Hanging curtains across bookshelves seems to be a move that high-end interior designers make in their own spaces, and perhaps they are on to something. After all, if you're like me, keeping your bookshelf neat and tidy takes some intention. Why not have the freedom of covering up the mess when it gets out of control?
Advantages to this strategy include a layered look that's sure to add some warmth to any space. It also gives the option of eliminating visual clutter, a nice choice to make when entertaining or if you simply want a more peaceful environ. It instantly can provide the illusion of a blank wall. And if you're looking to add some pop, choose bright primary colored fabrics.
All this said, it's quite obvious that many AT readers take their book display and storage quite seriously. So what do you think? Are curtains covering your bookcase a "do" or a "don't"?
FIRST ROW
1. Designer Lindsay Bond covers up her shelves in her office, seen in House Beautiful
2. In this spread on a Lincoln Park apartment from Chicago Home and Garden, designer Todd Haley used the curtains over the bookshelves to highlight the vertical element in an otherwise horizontally-decorated space.
3. The see-through bookshelves in Todd Klein's 700-square-foot West Village apartment serve as a room divider; the curtains covering the shelves add privacy to his bedroom. Elle Decor
4. Barry Dixon put in curtained bookcases to give his client the option of eliminating visual clutter, as noted before on Apartment Therapy via Barry Dixon.
5. Our Home Made Happy
(Images: As credited above.)
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Definite do! I am planning this for my living room. These are great examples.
Oh, thanks so much- you have solved a major problem of mine: my husbands 4000 comic books in IVAR shelving in our bedroom.
Don't.
Don't. Unless the stuff on the shelves is ugly. I can dig wanting to hide the comics! ;)
I added curtains to my $30 walmart bookshelves. I am a poor college student and can't afford pretty bookshelves to hold all of my books ( and I have a ton). I bought 4 six foot basic black bookshelves and made my own curtains for them. The two shelves in the middle only have a valance across the top while each of the end cases have a valance and a long curtain to cap off the look. I didn't design the look for the curtains to close.
The overall look hides the plainness of the bookshelves and was a really inexpensive way to customize them.
It depends. In an apartment once, all my shelves were in the bedroom. I couldn't, in those days, afford special drapes for the shelves, but it would have softened the room and been pleasant.
Now I have "library" so it would be strange to curtain the shelves -- kind of undermines the "library" vibe!
However, my shelves are full, not messy, and give a pleasant vertical pattern with the spines of the books, which I look at frequently. Plus a few eye level shelves display art objects. So, if that's not true for someone else, they might think differently. Curtains would, after all, keep the dust off and reduce the fading of the spines, not all bad...
I'm doing something similar with my pegboard walls of sewing supplies on either side of a window above my sewing desk. When the curtains are open I have full access to my tools and supplies, when partly closed it looks like part of a larger window.
for those concerned about covering up the books- look at the pics-most book shelves are not fully covered it adds length and elegance in the right space.
I have thought about doing this, but I opted against. I think it would depend on the room for me. If I had to have my books in my bedroom, then definitely I would do this to make the room feel simple and calm. But in the living room, my wall o' books and little treasures is part of the decor - plus my guests usually seem to like getting up close to peruse titles or look at the displays. :)
I don't really like curtains anywhere but on windows and some showers. It just isn't my taste. I can't say it's an across-the-board Don't, but for me it's a definite Won't.
When I was in college, I had rollerblinds over my bookshelves to hide any clutter.
i have a contemporary home and hate those bi-fold closet doors so much that I took them down. I pulled out the built in shelving and replaced with Expedit 5x5, and I plan to finish the "look" with drapes just like this. I really like it.
No, because I like my books and like to display them in the living room. They add color, are interesting, and reveal my hobbies. Guests occasionally enjoy browsing my collections. I'd like to use curtains on some closets so I can remove their inconvenient doors, though.