A beautiful bookcase can really do wonders to a room. It doesn’t matter if your reading literature is crap, it really doesn’t, its all in the spine! I have scoured the web and put together the main key points that can really spark some life and soul into that Ikea Billy bookcase.
Make a bookcase a design feature in its own right. You’re welcome.
1. Paint the shelves the same colour as the wall
This can create an idea of space as the shelves become ‘at one’ with the rest of the room. This particularly works really well if the shelves are in an alcove.
2. Alternate colours, orientations & sizes
I use this idea a lot in our house, as it’s great if you have ALOT of stuff. Basically the idea is that you group colours of objects together and fill that bookcase. Keeping colours together gives the illusion that it’s planned and thought out. Winning. Changing orientations of the books is a really lovely idea to create a show home, staged look. More on orientations below.
3. Try sticking to one hue
I’ve not tried this one before, but it looks very effective. I’m guessing a lot of people don’t have many books in the same hue so this would have to be “for display purposes only”. Lots of charity shops hold some very good looking old books so that’s definitely worth a trip.
4. Make a bookcase rainbow!
Expanding on the above idea, this one is perhaps a little more practical. Display books and objects in colour order, creating the rainbow effect.
5. Think in layers
Switch the orientation of the books to create mini shelves for beautiful travel finds, African artefacts or in our case, kids toys. It’s a pretty nifty way to make something that can be a bit humdrum into a feature in its own right.
