This is an old bugaboo of mine... what's the thinking here? If you put art in front of books, how do you take the books out without a lot of undue hassle?

These pictures make my eyes bleed. Sorry, but does anyone like this look? And I agree with mirandabee. I have never understood the point of contrivances that actually create hassle.

I don't like art i front of the books. Too messy for me. BUt I do love the peacock photo. I have been wanting it for a long time.

Not feeling it. Not. At. All.

wow I had to read more because I thought this might be a before and hopefully after..dizzy

This could be cool if--IF--the art was hung somehow on casters so that it could be moved out of the way and if--again, IF-- it fit into the bookshelf square as though it were a cabinet door.

But that's an awful lot of hassle.

in the first picture, the art is crooked...that alone would drive me insane. Bit too cluttered even for my taste

Not a fan.

I like it. It breaks up the visual plain. It isn't any different to me than having a TV or stereo surrounded by books.

Having said that....I wouldn't choose to put art in front of books or other items I access often but rather in front of nicely stacked media boxes or otherwise uninteresting "must store" things.

In terms of access, a small nail to hang a lightweight canvas or framed piece is the only thing needed and I wouldn't define that as being that as being a hassle.

While I don't think I'll go for this option, I do appreciate another method of dressing up and streamlining bookshelves.

My bookshelf is very cluttered right now (and bursting at the seams) but so many design ideas with books are sacrilegious for a book-lover: purging, organizing by color, size, shape, separating the collection out.

I might try this idea to hide my reference books if I can figure out a way to add hinges to the frames!

do not like it.

The only one that I find acceptable is the 4th picture. It's just not painful like the rest!

I like the look but have trouble reconciling the impracticality of it. But, then again when did practicality ever reign in interior design and fashion trends.

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Does it bother anyone else that in the first picture the art is CROOKED!? The only one I think looks tasteful is the last picture... overall though I don't think I'm a huge fan.

I just put up a poster in front of my bookcase! http://www.jetkatdesign.com/blog/2009/8/10/new-poster.html

I've got wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in my living room. On some of the shelves, I've placed smaller paintings directly on the shelves, leaning back against the books--not hanging, but sort of the same concept.

I have a lot of artwork and a lot of books. I don't need to access to my books at all times, so it's really not an inconvenience to move a painting when I need to look behind it.

That crooked painting would make me cry. I also would not be able to live with paintings hung so that they overlapped the cross-sections of shelves, like that last photo. It looks very awkward to me.

Nope - just no - horrible and wrong

I'm not keen on the artwork hanging off the shelves (just looks cluttered to my eyes) but I do lean some small photos against books.

I think, if done properly that can work. However, it must be kept simple. Otherwise it's a big mess.

Dear. Lord.

OK, so that first room should be shot into orbit on a trajectory with a black hole. Going from bottom to top: zebra stripes with vertical converging longitude lines in the cushions with oversize paisley in the couch with a painting with vertical stalks with leaves in silhouette and great colorful spots all in front of a bookshelf grid with books stacked haphazardly in both the vertical and horizontal. Also, the room can't decide whether it is in b&w or technicolor. My eyes, my poor eyes.

Another "trend" I loathe. this along with arranging books by colour just rubs me the wrong way. No thank you...

DeeDee, I am with you on both trends. This is disrespectful to both books and art. And anyone who sorts their books by spine color needs to have their books taken from them. So wrong.

This concept could work to hide some of the clutter on my bookshelves. Might try it.

I don't like this at all! I might be okay with it if the art is hanging on a cabinet door set within a row of bookshelves - maybe.

However, I really like the painting in the first picture. The rest of the room makes my head hurt, but the painting is great!

Also horrible, IMO:
1. Putting identical white (or any color) paper jackets on books, with no identifying labels, so that all you see is a solid-color lineup of title-less volumes.
2. Turning books so that their spines face the back of the bookcase.
I see both these practices, along w/art obscuring books, and color-coded books, in so-called "designer" interior shots, and it always makes me wince.

Can anyone source the print in the first shot? I promise not to hang it in front of my books! ;)

as if the visual overload of the zebra print, that couch and the books behind it wasn't enough burden on the eyes... so a big NO. and it's an ugly painting too on top of that.

Don't shoot me, but I like the last one. I think it looks cool how the slightly rectangular picture breaks up the boxiness of the book shelves. Other than that, though, I think the rest look pretty awful. A bunch of people pointed out that the first art in the first pic is crooked; I actually thought the lines of the art were just emphasizing the uneven, shoddiness of the shelves. Either way it's bad.

I am curious why there's so much hate toward the color coded book shelves. Could someone explain? I get the white paper jackets and turning the spines in (seriously, wtf?), but I'm a little at a loss as to why color coding is sacrilege. I (English major, English teacher, avid reader) love books, and I usually think it looks cool, like it would draw people to check out your collection. Is the only acceptable way of organizing them alphabetically by author's last name or subject? I'm not trying to be confrontational--just curious.

About that last image: Aside from the crookedness, who hangs artwork at waist height? The whole thing baffles me.

About shelving books by color: Grouping books by appearance, instead of contents, makes my inner cataloger cringe. I have books because I value their what's inside them, not for their decorative qualities (though I do appreciate their beauty). I just can't get past the thought that people who arrange their books by color must not read their books. Maybe it's not so bad when you only have a few books, but with larger libraries, how do people find anything?

I use all three "revolting" book organization methods on my shelves - colour-coded books, all-white books, and spine-facing-in books. It works in my decor. It's more interesting than just a bunch of random books or - even worse - books organized by genre. *shudder*

I like the concept of having a variety of depth to bookshelves - pictures leaning in front of a stack of books; pictures leaning on the wall/back of shelf *behind* a stack of books; books leaning on stacks of booksl; stacks of books in front of other stacks of books, etc. In this way, I like the theory of hanging art on bookshelves. You get more of a 3-D effect on your shelves.

The 4th photos is the only one that executed it well, according to my taste. I like that is off the grid pattern (and it's not hung crookedly). I wouldn't like it as much if it fit in perfectly with the grid, like a "door" to one of the shelves.

I believe the pictures in the 4th photo are leaning on a ledge. The shelving unit is sort of hutch-like, with a larger section on the bottom, forming a ledge. That would account for them not being crooked. They're still a little low for my liking (and I say that as a short person who hangs artwork fairly low), but it makes sense.

Know when to say when.

Or, just say no.

Hanging art in front of the books on the book shelves just looks messy to me. What I don't mind is if you have glass doors on the shelves and use artwork on the doors, IF IT'S DONE CORRECTLY.

I like it. I think can be a good solution for a small space and add texture to a room.

My question is how would you go about hanging the artwork? If it was a small piece you could use a nail in the vertical member of the bookcase. But how would you hang a larger piece like the ones in the images?

Didn't get to comment yesterday but that first photo is not even STRAIGHT, look at the top edge of the bookcase, the camera was not level and no attempt to rotate the photo to make it all straight was made so that's throwing off that first image to start with.

If hung simply by a nail and can be easily lifted off, I can see doing this to hide seldom used stuff but otherwise, no, I don't think this is the best option.

Artwork IN the shelves, that's another thing entirely as that's perfectly fine, helps to break up the sea of books and gives interest to them at the same time.

Take that back, the image is straight, but is shot off angle, giving the large bookcase the allusion of the image being not level but look at the side wall and you can see that the photo is straight.

However, it may be giving the allusion that the photo hung in front of the white bookcase is crooked and it may be. That said, the artwork is a snoozer IMO.

Give me a break! Of course, I've done it. I'm a scholar with many, many books and live in a 1-bedroom Greenwich Village apartment, which I moved to when I retired, and space is now more limited than when I had an expansive 3 bedroom apartment on 2 levels, and I used the staircase for art. So, some of my art is resting on bookshelves, as well as hanging on them. It takes very little effort to retrieve a book. Of course, I don't hang glass covered items or very heavy stuff on bookcases They are all inanimate objects, so their feelings aren't hurt.

I do not like this look. It seems like furniture was re-arranged so you could paint or something and it was never put back. Very unfinished/unsettled look. Does not make me feel at home.