Whether your bookshelves are built into the wall or you have bookcases as separate furniture pieces, they can be challenging to decorate. Some people may have an abundance of books they need to figure out how to stack, while others may want to incorporate more knick-knacks and decorative objects.
Fortunately, Furniture Mall has plenty of bookshelf décor ideas you can try to implement in your home. Because bookshelves can be both functional and decorative, they are a great element that adds style and sophistication to any room.
10 Practical Bookshelf Design Tips
Bookshelves can add a lot of visual interest to a room, as well as highlight your own personal style and decorative touch. With these tips, you can learn how to decorate shelves to impress your family and guests.
1. Choose a Style or Color Theme
When first deciding what to place on your bookshelves, it’s always a good idea to limit your color palette and find a color scheme that matches the rest of the room. This will create a higher sense of unity in your home and help to maintain your decorative style.
Consistent styles and colors can also give certain spaces in your home, like office spaces or reading nooks, more cohesion. With a limited color palette, the room will feel less chaotic, more focused, and simplistic.
2. Create Symmetry and Balance
Like other decorative spots in your home, it’s best to stick with designs that have symmetry since they play a large role in anchoring your room and making it appear uncluttered. Balanced bookshelf décor has a more organized look and feel, even if you’re implementing a wide variety of items.
To unify a bookcase or other shelves, keep your design simple yet flattering. One side of your shelving should not be packed with books or feature an abundance of empty space. Instead, larger objects like vases, books, or figurines should be spread so that no area is left totally empty and everything is symmetrical.
You can then help balance larger items by placing smaller objects between them to complement them and create loose symmetry. For example, mirror a picture frame on one side with a similarly-shaped collectible on the opposite side.
3. Paint the Back Wall of Your Bookshelf
Adding paint to the back of your bookshelf can create a pop of color to further illuminate the decorations and other objects on your shelving. You can also match the color of your bookshelves to the color scheme in the room.
If paint isn’t to your liking, you can also wallpaper the interior of your bookshelf for a pop of color. Wallpaper is also a great option if you want to add metallic or glossy décor items since they tend to stick out and shine a little bit more than they would against a blank wall.
4. Start With Large Items
The best way to create balance on your bookshelf is by starting with larger objects. It’s easy for your decorative theme to come undone if you start by using smaller pieces of home décor to put on shelves. If you start with larger items, such as vases, woven baskets, or artwork, you can fit and scale smaller items to balance the design and fill in blank space.
5. Use Artwork
Artwork pieces work great for deeper bookcases or bookshelves since they can be used as background pieces, with smaller objects placed in from of them. This design adds depth to your shelving and creates more visual interest. You can also easily change prints or photos whenever you want, so your decorations can match your mood or the seasons.
6. Mix Up Book Placement
Books can act as great decorative pieces, mainly because there are many different ways to orient them to change up your shelving design. Having variety in how the books are stacked, such as horizontally versus vertically, can create more interest. You can also try leaning your books instead of stacking them to give a more unique look to your shelving.
Books can also be arranged in other ways, such as by color. You may consider pairing spines together that are similar in hue to create a rainbow effect across your bookshelf. For those with a lot of books, this is a great way to create more order. If your volumes don’t seem to fit together, consider turning their spines to face the wall so that only the pages are visible.
To maintain the balance of your bookcase design, be sure to align some stacks of books to the left, right, or center, depending on what other objects you plan to use.
7. Use Decorative Objects
There are many decorative objects or accessories to choose from when designing a shelving layout. You may already have homewares, souvenirs, or heirlooms that you want to display on your bookshelf. Don’t be afraid to play around with whatever items you have at your disposal; you may be surprised at what objects can bring together the design just to your liking.
When finding home décor for shelves, it’s best to find items you can offset to create symmetry and balance. Decorative objects can vary depending on your style, so it’s really all about what you like and what looks good in your room.
8. Add Plants
Indoor plants are both stylish and offer many health benefits. They can add a pop of color and life to your bookshelves, especially because there are all sorts of visually pleasing pots that you can choose from to place your plants in.
Don't worry if you don’t have a green thumb; you can also use artificial plants and get the same visual effect.
9. Use Boxes and Baskets
If you have an excessive number of things you need to store, you can always hide away clutter in a box, basket, or other storage item that matches the design and style of your bookshelf. These can then be incorporated into your design with other objects, like books or decorative items.
10. Leave Room for Empty Space
When you’re figuring out how to decorate a bookcase or bookshelves, it’s always best to leave some empty space. Sparsity is a characteristic of a more contemporary look, so try grouping together small items to leave a portion of your shelves unoccupied.
Smaller rooms benefit more from a minimalistic look, since clutter will only make the interior appear smaller than it is. On the other hand, emptiness and sparsity give the illusion of a roomier space.
The Furniture Mall has plenty of accent pieces and artwork to choose from, so you can know how to decorate shelves like a pro. We even offer free design services if you’re unsure where to start. Visit one of our stores today in Topeka and Olathe, Kansas, and Lee's Summit, Missouri.