Bookcases and shelves

qualitygal · ‎10-04-2010

I love all my bookcases and enjoy looking on line at all the neat book nooks and bookcases in people's homes. I have a small area of pictures, and I have a few knick knacks (shelf, my husband built me), but I love my books and shelves.

How do you decorate or use your bookshelves, bookcases, or shelves? Do you do a lot of pictures in your decorations? I do have an area of pottery, but mostly it's books.

How about you?

sligo · ‎10-20-2010

My husband also buily a wall of bookshelves for me. Usuall yI mix pottery pieces, purchased over many years,next to books. Laying books on their sides in several shelves. Also, I place hand thrown bowls, made in Kentucky, on some shelves. I love books in our den. Gives th eroom a welcoming feeling. Plus, my husband and I are major readers. Love Costco and Amazon for great deals on latest books.

sligo · ‎10-20-2010

My husband also built a wall of bookshelves for me. Usuall yI mix pottery pieces, purchased over many years,next to books. Laying books on their sides in several shelves. Also, I place hand thrown bowls, made in Kentucky, on some shelves. I love books in our den. Gives th eroom a welcoming feeling. Plus, my husband and I are major readers. Love Costco and Amazon for great deals on latest books.

3cupcakes · ‎04-20-2012

Oh, boy, do I love my bookcases, @qualitygal! like you I mix other things in w/my books.

there are some special photos too & a few books from when I was a kid, back in the dark ages. 😄

We have been trying to downsize & doing ok w/it.......except for my bookshelves. This part is hard!

Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make yours brighter.

Goldengate8361 · ‎01-27-2014

I have many, many bookcases in my house. In fact, I had some custom built for a couple of rooms when I bought my house. I have a million books, so mine are primarily for books. I do have a framed photo or two on them, along with a clock. A good looking and functional library in my house is very important to me.

jlkz · ‎12-02-2013

@3cupcakes

I know how hard it is to part with books: at 50+ I finally started to downsize my bookshelves. First, I thought I could safely give my college textbooks ( literature mainly ) to other language students.

Next, I heard someone say they were donating some books to the local hospital / rehab for patients. I gave a box to them.

Then, I read where a library wanted to expand...so they got some. I had a series of American great writers, some read and some I just haven't gotten around to, and they recently went to a thrift shop that benefits local charities.

I have a few books on the bookshelves in my office at home, but the majority are DH's college and law school books. The encyclopedias we bought when we got married in the 1960's probably should go to the Smithsonian Museum, lol.

Now dusting the bookshelves is quicker and I have a place for displaying items with great memories attached.

To each his / her own !!!!

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

A friend of mine moved into an apartment that was developed in an old high school. Her particular apartment is in the section that was once the library. It came with bookshelves still in place along all the original walls. The developer was going to tear them out but she asked him to leave them, and now the books and items she has dec orated them with make her home so beautiful and so warm and cozy. Of course she has a lot of books, plus she has some oil paintings that are fairly small sitting on easels on shelves, some pottery and statues and a lot of pictures of her family. One set, along a wall in the living room , she has turned into an entertainment center with all her electronics in it. One set in the dining room she had glass doors made and she keeps her dishes in there. Her son is a carpenter and he had to do a lot of repairs on the shelves, and he also trimmed them out with moldings to make them look nicer, and then they had to paint them to cover the work that had to be done, and make it all blend. However, they are gorgeous and she has decorated them beautifully. They have made a very small condo into a delightful warm space.

NickNack · ‎03-10-2010

@151949 Your friend's condo sounds wonderful! She was so smart to ask to have the bookshelves stay.

The Bluebird Carries The Sky On His Back"
-Henry David Thoreau

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

@Nicknack wrote:
@151949 Your friend's condo sounds wonderful! She was so smart to ask to have the bookshelves stay.

She has a talent for decorating and could make a doghouse beautiful. She saw the value in those bookcases immediately. Of course, having a son who is a carpenter was helpful as those shelves were pretty beat up and it took him a lot of work to restore them. All along the outside walls of her condo are banks of windows and alternating areas where there are shelves. Where the windows are her son built in storage , sorta like a credenza under the windows. They are just storage, with closed doors , but they are very rich looking, and they make the original bookcases look built in and custom. It is just beautiful.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@qualitygal

Fun question!

In our family room, there is one wall that has shelving the previous owners built. It really is nothing more than boards arranged to make some shelving, with off centered posts holding the shelves up. I painted the entire room white (as it was paneled with dark cheap paneling), and the shelves are used to display my family treasures.

There is a handmade crayon box my grandpa made from oak for me when I was a child. It started my love affair with oak. There is a decorative jar full of polished stones in beautiful colors that my grandparents collected and polished from all over the country as they traveled during their retirement. There are a few stained glass pieces my great uncle made, and the old button tin that belonged to my grandma, and the egg that was used by my great grandma for darning socks. The books my dad authored sit there, and a beautiful horse or two that were in my great grandma's collection. That shelf system is full of old family treasure, and every time I look at them, I remember those gone on. I've managed to arrange them so they look really nice and not cluttered or mix matched looking.

In the upstairs hallway, I have a maple bookcase that was my parents. When my son was little it held all his books, but now I display some of my pottery on it, with a few photos and a lamp.

There is a book case in my son's room that we bought to match his furniture that held his books as well, and now two shelves of it are full of photo albums.

I love book cases, for books and other decor, but they can become a clutter catcher if not careful.