Reading transports us, it keeps loneliness at bay, and it costs relatively little. Few real book lovers will be completely satisfied with the Kindle experience. There’s nothing like the smell of a book, its heft in your hand, the way it holds your tears and bath water in its rumpled pages.
But every serious book lover eventually has to ask herself, “Where am I going to put all these books?” Fortunately, there are many creative ways to display books. But you have to first stop thinking of your books as a storage problem and, instead, think of them as decor.
Space savers
Integrating a thousand books into a one-bedroom apartment is, admittedly, a challenge, but it can be done. You’ll want to put books in every room of the house. That’s right. Kitchen and bathroom included. After all, if you’re really a reader, you’re already taking books into the bathroom.
In most apartments, there will already be a few places you can stow some books. Put books in big window sills, above kitchen and bathroom cabinets, on deep counter tops, etc. If you have an old ladder or you can buy one, spray paint it, put it in a corner, and load your books onto every step.
Floor space in some small houses and apartments is prime real estate. You may not be able to accommodate as many bookcases as you need to store all your books.
So it’s time to get creative. If you’re not up to building your own shelves, there are a few alternatives. Scrounge around in thrift stores and antique shops for hanging cabinets.
If you’re renting, your landlord will thank you for mounting these with picture hangers, which can hold up to 50 pounds. According to HGTV, you can even mount hanging shelves to the sides of other furniture, like dressers, wood-framed easy chairs, and sofas.
Space makers
Book lovers with more space have even more options. If you need to divide a room, you can use your books as a makeshift wall. Simply put a line of matching bookcases, at least six feet tall, where you need the divider, and put the books on it. You can also build a custom book wall with crates or boards and cinder blocks.
Some daring interior designers have made columns out of books. To make one of these columns, simply stack your books, one over the other, all the way to the ceiling. Be sure that the bigger books go on the bottom and smaller books on top. If you want them to look really fabulous, fan them out by placing each one at a fifteen degree angle above the other. These book towers can be useful for suggesting a transition between a living room and dining room space. Just make sure that a book on the bottom of the tower isn’t one you need to refer to often!
Building your own wall shelves
At some point, many book collectors will need to take a deep breath and build their own shelves. At the end of the day, there’s nothing more majestic than a bank of books covering an entire wall.
There are lots of clever shelving systems out there, but many of them won’t support the weight of three dozen books. You may even need to suck it up and build your shelves the old fashioned way, with boards and brackets. Paint the boards and attach the brackets first. Then nail or screw the brackets into the wall, using a carpenter’s level to make sure they are parallel to each other and to the ceiling.
The key to living with lots of books is to think of them as part of your home’s design and not something you have to squirrel away. Display those Harry Potter books with pride! They’re part of you and, now, part of your decor.
Photo via Pixabay