A tour of my bookshelves
romantic shelves filled with literary classics: Styling tips, beautiful editions, and more
I’m so often asked about my bookshelves, where to get beautiful editions of classics, and how to style a home library. I’m delighted to answer all these questions with an in-depth tour of my shelves!
My home library is comprised of three shelves: two IKEA Hemnes bookcases with the Hemnes glass-door cabinet in between. Before I share styling tips, I want to be clear that my main objective was to make the shelves extremely cohesive as they are the main focal point in my living space and serve as the background for Her Literary Society’s virtual discussions with authors.
I knew that to make my vision come to life, the shelves would need to be highly curated. This meant removing certain books (even ones I love!) and moving them to other shelves/storage spaces. It also meant organizing my books by color scheme and size rather than genre/author. As much as I would like to have an entire shelf dedicated to Jane Austen for example, all of my Austen editions look so different from each other and wouldn’t create the visually pleasing look I was aiming for.
How to create a cohesive bookshelf
I started by gathering all of my most beautiful/display-worthy editions that I wanted to showcase prominently. As you can see, my collection is quite colorful which makes creating a cohesive look a bit of a challenge! So, I started organizing all my prettiest editions by color. The first set I put on the shelf was this collection of blue/green editions that are all about the same size.
Next, I balanced it visually by adding another blue/green collection on the opposite side of the shelf beneath it. I used the same bookend for both sets to create even more visual balance.
Starting with just one color scheme provides a foundation to start building off of. After adding my blue/green sets, I started introducing other colors—like pink!
Although my approach was to categorize and display by color scheme, I simply couldn’t help the fact that this shelf was going to include a lot of colors which, ultimately, I decided to embrace. However, I quickly realized that dark colored books (particularly plain black spines with no decor) would interrupt the whimsy that all these colorful books create. So, I decided to remove all of my plain black books and house them on a separate shelf in a different room entirely.
I felt that the shelves would look too overwhelming if every book stood upright in a row. To create breathing room, I stacked some books horizontally and displayed the covers of larger editions. See how the blue/green sets with the white floral bookends create visual balance? The gold butterfly bookend and small gold picture frame accomplish this too.
When styling shelves, consider the balance of diagonal placement. If you display a set of books in one spot, take a step back and look at the opposite end of the shelves above and below. Adding a complementary element—such as another set of books or decorative object of the same color—can help ensure the overall look remains cohesive.
The process looked like: displaying a set of books, standing back, tilting my head, and then moving that set of books somewhere else…again, again, and again…until I finally settled on a placement that felt right to me!
Displaying heartfelt memories
Between my shelves is a display cabinet which holds personal items and photographs that are special to me. Items I included are: Great Girl Stories (a childhood Christmas gift from my mother and my first introduction to literary heroines), framed photos of Her Literary Travel’s tour of Orchard House and my travels to the English Countryside, and character figurines from my favorite novels. To me, what makes a bookshelf enchanting is all of the things that make it unique to the reader.
Wallpaper
Decades ago, I started collecting home decor photos that I hoped would inspire my future home. I always dreamed of having black and white floral wallpaper and realized my bookshelves would be the perfect place for it! I love flowers so installing this wallpaper wasn’t just something pretty to add, but felt like a very personal touch that represents my style. I like to think of it as “Secret Garden” wallpaper.
The wallpaper is peel and stick which makes it ideal for removal in case you want to change your shelves in the future. To install it, I first removed all the shelves and carefully measured each panel needed to cover the back of the bookcase. You’ll need measuring tape, a pencil, a box cutter, and a straight edge for this project.
Start by measuring the back panel of one shelf, then cut a piece of wallpaper to match those dimensions. Follow the installation instructions provided with the wallpaper. There will be an obvious line between each panel of wallpaper. However, when you put the shelves back on, the lines will be entirely concealed!
If you consider yourself a fairly handy person, installation should be feasible on your own. I was new to this process and found it to be a two-person job. Plus, having help makes the process quicker.
Curating books that aren’t “display-worthy”
You might be wondering, what about all the books that might not be particularly display-worthy? How do you include non-collectible books on a shelf while maintaining visual cohesiveness? My solution to that is to make them display-worthy! Here’s what I mean…
These shelves include classics, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction. Still abiding by my rule of “no plain dark-colored books,” I focused on pastel and cream books instead. None of the books pictured above are collectibles. They don’t have sparkly text, floral designs, or gilded edges. But, when you put them all together, they look lovely. Editions that would otherwise be plain can evoke a whimsical feel when you group them together by—you guessed it—color scheme.
And there you have it, color coordinated bookshelves filled with beloved classics! Because I find it particularly difficult to resist a gorgeous cover, as it so often represents the beauty within the pages beneath it, I thought it would be fun to take the same approach with the look of my shelves. However, there is no one way to have beautiful shelves. When they contain the stories that touch your heart, that’s truly all that matters.
If you’re inspired by these styling tips, you might take them in an entirely different direction and use a dark and moody color scheme. Or, maybe instead of floral wallpaper you’ll use polka dots! However you decide to style your books, I hope that this tour inspires you to create a shelf that is a true expression of you.