apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Oh no - this is going to start the "arranging books by color" debate for the umpteenth time!

:D Then I won't say anything (pretty new here). I was just wondering what my library would be like and if the pic above used book covers. I'm sure I have a preponderance of black and gray.

I love the way the books look but I don't think I have that many colors!?! Plus, it would drive me crazy--I like them by subject for easy locating.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the bowl and lampshade!

This is not a comment either for or against arranging books by color, but a little while ago I was talking about it to my boyfriend and he started naming random books we had (and we have almost as many as that back wall in the photo) and I could name the color of every one he threw at me. I just didn't expect that I actually could find most of my books by color!

i can't help but wonder if these books were purchased on the basis of their colors.

if it's a library i'm not in favor of color organization but as piece of art it's rather lovely :)

Can someone please get the spammer deleted?

Pugs make anything rad.

My library isn't nearly as big, but I arrange SOME of my books by color- ones like "World War Z" "The Dangerous Book for Boys" and "Love advice from my cat"... lol

Cook books, religious books, children's books, and most of my husband's textbooks are subject-arranged. I'm a more visual person though- and I actually have no problem remembering exactly what color a book was (again though- not as many books as the picture!)

that library is dreamy with the dark wood against the vibrant colors! It's been done before, yes, but if any of you haters were to walk into a room with books arranged in this way I'm sure you'd be at least a little bit blown away.

My place is designed in a rainbow theme.

All my furniture is either white or black but I put little touches of rainbow here and there. I find all the colours effect my mood in a very positive fashion.

I loved reading in the NYTimes a couple of weeks ago about the president (title?) of a small college who had handed over his house to decorators to dress for a Christmas open house charity event... and then found all his books arranged by colour! Of course, the decorators never switched them back, and so now he always has to try to remember what colour a particular book may have been before he tries to find it on his shelves...! :-)

Books by color is only appropriate if you use your books for decorating, and never need them for reference.
Otherwise it's a nightmare.

Do what you like. That's what's important.

Love the sofa! Can anyone tell me where I can get one or something like it? Thanks

I actually did it. We also have a pug, although he's not in the pictures.

I have a pretty large collection of books (total collection numbers nearly 2000 volumes, but all my work-related books are at work, and all the cookbooks are in the dining room). I've wanted to organize by color for years. I finally did it since I have every book catalogued in a database with a picture of the cover.

Our sofa came from Mitchell Gold Bob Williams. Also, i'm extremely proud of the "bookmarks" in the vase - I took a colorfan deck of whites and neutrals and cut them out. They act as a set of bookmarks for the "colorful" library.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44172090@N05/

Regardless of the snob factor, my problem with arranging books by colour is that they look like a set of paint samples in a DIY store. Yuk. So unattractive for a home.