Using Books to Decorate Your Home

Using Books to Decorate Your Home

Imagine a home library with shelves all around that are literally overflowing with books. For book-lovers, that is the idea of beauty. But that’s not all books are good for.

Collecting dust on a shelf, books in a bookcase are merely accent pieces. With this article, we’ll show you how the books themselves can become the star of the show.

Custom Dust Jackets

Custom Dust Jackets - Homelement Furniture Design
Image courtesy of Fine Books Magazine

Not a fan of the dust jackets that came with your books? don’t think they add anything special to your home when they’re sitting on the bookshelf? Well, if you don’t think it’s right, the option is always there to do it yourself.

Using custom book jackets as a design element isn’t exactly a new concept, but lately it has been put in use to achieve spectacular results. Whether you create the custom book covers yourself or you order them, the picture to the right shows how well they can turn out.

Create a Library Table

Library Table - Homelement Furnitur  Design
Image courtesy of Michele Roohani

Library tables are usually a point of discovery for whoever walks by it. Public libraries and bookstores (both big box and mom-and-pop) employ this technique to draw interest.

This technique is so easy to replicate and it will immediately enhance your home office, library or other living spaces. Take a large, sturdy table (preferably one with some character) and arrange it near the entrance or along the wall of the room. On it, place a variety of works that span genres, authors and styles. Look at it as a you serving as the curator for your library. Guests may not get the chance to look at all of your bookshelves, but there will always be time to browse the table of selected works.

Colorful Library

Organize Books by Color - Homelement Furniture Design
Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy

A unique way of using the book itself to impact the design of the room is to remove the dust jackets from all of your hardcover books (but don’t throw them away, as they are vital in being able to resell the book in the future). Then, group the books by their color families.

If you like, you can mix in paperback books of similar colors. Now, all you have to do is arrange the books according to any design or pattern you see fit. Depending upon how many books you have, this could really have a dramatic effect. if you like the way this looks, but your hardcover books aren’t as colorful as you would like them to be, you can purchase colored book wraps and make it yourself.

Convert a Corner Into a Nook

Reading Nook - Homelement Furniture Design
Reading Nook

Using books as the central focus, you could turn a boring, lackluster corner into your very own reading nook. Whether it’s in your bedroom, your living room or somewhere in-between, a quite reading corner can provide a much needed escape from day-to-day stresses. Plus, if you’re a bona fide bookworm, you could always use the extra shelves to store your books.

Convert one of your unused corners into book gold by replacing sections of drywall between the studs and replacing them with backing and some shelves. A comfortable reading chair, a side table and a lamp is all you would need to complete the setup.

Books can be so much more than items that take up shelf space. Think outside the box and figure out some creative ways to use books as a way to decorate your home.