Bookshelves are a staple of the modern home, whether you’re a voracious reader or more of an aficionado of the big screen. They serve as framing pieces, focal points, storage, but most of all, they do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to ambience – completely altering the tone of a room depending on how they’re styled and used, and especially in shared spaces like a kitchen or a lounge area. Now, you might be wondering how to style bookshelves in the living room. After all, you’ve got the layout, circulation and existing décor to contend with.
How should you decorate them without straying into obtrusive or cheesy territory?
Well, that’s what this guide is here to answer. Sit tight as we share the best practices for arranging, choosing, decorating and styling your living room bookshelves.
The Big Underlying Question: Why?
Without being too obtuse, why not? As with any piece of furniture, giving your living room bookshelves the proper styling treatment allows the material to sing, and the ornaments to zing. By deeply considering what to put on a bookshelf, how to arrange those items and the ways in which they complement the overall interior scheme, you can score a trio of benefits: a cosier, more aesthetic and functional room.
Universal Interior Design Principles to Consider
We’ve got plenty of ground to cover in the bookshelf ideas coming up, so consider this a mini checklist – or your springboard – to styling and decorating your bookcase with a professional flourish. The interior designers recommend:
- Playing with scale
- Working within a colour scheme
- Layering lighting and textures
- Anchoring reading zones with floated furniture (think lamps and armchairs)
- Introducing visual intrigue with odd-numbered item groupings
- Instilling unity and balance via a ‘red thread’ of cohesion
- Telling stories with vignettes and finishing touches
- Building emphasis with focal points
15 Novel Bookshelf Organisation Ideas
It’s our firm belief that there’s a latent bookworm in everyone. And the best way to bring out that inner bibliophile is to create a space that breeds a certain level of focus, relaxation and, arguably, a sense of wonder.
That’s what these bookshelf organisation ideas are all about; not only do they promote cosiness and tranquillity, but they’re specifically designed to elevate your living room aesthetic too. From selecting the bookshelves themselves to the layout and styling, we’ll go through the process step by step. Let’s get down to business.
Picking the Right Bookcase
1. In-built TV Shelving Units
In-built TV Shelving Units are great because they hug the walls – saving on floorspace all the while serving multiple purposes – and are a delight to the eyes when properly styled. You can have them custom-built to fit slanted ceilings, painted in rich, refreshing colours, and dedicate different sections for your electronics, novels, cookbooks, ornaments, plants, you name it.
2. Favour Heritage & Narrative with a Characterful Wooden Shelf
Wooden bookcases, particularly handcrafted ones, have plenty of advantages over factory-built, cookie-cutter options: there’s their unique grain, robust characteristics, beautiful depth of colour and interesting shapes, plus, you can reseal and treat them later down the line. This is just the tip of the iceberg when character and personality are concerned!
3. Go Down the Minimalist Route with Open or Ladder Shelving
If you prefer a pared-back, minimalist living room scheme, why not try open shelving or a ladder bookcase? These options are sleek as they come and don’t interfere with the open and airy feel since they don’t carry much visual weight.
Bookshelf Placement Tips
4. Symmetrical Bookcases for a Balanced Living Area
Humans intuitively crave balance, and one way to bring it into your home is to pair our furniture pieces in symmetrical arrangements. For instance, you could install a built-in L-shaped bookcase along the corner of the room. The two sections running across the adjacent walls provide an interesting focal point, along with a sense of sanctuary, satisfying both our urges for harmony and comfort.
5. Framing Devices
Similarly, bookshelves are a great tool for framing objects and other furniture pieces. A popular arrangement is two vertical units on either side of an alcove, or even two horizontal bookcases framing your TV unit. This works particularly well when there’s a chimney breast in the middle, since you’ve got a natural space for them, wherein you can play with depth and layering.
6. The Beauty of the Book Nook
Book nooks, you’ve got to love them. Irresistibly cosy, sanctuaries for hunkering down with a good yarn or indeed for a quick nap in your favourite armchair, these lovely spaces are made possible thanks to slimline pieces or corner units. The best part? There’s so much variety, from abstract, wiggly silhouettes to traditional boxed-in shelves, and everything in between.
7. Float them as Room Dividers
For those dealing with open-plan living spaces, you have even more freedom. While you could use any of the above tips, a great way of styling your bookcase could be to use it as a room divider of sorts, sectioning off dining zones from those intended for recreational activities around the sofa. Just don’t forget to use visual cues like rugs and accent lighting to keep these zones cohesive.
Methodologies for Arranging Your Books
8. By colour
There are many arguments for organising your books by colour, but the main one is that the rainbow effect it creates breathes life and vibrancy into the room, which works wonderfully against neutral colours. The downside, though… if you’re a fan of series, it could be a nightmare to find your favourite reads if they’re different shades. That said, you could always half-and-half it, reserving the bottom shelves for your colour-coded reads and then organising the rest by author. Speaking of…
9. By author (or Alphabetically)
As you can imagine, many people believe that ordering by colour is unnecessarily finicky, especially when you’re a frequent reader. Organising your books by authors’ last names is the easiest and fastest way to keep things orderly and tidy. This doesn’t have to mean boring, though; to maintain the interest, try adding little stacks of books, use bookends and turn out books with sprayed edges for a pop of colour.
10. Using the Dewie Decimal System
If you’re on the extremely organised end of the clutter spectrum or you delight in the nerdiness of categorising your belongings, you’ll love learning how to style bookshelves according to the Dewie Decimal system. In a nutshell, it involves dividing and grouping books by their category (genre, sub-genre, niche and specific interests) and then going down the alphabetical route too. Here, there’s no way you’ll mistake your classics from your self-help!
11. Emulate Your Favourite Bookshop
Finally, why not pop into your local bookseller for a little inspiration? For instance, try turning books slightly diagonally to give the eye lines to follow and break up the flat wall of book spines. Have you considered turning your most beautiful covers outwards to turn them into makeshift works of art? You could even stack your current reads on a side table to simulate the gorgeous book displays you see in-store, complete with flower arrangements and a quirky lamp.
What to Put on a Bookshelf (Besides Books)
12. Personal Items & Curios
According to leading interior designer Lonika Chande, “decorating your home is about showing off your personality, not hiding everything away”, and the exact same approach should be taken when going about styling your bookshelves. Instead of keeping the items you can’t live without in a shoe box under the bed (we see you!), consider framing the items in a shadow box and making them part of the display.
13. Themed Bookish Accessories
Prints of your favourite characters and quotes, figurines, sculptural bookends, and an iconic book nook can bring a little magic to your shelves. It’s all about building a curated display of your unique tastes and reading journey – a space that’s truly one of a kind.
14. Living Décor
We’ve talked about bringing things to life figuratively, but what about physically? By introducing plants as pieces of living décor, you not only benefit from making your living room a little more natural, but greenery adds a needed dimension to the room’s texture in the form of organic shapes, leaves, and their shadows.
15. Don’t Forget the Lighting
From the simplest of considerations, like ensuring your bookcases see a good amount of natural light, to diffracting it into dancing flecks with a crystal, there are plenty of creative ways to light up your arrangement. As a starting point, make sure your living room is properly lit with a mixture of layered light sources, including task, ambient and focal lighting. You could draw the eye to your reading zone with a nice pendant or hanging decorative shade, or even bedazzle the shelves with fairy lights.
Will You Take a Leaf Out of Our Book?
Now you know how to properly style bookshelves for your living room, from furniture placement to arranging your tomes, all that’s left is to get started. Which bookshelf organisation ideas were your favourite, and which ones are you keen to give a go?