I recently carried out a complete overhaul on my bedroom, however unfortunately for me, I have a built in bookshelf in my bedroom – I say unfortunately because I could do with a second wardrobe instead, I don’t know what that says about me. To get over the fact that I have a bookshelf in my bedroom that I can’t remove, I decided that I would make it look as good as I could. Much to my surprise, it has actually become one of my favourite parts of my newly redecorated bedroom. Since undergoing this little project, I actually had a few realisations and came across a few things that helped me along the way.
| BALANCING FUNCTIONALITY AND AESTHETIC
When I was thinking about everything that was going to be on my bookshelf, I knew that I would actually have to put items on it, such as books that naturally wouldn’t fit my aesthetic. Therefore I had to figure out a way in which I could incorporate the functionality aspect of a bookshelf, which is to house books, with the look that I wanted. What I found out pretty early on was that it was all about balance. I knew that I could figure out the book sitch, but I didn’t want to deal with other things such as DVD’s and photo frames as they would completely take over my bookshelf and make it difficult to style idle spaces.
| COLOUR WAY
Colour palette is important for any kind of aesthetic. I knew that I wanted to keep the bookshelf itself white and incorporate taupe and black for added depth and brass hardware wherever needed. That being said, books come in various different colours, which weren’t going to cut it for me. Previously I turned all the books around so that the pages were displayed, but it still didn’t give me the look I wanted. I decided to use black and white self-adhesive (or sticky back plastic) and cover the books so that they would work cohesively. I also made sure that when choosing the colour palette for the bookshelf, that it would work with the rest of my bedroom too.
| ORNAMENTS
Ornaments are a key component when it comes to styling, not just a bookshelf, but also any space in your home. I knew the exact place that I was going to go to in order to find the perfect assortment of ornaments – HomeSense. I find that HomeSense has the perfect variety of pieces that look like one offs and aren’t generic finds that you’d get in IKEA. I took so many trips to various different HomeSense’s. In all honesty, I went in blind when looking for key pieces for my bookshelf, but I think it turned out pretty good. I also ended up popping into Dunelm and making a cheeky order on H&M Home and found some lovely bits to style the blank space.
| PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Although I wanted my bookshelf to be correctly styled, I didn’t want it to look overcrowded and cluttered. After I picked out my ornaments and removed anything that I no longer wanted I needed to figure out the placements. I went a little bit over the top and brought out my tape measure and I had some shelves with 3 clear sections and others with 4 sections. I ended up dividing the length of the bookshelf by 3 or 4 – depending on the number of sections for that shelf and for each section, I made sure everything was central – unless it was my magazines or books that leant on the sides of the bookshelf.
| HEIGHT STATUS
This one may sound weird, but it was something I kept in mind when doing this little project. Ideally I didn’t want everything to be the same height. I wanted it to all ebb and flow. I decided to have some books horizontal, rather than just standing vertically and the ornaments and props that I chose, I kept in mind that I didn’t want everything to be the same height. That being said, on the bottom shelf, everything is vertical and of a similar height, but there’s something about it that I really like.
| TRIAL & ERROR
Something that was pivotal when putting everything together was trial and error. There’s no better way of figuring everything out than physically playing around with placement and props. Before I started the renovations, one evening, I did a rough mock up of the bookshelf which was really helpful because it meant I could figure out what else I needed to purchase for example, a tall black vase and a flat, black prop for the top shelf, of which I ended up purchasing the beautiful Tom Ford coffee table book – albeit the most expensive book I’ve ever purchased.
What do you think about styling bookshelves? What are your tips?
PRODUCT BREAKDOWN;
1ST SHELF –
Tom Ford Book – Amazon.
Marble Tray – John Lewis.
2ND SHELF –
Black Planter – HomeSense.
Black Photo Frame – HomeSense.
3RD SHELF –
Black Tray – Dunelm.
Mirror Dome – H&M Home.
