How to Display Books in Your Home

Whether spending more time at home over the past few years has meant that you’ve had your head buried in books or you’re more partial to a Netflix binge, books – whether novels or the large coffee table variety – are likely to make an appearance somewhere in your home.

They are actually an amazing staple of interior decoration and knowing how to display books to make the most of their design function is key. The last thing you want is for your book collection to add clutter, and you certainly don’t want disorderly piles of them knocking about and accumulating dust, so it’s an idea to think of how you might go about displaying your books to get the most out of them as decorative items.

How to decorate with books on a bookshelf

The first and most obvious place to start is the bookshelf. Do you want your books to show off your bookshelf or do you want your bookshelf to show off your books? Figuring out the answer to this will help you choose the right piece for you.

If you have a book collection, but it focuses more on a few large coffee table books and smattering of novels or smaller books, then you might consider a bookshelf that is a beautiful design piece in and of itself. Doing so will mean that rather than your book collection looking thin, it will come across a curated selection that is part of your overall interior design vision. Our Pablo shelving unit is named after Picasso because of the way it celebrates the influence of Cubism on Art Deco design. Its geometric brass-clad shelves make it a statement piece that will only need a few choice items to bring it to life. Voilà!

Featuring: Pablo

Photography: @renovatingthehomestead Featuring: Aero

How to display books in your living room

If space is limited and you need to make the most out of what you’ve got, then you might think about doing an inventory of any recesses your house might have. If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace in your living room, then you may well have alcoves on either side that are calling out for built-in shelves. This is the perfect place to store and display a large book collection, but there’s no reason why you can’t also incorporate other design items in and amongst the books.

If you don’t have a fireplace you may well still have a chimney breast knocking about that will have alcoves on either side. Measure up and see what you’re working with. If custom-made shelves aren't the look you’re going for and you’d rather opt for something with a more contemporary flair then something slim like our Aero could work well in spaces such as these. Design-led but pared back and fresh, the Aero does as much of the heavy lifting design wise as you want it to.

Photography:@lauraslittlehome_ Featuring: Mackay

Think outside the box

What’s great about books is that they’re uniform in shape and usually not overly large so can just about be put anywhere. If a stand alone bookshelf or custom made shelves aren’t options that are available to you, then you can consider a more DIY option.

Old wooden wine crates are a great way to display books and will introduce warmth and texture to your space. It’s important to remember that books don’t necessarily need shelves and, in fact, coffee table books are better off displayed flat. This is where console tables, sideboards, drinks cabinets and of course coffee tables can be really brought to life. So get creative and have some fun whilst you're at it!

Whether you display your books as a design piece to finish off your coffee table, or get creative with shelving - decorating with books is a hugely underrated interior design technique that can add those finishing touches in your home.