great-Gatsby-esque.
Note to self: Rush out right now and get Great Gatsby from library. Be sure to pick color-coordinating one, having party next Saturday.
Dumb idea. Seriously. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone who got books at the library for any reason other than for people to read.
"We'd never check out books at the library to impress guests..." And I'm a fairy princess!
But the rotation idea is not a bad one. Let's be honest, books with pictures are for looking and not for reading, and I like books with lots of pictures. Lots of books with lots of pictures means lots of ideas. Lots of different books with lots of different pictures create lots of different ideas.
"Why not check out design books from the library and get better decorating ideas than this one?"
Now THAT's a great idea!
How unbelievably ANNOYING!!! My local library has a feature where we can check which books are in the library and have a librarian pull and hold it for us, and sometimes there is a waiting list for more popular titles. I would be pretty damn irritated if a books I want to read, along with 98 others, are checked out just because the 2" spines are pretty colors.
Why not get decorative paper and use it to re-cover YOUR OWN books? You can use recycled paper, scrapbook paper, paper decorated by your adorable niece, sheets of colored butcher paper(like elementary school), extra bits of wrapping paper, whatever floats your boat. But please leave the library books for the people who want to read them!