In any well-designed home you’ll find a bookshelf filled with all of the occupants’ favourite reads, and when you walk into someone’s house, it’s often the first thing that catches your eye. From the design to its contents, a bookshelf can reveal a lot about who you are as a person, with your past literary endeavours and your future ambitions standing up there for all your guests to see.
When you’ve spent the time and money redecorating or revamping your residence to create a luxurious feel, the expectation you tend to have is that it should look impeccable at all times, but despite the fact that less is often more when it comes to furniture and accessories, it’s often the personal touches that will make a house truly feel like a home. A bookshelf packed with all your favourite titles from years gone by will add a personal stamp and inject some personality into your living room – the key is choosing the right design and keeping it organised so that it remains in-keeping with the overall feel and aesthetic.
Design
The style of bookshelf you choose to have in your living room should reflect the interior of your home. From classic or modular to wooden, glass or even industrial, there is a something to suit you whatever your taste. Take into consideration the amount of books and magazines you want to store, and ensure that the bookcase you want will provide you with enough storage space to display them all. Bear in mind that your home decor choices can affect your mood, so be sure to design a space that is comfortable and uplifting – a stylish bookshelf filled with happy memories is just the ticket.
Organisation
Bookshelves are notoriously for their propensity to become unruly and untidy, so having a system in place for keeping your bookcase organised is crucial to keep it looking its best. There are numerous ways to sort your collection so before piling them all in any which way, take some time to sit down with your books and determine the best solution. You can sort by genre, size, publisher, colour or even by your reading plan (already read or to read). Another option is to sort them chronologically, placing your books in the order that you have read them – for example, begin with your childhood favourites and move forward through the years from there. In this case, you could even create your own guidebook to your bookshelf with a book printing service like print24. It could outline the method of organisation you have chosen for your bookshelf, so that guests can thoroughly understand and enjoy it.
Contents
The contents of your bookshelf is where things start to get a little more personal and intimate. From childhood favourites and literary reads to the page-turners that have kept you up all night, your book collection is likely to be filled with the titles that reflect your past treasures, your current ambitions and your future aspirations. Filling your bookshelf and creating a display to be proud of is wearing your mind on your sleeve, so to speak, so think twice before you pile on all those self-development books that have helped you through your adult years if you want to keep some mystery. That said, they may well be the very titles that will inspire your guests – so it all comes down to personal preference.
Selection
You don’t have to keep every book you read, but deciding which deserve pride of place on your bookshelf and which you can bear to part with can be tougher than you might have thought. Finding space for the full spectrum of titles you have read over the years can be quite the challenge, however, so a certain degree of ruthlessness may be required to whittle your collection down.
Options include giving books that didn’t quite make the cut away to family, friends or charity shops, or storing them in boxes elsewhere. Although it’s tempting to give priority to books that may make you look intelligent or cultural, these won’t necessarily be the ones that will put a smile on your face as you walk past every single morning. They might even be the topic of many an awkward conversation as you’re asked to summarise a book that you did not understand or even attempt to read by a guest – so select the books whose spines you want to glance at on a daily basis – whatever the reason.
Whatever your style, a bookshelf filled with your favourite reads can make the ultimate centrepiece for your home – and putting it all together can transport you back to many a happy time gone by as well as giving your living room that much-needed dose of character it lacks.
