Hey everybody! I hope you had an awesome weekend!
We’ve been fiddling around with our new Ikea bookshelves lately and wanted to show you the results so far. Once the bookcases were built and we’d determined the shelf spacing we wanted, we brought out all our books and accessories and started filling them up. Here are a few shots of the process (excuse the poor night-time lighting!).
This stage took a lot of trial and error to see what looked best on which shelf. I was totally shocked to see how much shelf space we had leftover after bring out stacks and stacks of books.
I originally wanted to display our globe on the top of the shelves, but after seeing it in place it just looked awkward. Maybe someday we’ll have a globe collection on top of those shelves, but not today!
We worked and swapped and fiddled until we came up with this arrangement. Since the shelves have stayed like this for a few days, I think we’re both happy with this setup for now. Later down the line, I’d like to add some baskets and natural textures to break up all that color.
The shelves are filled with a mix of novels, non-fiction books, textbooks, art, photographs, and accessories. Since we don’t have enough books to fill every shelf, it was nice to get to add some personality and height-variation with the accessories.
This is probably my favorite shelf: a piece of art handmade by Mr. Heard, three new design books (The Domino Book of Decorating is AMAZING, by the way) and a cute white ceramic vase.
The right-hand bookcase is the one I think of as Stephen’s bookcase, since it was where most of the books from his office ended up. I love how the colors came together in this section with the yellows, greens, and reds. The line of neutral books on that third shelf was a nice break from the primary colors, too.
Instead of showing all the spines of our Chronicles of Narnia series, I turned the box so the image on the side was showing. It’s easy for bookshelves to start to look busy, so this was one way to break things up a bit.
These are the shelves that may still see some tweaking. I’m thinking about turning the really mis-matched books 180 degrees so just the pages are showing. That might give us another break from the color overload going on here. Can bookshelves get too colorful? I think ours are getting there.
Once the shelves were somewhat organized, we were left with a gap on the end of the wall by our sliding glass door.
Luckily we had a chair to fill the spot. I’m thinking a small floor lamp or hanging pendant over this chair would create a cute little reading nook.
So that’s where were are with the bookshelves. I definitely have a greater appreciation now for designers who can make bookshelves look completely effortless and organic. Believe it or not, it takes a lot of work!
Have you tried staging shelves before? Was it harder than it looked?
