How to Easy Display Books.
Books are a great way to brighten up a room, display your interests, and change the style of your home. To display books, start by choosing the right bookshelf for your space. Vertical bookshelves can save you space, while smaller bookshelves are good if you want to save your wall space for art. Arrange your books based on how often you read them, or by color for a more aesthetically-pleasing look. You can also use books decoratively throughout your home by stacking them in window sills or under lamps and candles. Make sure that you set out a good coffee table book as well that accurately represents your space!
Method 1. Displaying Books Creatively
1. Use an architectural feature of your home to shelve your books. If you have unused cabinet space in your kitchen, remove the doors and stack books there. If you have a fireplace you don’t use, it can make a unique space to store your reading materials. Alcoves that are designed for vases or paintings can be a great space to stack books vertically. This will make unique features feel consciously used and make your home feel lived-in.
A good method for displaying books is to use bookshelves to store most of your books, then use architectural features to display a few smaller sets of books.
2. Set out some coffee table books that represent your personality. Coffee table books refer to books that sit on top of tables in common spaces. They’re the first thing that someone will pick up when they start poking around your home, so pick a book or two that represents who you are and what your home is like. If you have a sleek, modern home, a book about abstract art or design will work. If you have an older home, a book about medieval history or fine wine will match your home’s vibe.
Coffee table books are typically bigger. Smaller books will look like they’ve just been left at the table unintentionally.
Pick colors that don’t clash with, or match, your table. If you have a black table, a white or red book will work. Avoid brown if you’ve got a wood table.
3. Use books as a stand for a lamp or candle. To give your home some character, stack 4-5 books on an end table and use it as a stand for a lamp, candle, plant, or statue. Select books with covers that won’t clash, and place your biggest book on the bottom. Stack your smaller books on top of one another to create a gradual incline.
If you’re short on shelf space, this is a good way to use the leftover books. Especially since you’ll use up some of your bigger books creating a stable stand.
You can also stack the books and leave nothing on top of them. This will turn your books into a kind of decorative touch, and it’s a good way to give an area some color. Wrap your books in twine to give them a chic look.
4. Treat your window sills like bookshelves and stack books there. Window sills that are wider than 5–6 inches (13–15 cm) can easily be used as bookshelves. Stack books horizontally along your window pane using the frame of the window as your bookends. This is a simple look that will easily give your room a unique look and attitude.
One variation that you could choose is to stack your books vertically in one corner of your window sill. This will allow you to access the window while still storing your books.
5. Use your books to create mosaic patterns or cubes of color. Grab a group of books and stack them by color to create a gradient on top of a piece of furniture or your window sill. You can also use a combination of vertical and horizontal stacks composed of different colors to create a sequence of color cubes. If you have a bunch of books, you can use them to create a simple mosaic on your shelves.
6. Store older books in prominent locations, like mantles and tops of furniture. If you have any older collections or texts, store them in locations of admiration where guests will notice them. The top of your TV stand, above your fireplace, on your window sill, or on top of an armoire. Get some decorative bookends to compliment the vintage vibe of your older books.
You can even frame some iconic covers and use them as pieces of art throughout your home.
Method 2. Arranging Books on Shelves
1.Sort your books based on genre or category. Set non-fiction texts on one set of shelves, fiction on another set of shelves, and poetry or expository books on a different set of shelves. Another option is to arrange your books by genre. Set science fiction, romance, and adventure books on separate shelves to create a theme for each individual shelf.
Place your most interesting books at eye level to give guests something interesting to look at.
Another way to sort books by category is to set unique collections aside and multiple editions together in different parts of a room. This will give them the prominence and space that they deserve.
2. Order your books alphabetically or based on unread material for quick access. An easy way to arrange your books is to put the texts that you’ve read at the bottom of your shelves and the books that you haven’t read near the top or at eye-level. With this order, you’ll have an easier time finding something to read. You can also simply arrange your books alphabetically to make it easier to find specific books.
This is a good default option if you don’t have strong feelings about the order of your books.
3. Arrange your books based on their color for a sleek, modern look. Arranging books based on the colors of the covers has become a popular trend in recent years. Start at the top left of your shelves with your red books, then start adding orange and yellow. Add your green books followed by the teal, blue, and purple. You can also reverse this order to start with your cooler colors for a more modern look.
Stick your black books on the very bottom or use them to separate your colors.
If you have floating shelves, put one color on each shelf.
A common variation on this arrangement is to put single colors on individual shelves and fill in any empty space with boxes, plants, or other trinkets.
4.Use trinkets, trophies, and plants to create variation on your shelves. If you can fill your shelves out with books, go for it. However, if you don’t have enough books to fill a bookshelf entirely, fill in the empty spaces with lamps, trinkets, statues, and plants. Place your items asymmetrically all over your shelves to avoid any unwanted patterns.
5. Break up your shelves by stacking some of your books vertically. This will create some visual variation among your books. For every vertical row of 10-20 books, stack 4-5 books with the covers facing up. You can use these stacks to create a symmetrical pattern on your shelves, or to create an asymmetrical pattern that will break up the monotony of your shelves.
6. Put contact paper on top of or behind your shelves to give them texture. Contact paper is an adhesive paper, similar to wallpaper, that can beautify your dull bookshelves. Get 1-3 rolls of contact paper with patterns that match your room. Use a utility knife to cut each length to size and peel off the paper on the back before laying the contact paper down on each shelf. Stack your books on top of the contact paper to give them an interesting background!
You can use drawer liners instead of contact paper if you don’t want to glue anything.
You can also use contact paper to cover the back of your bookshelves to give them a unique background!
Method 3. Choosing Shelves for Your Space
1. Choose vertical bookshelves to fill a wall or if space is tight. Tall bookshelves create the impression that your books are towering over you, but they can also save space by occupying less square footage than wider shelves. Get some tall bookshelves if you’re trying to fill a small wall or have a smaller space. This will keep you from taking up a ton of space with shorter bookshelves.
If you have any recessed walls, consider getting bookshelves that fit into the recessed areas perfectly so that the wall becomes flush with your shelves. This will make your room feel bigger, even when you’re actually taking up space.
If you’re trying to make a room feel bigger, get white bookshelves instead of black. White makes a room feel open, while black absorbs light and will make your shelves look bigger than they are.
2. Get smaller bookshelves if you want storage space above them. The benefit of smaller bookshelves is that you can store things on top of the bookshelves. Smaller bookshelves are also a good choice if you have a wall with molding in the middle that sticks out of your wall. You may also want shorter bookshelves if you have a ton of art and need as much wall space as possible.
The space above a set of smaller bookshelves is an excellent choice for a gallery wall.
3. Choose stackable cubes to customize how your books are displayed. Stackable cubes are 12 by 12 in (30 by 30 cm) storage boxes that can be arranged in any way that you want. If you are the type of person that enjoys changing their interior space and rearranging furniture, stackable cubes are a great choice. You can stack them into a square, rectangle, or create a graduating staircase of cubes.
Stackable cubes are often marketed as storage cubes. You can use milk crates instead of stackable cubes if you want a more DIY or upcycled look.
There are cloth boxes you can by to convert individual cubes into drawers. Get a few cloth drawers to create some variation in your cube bookshelves.
Another option is to arrange them in a symmetrical pyramid. This is a bold design that can really make a room feel unique.
If you have vinyl records, these stackable cubes are the perfect size for them. This makes stackable cubes a good choice if you want to display your records alongside your books.
4. Get floating shelves to stack smaller reading collections. Floating shelves are shelves that are installed into the drywall without any supporting fixture underneath them. Floating shelves are neat and modern-looking, but they typically have a lower threshold when it comes to how much weight they can hold. Get floating shelves if you have a smaller collection of books and want to achieve a contemporary look.
Floating bookshelves are kind of tricky to install if you don’t have a level. Consider enlisting a friend that’s good at building things to help you if you aren’t good at home repair or furniture installation.
You shouldn’t install floating bookshelves if you live in a rental unit. If they ever break, you’ll end up ripping a huge chunk of drywall out.
If you get longer floating shelves, pick up some decorative bookends that match the overall aesthetic of your room. If your home is older, large bookends made out of brass or metal will look good. If you’ve got contemporary furniture choose some simple, geometric bookends.
Tips.
There are no hard rules for displaying books. As long as you’re happy with the way your room looks, you’ve done a good job displaying your books!
