Obtaining a collection of anything in mass quantity can be a challenge when it comes to displaying it in a stylish and creative way. Whether you're in a single room loft or a five bedroom home, if you're a bookworm, chances are you have a ton of books and not much storage space. In the past few months I've had the pleasure of visiting a ton of amazing homes and showrooms. It's always fun to see how these home/store owners set up their book shelves and displays.
You can display your books on a shelf, mixed in with vases, framed photos and collectables…or you can stack them from floor to ceiling as a sculpture. Regardless, I think where design is concerned don't forget to try different things.
1. John Mullen displays his favorite books on top of a vintage typewriter. I love how simple and romantic this looks.
2. Inside the eccentric home of Russell Brown, John Arsenault and John Ruggiero there were books everywhere — stacked on coffee tables, on the floor and even on display as part of the actual furniture. Beneath this super amazing lamp from Lori Fradella's store MINE, was a beautiful wooden chair and dresser table that showed off the stack of books.
3. One of my favorite elements of Harriet Zaretsky's home was her coffee table. She displayed luscious white flowers, coral and a stack of photography books.
4. Evan Harrison and Greg Gasawski's home was quite colorful and rich with texture. Their collection of music and books were discretely mixed together and filed neatly in this large bookcase. I thought it was very subtle but they were not the focal point of the living room, which is how they liked it.
5. Kara and Ken Pearson's ceiling high book shelf was a center piece to their hallway. It's the first thing you'd see walking through the front door, and coming around the corner from the bedroom. I love how her use of paint color really brings out the color of the rug and her books.
6. Russell Brown's bedroom was welcoming and warm, but bright and colorful in design. I love how he stacks his books in multiple piles next to his cozy chair.
7. Another book display I loved in Russell, John A. and John R.'s house was this little stack bound and tied by simple yarn.
8. At POKE Acupuncture, office of Russell Brown, there are similar style aesthetics as seen in his home. This hallway leading back toward the treatment room shows off collections of photography, paintings and an abundance of literature.
9. Anthony Franco and Gregory Metcalf's stylish craftsman is home to many shiny and lovely things. I loved this modern bookshelf that strategically cased many hardback coffee table books.
10. At 22 Bond Street each detail and floor display is laid out with perfection. I thought that the stack of books under the horn magnifying glass was very clever.
Images: Bethany Nauert
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I don't get it, a stack of book precariously balanced on a typewriter? And who ties books together? That's just weird.
I agree with Comicgeek when it comes to the typewriter display. I think it looks messy and uncomfortable, it makes me uneasy looking at it and the possiblitly that it will all fall over.
Are you sure that you didn't accidentally stumble upon John's A & R's recycling pile? Who retains such beat-up editions? Who binds book stacks in yarn, unless they're preparing them for disposal?
There's no object so useful, which so many people do so many 'romantic' & useless things with, as books. Here's a novel idea-- try reading one, whydontcha.
I am all for new ways of displaying books, but unorganized stacks lying around doesn't seem like a killer idea. Unless they are just for show, it's really inconvenient - the books are both hard to see the spines and difficult to pull one from the pile without a lot of rearranging every time.
That's a horn magnifying glass, not a microscope. Sometimes people actually read. There's nothing particularly "clever" about such a pairing-- books sold in slipcases, such as multiple volume sets, often feature a little drawer that holds--- whatttaya know!--- a magnifying glass.
Some things serve functions other than looking cool or "clever".
Wow such elitists. Who knew books could be so controversial, even when no one is reasing them?
I do apologize for mis labeling the horn as a microscope. It is yes a magnifying glass.
Reading* them, hahah
I pity the book at the bottom of the type-writer stack. It is definitely suffering.
I really don't understand the appeal of the ripped-spine books bound in twine, but clearly that's just me, because the Restoration Hardware store near me has a pile of them in nearly every setting.
The small stacks of books--off the floor--are very nice, like the owner is about to use them. I love it when my hosts have a few books on the coffee table for me to peruse. If the stack is too high, I feel weird rearranging the stack to reach one near the bottom or middle :-D
I don't like books stacked on the floor and used as furniture. In real life, the only people I know who did this were broke college students who hadn't yet been able to curb-shop a bookcase.
The books on the typewriter are no more attractive than dishes piled too high in a dishdrainer.
Gosh! that horn mag. glass its just hideous!!
Personally, I have a ton of books (English grad student here) and the best way to organize them, I've found, is to spread them around my apartment. I have four stackable bookcases that each come up to my waist. Two are on different walls in my living room, two are side by side in my bedroom. My collection looks nice but not like it's taking over my life.
I love this! I'm sure that in many of these apartments there lives an avid book reader and as most avid book readers know, they take up a lot of space. I thought many of these ideas were a good way of incorporating books into the look of your home as opposed to just on book shelves. I personally love how, in some cases, these piles of books transformed into furniture. Also, the appeal of a tattered book/spine is that means you read that book over and over again and can't bare to part from it, despite it being beyond repair, just like a pair of favorite jeans full of holes or recipe cards covered in stains.
Of all my ambitions I've had since I was a child, one has always remained constant and true: a fantastic, well-read, well-displayed book collection (which will day be called "my library").
I feel awfully flustered by some of these ideas. How on earth can you use some of these books in those inaccessible, precarious piles? Also, did you buy those book purely for aesthetic reasons and not even read them? if so, LAME.
True readers don't collect books.
The blessed things breed.
*chuckle*
@MissHeliotrope...well said!
I have a coffee table book coffee table. I placed coffee table-sized books in two stacks of the same size side by side, added a sheet of glass for a top and, voila! A coffee table exactly the size and height I needed for around $15!
@mdorothy
Hm... Is it fair not to count the cost of the coffee table books in that tally? If you weren't going to make a table out of them, would anyone be inclined to buy so many? Though I suppose you may have just had them all around already....
I currently have 3 coffee tables, none really being used as such, and no coffee table books, haha.
Oh, this is so inspiring. I'll just take my books off of their shelves where they are easy to see and grab and stack them up in ungainly piles. Maybe I'll even make a little stone henge type shape. That will be convenient.
I see someone else loves the Poke folks' aesthetic as much as I did... ;-)
Anyway, I don't trust a home without books on display somehow. As long as they're actually being read (by hosts or guests) it's all good. I appreciate someone not throwing away old copies w/o covers but making them newly desirable for the outside eye to behold, even tied up as art display.
I have to admit that I love the photo of the books on the typewriter. It's very striking plus I adore the table on which the typewriter sits.
Trying too hard for a round-up post? Yes, indeed.
Books go in bookcases, on bookshelves, between bookends. See the pattern?
books--I LOVE books. Anyway someone wants to put their books, that's okay. Don't criticize. They read. They learn new things, new minds. books, I love to read. sincerely, mary.
I guess some homes are lucky enough to be dust-free, earthquake-free and have kids who are extremely well-behaved. My home couldn't have books piled creatively, unfortunately. I used to collect books, but after years of living with them I think I'll switch to a Kindle.
@ MissHeliotrope
Exactly! They multiply on their own.
Hm, leaving artful piles of books on functional pieces like chairs just looks like you're trying too hard. And piling them on a typewriter or binding them with yarn? Even more so.
Palmetto -- please, take your toys and go home. Based on your 'contributions' to the AT comments over the last 3 years, I'm surprised your still a reader. Honestly, take a look at the comments you've posted...NOTHING but negativity about the many great posts and contributors in the AT community. It's almost comical, really. Think it may be time for you to delete the AT bookmark and find a new place to play. you seem most unhappy here.
I have the stacking book shelf - the rip off from CB2, not the "real one" from Design In Whose Reach? and I must say it is a space-saving marvel in my tiny office. I used to think it was "clever" and was all opposed to it, until I moved to this office.
The bound-together books are hilarious! Next up, bound-together kitchen utensils and bound-together Wii games! Bound-together socks displayed artfully on old Atari consoles!
I don't get the idea of "displaying" books at all. I have tons and tons, and I dream of bookcases with glass doors, because they get so dusty it's disgusting. Why not display something that's actually beautiful, and meant to be displayed, like art? The best thing I've done with my books lately was take half of them to Half Priced Books. Made $75, took the honey out to a nice lunch, later bound him with some yarn and... well, let's just say I displayed him good.
I do believe that books furnish a room but if you're actually buying them for the pretty-coloured covers then its pretty much the same as those awful fake hardback sleeves that people used to have. Style over substance with a capital S!