How to Artfully Arrange Your Bookcases

Have you long admired the way designers address the bookcases and built-ins in their showcased living rooms and dens?  On each shelf, the books are artfully arranged and interspersed with interesting accessories and objects.  Your eye travels from one shelf to the next with ease as you appreciate each item or grouping.  Instead of looking heavy, obtrusive and cluttered, the bookcases serve as an attractive focal point in the room.

Wish your bookcases could look like the ones in your designer magazines?  They can, and you can artfully arrange them with your own two hands.  All you have to do is follow the principles of arrangement. 

Design Principles for Arranging Attractive Bookcases

Take the same design principles you used to accessorize your room and apply them to arranging your bookcases:

• Balancing visual weight - A bookcase arrangement needs to be kept in balance so no one section or shelf looks disproportionately heavier than another.  A heavy item placed on an upper left-hand shelf can be balanced with a stack of books or accessory that is equal in visual weight on the lower right-hand shelf.  Lower shelves should be visually heavier to make the bookcase feel grounded.
• Layering to create depth and dimension - Layering pieces from front to back and high to low creates dimension and uses the full depth of the bookcase.
• Creating movement, flow and rhythm - Creating peaks and valleys and varying the height of objects within the bookcase adds interest, enhances the flow and keeps the eyes moving from one item to another.
• Repeating design elements like color and shapes - Just as varying the heights of objects enhances flow and helps the eye travel across a shelf, repeating design elements like color and shape and staggering their placement on different shelves throughout your bookcase display (think zigzag) can lead the eyes progressively down from one shelf to the next. 
• Adding interest through texture and contrast - Juxtaposing objects of various textures (rough and smooth, shiny and matte, soft and hard) adds interest to a room.  Insure there is enough contrast between items so as you layer from front to back, each accessory in the mid-ground or foreground will stand out against the background.

Bookcase Design Challenges

The inherent structure of a bookcase presents some challenges and opportunities for creative design.  Functionally, bookcases must be tall or long with shelves at least 12 inches deep to accommodate many volumes and large-scale books, and often they are stained to resemble mahogany, cherry or walnut wood.  Let’s face it.  Bookcases can be an eyesore, or at the least, a bit uninspiring.  They can be dark, deep, heavy and hard-lined.  We only compound the problem when we place the shelves uniformly and evenly-spaced. Boring.  Then we add books, books, and more books, and maybe some other stuff, until finally…the bookcases look like one BIG cLuTtEreD MesS.   Are you ready to take on the bookcase design challenge?

From Bookcase to Showcase

Here are some simple strategies to help transform your bookcase into a showcase:

Challenge #1:  A bookcase arrangement can be “flat,” uniform and linear.

Solution: 

• Using the depth of the shelves to layer books and accessories from back to front will keep your bookcases from looking flat and one dimensional. 
• Moving an adjustable shelf or two to vary the space between some of the shelves will keep the bookcase from being too linear in orientation. Or remove one shelf altogether to really change up the bookcase; create a vignette within the opening with a piece of artwork and a small decorative light, or highlight a single, large-scale, dramatic accessory. 
• Varying the heights between the stacks of books and the accessories adds interest and provides a sense of movement.  To create additional height under an object, use a short stack of books or a box as a pedestal or riser.
• Bring in textured items like baskets, textiles, or embossed leather boxes to add dimension and interest.

Challenge #2:  The shelves of a bookcase are deep and dark on the inside.

Solution: 

• Consider painting the back interior of the bookcase a brighter or lighter color.  Your books and accessories will pop off the background.
• Prop a small mirror against the back wall of the bookcase to reflect light and add some sparkle.  Using some glass and other reflective accessories will have the same effect.
• Use light and bright-colored accessories that will contrast and stand out against the dark wood.
• Place a small decorative lamp fixture inside the bookcase to light up its contents.

Challenge #3:  A bookcase can be visually heavy and overpower the room.

Solution: 

• Removing a shelf and opening up some space within the bookcase will help to visually lighten its appearance.
• Edit, edit, edit.  Removing some of the books and working in accessories like plants, baskets, and decorative objects will also lighten the visual weight of the bookshelf.
• Increase the negative space between books and accessories.  Give the eye a place to rest.

Challenge #4:  Case goods like bookcases have hard lines.

Solution: 

• Soften the edges of the bookcase and vertically-placed books with some circular or curvy objects d’art - a plate or tray on a stand, a clock, vase, piece of pottery or sculpture.
• Incorporate organically-shaped accessories into your bookcase display.
• Add plants to soften the hard edges of the bookcase.

Challenge #5:  Bookcases can have a busy, cluttered appearance.

Solution: 

• Try grouping some books by jacket color and vary their placement to add pockets of color to the shelves.  This technique will give a sense of order to the arrangement of books.
• Avoid using your bookcases to display small collectibles.  From a distance, the eye reads many small items as clutter.  Display them in a lighted, glass display case instead.
• Remove all paperbacks from the bookcase.  If the bookcase is the only option for storage, stash them inside some attractive baskets.
• Again, editing and leaving more negative space will give the eye a place to rest and give your books and accessories adequate room for the eye to appreciate them.  

Arrange That Bookcase

Now that you know what you’re up against and the solution to each design challenge, you’re ready to tackle your bookcase arrangement.

1. Remove everything from your bookcase.
2. Stack and sort the books by size and jacket color - only the hardbacks.
3. Place the books on the shelves, varying between horizontal and vertical arrangements in a zigzag pattern from shelf to shelf.  
4. Fill in with accessories and unique items, introducing shapes, textures and color to add interest and draw the eye through your bookshelf arrangement.  Layer from front to back and vary heights of objects and books.
5. Take a photo of your arrangement so you can replicate it if you decide to change it seasonally or you feel the need to dust! 

Are you a collector?  Don’t miss my tips and strategies on how to best showcase your collectibles.

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