Book Jackets

I have loved my living room built in bookcases, but never found a way to style them that I liked. There is actually a funny story to this. Mr. JCrew learned what triggers me to make me made… move around items on my bookcase! He says he has never seen me madder than when someone rearranges my bookshelves.

We had the shelves made because that was one of Mr. JCrew’s few requests for the new house. He wanted a place for all his books. He loves books and buys so many. Our bookshelves were almost not enough space!

I see many style their bookshelves with little to know books. They look great when there is not a lot on them. As pretty as they are, I see wasted space!

Source: Young House Love

There is nothing wrong with displays on shelves. I love how they look. But when I struggle with "looks vs functionality," the functionality wins. I was looking for a way to make my functionality on the shleves look more pleasing.

I arranged the books to be in different spaces. I put some up and down and stacked others. It gave some variety. But the multiple colors were distracting. Mr. JCrew doesn’t buy pretty books. They are nerdy and have bright colors.

I liked the idea of sorting books by a color spectrum, but it wasn’t going to work.

Source: Rue

After I redid the other side of the bookshelf with different boxes and baskets for the kids toys, I fell in love with the color pattern.

Their toys are really hidden in there. I love it!

So, I searched from brown paper, grey paper and white paper. I was going to make jackets for the books. I used the contractors' paper they use to cover up floors for the brown. I found a white wrapping paper and the grey was bulletin board paper.

I spent a lot of time wrapping the books. I did this in October/November timeframe and the boys thought I was wrapping the books to give as presents. They knew Christmas was coming. I wrapped a few each night.

I then wrote on the spines, in fine pen, the titles. I didn’t want the titles to be seen from far away, because I thought it would be a distraction from the simplicity.

Some books are from my childhood, and are a little girly for my boys to read, but I didn’t want to throw them away. People buy books they don’t read just to be fillers on their shelf. That’s what my old books could be.

I really like how it turned out. It is much more soothing than all the random colors of the books. They are grouped in categories, which is more helpful for Mr. JCrew when he is looking for something. If I had arranged by color, he’d be on the hunt for a book forever.

I still have the top left shelf to recover. They will be in wrapped in the brown paper. I think it will really balance the white box in front of them. 

Shelves are hard. I am not good at styling them. What my eye is drawn to, is not something I can create. But I'm heading in the direction I like. Even after writing this post and adding pictures, I can see more changes I can make. Always a process, and enjoying it.