Organizing a bookshelf is intimidating for many people because they don’t know where to start, how to position the decor to have a good balance, or arrange the books.
I always say to my clients that organizing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Bookshelves can display decor items and books, a few books with much white space for the eyes to rest, or most books with a few decor items, depending on their location and the person’s lifestyle.
Once you have decided on your style, it is time to determine how you would like to display your books.
By categories
Decide which genres you would like to display your books. Some examples are fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play, graphic novels/comics, or screenplay. Display the books on shelves within the genre you chose. You can also keep any series you have together in the order they were published.
Alphabetically
A step further on the categories you created would be to keep the books in alphabetical order. For books, alphabetizing is done by letter rather than by word.
Color-coding
Even though organizing the books by their cover color is a controversial topic in the book world, I believe that it is very aesthetically pleasing and doesn’t create visual clutter. Start with dark colors on the bottom and lighter colors on the top; in the middle comes all the colors.
When it comes the time to get your hands into organizing the bookcase, start by removing all the books from the shelves, and adding the bigger items like baskets and vases. Add the books in the categories you chose and add some decor, greenery, picture frames, etc. A good rule of thumb is creating groupings of three and small vignettes. You can also place some books horizontally to make more space for small decor items.
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