Decorating with Books

My husband and I both love reading, and accordingly, have amassed quite a collection of books over the years.  We made sure when designing our new house to have lots of built-in bookcases to house all of our books.  When we moved, I swear most of our boxes were filled with books.  I am definitely a “real book” reader- haven’t even tried the Kimble or whatever its called because I just love the feel of a book in my hand and, when I read in bed, I just prefer holding an actual book and turning the pages.  Old-fashioned? Probably, but I like it that way. 

And I love decorating with books.  You can tell a lot by a person by the books they read.  In my house, you would guess I’m into God/religion/spirituality, decor, parenting/babies, fashion, and cooking.  My husband’s books are all about business, law, and history. 

I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration for decorating with books from blogland and I especially love those “rainbow” bookshelves and wanted to try my hand at it.  I’m pretty familiar with my books, so I’m sure I won’t have any trouble locating them even though they aren’t categorized by subject. 

Here’s my rainbow bookshelf in the upstairs hallway.  All I did was group the books into rainbow order by their spines and then arrange them on the shelf.   I reworked it a couple of times, and ended up with this:

Here’s the close up:

     

Here are a few other places in my home that I’ve used books as decor. 

Living Room

 

Kitchen

  

James’ Nursery

 

 

  Here are some of my inspiration images:

*Flicker via Chotda

Eccentric Scholar via Apartment Therapy

   

*Malene Charles & Christine Martinez (both via Design Sponge)

 

*Erin Gates former home.  Elements of Style                

 

*Kelly Doust via Design Sponge      

*Leah Richardson 

                 *David Jimenez

*J Crew

*First image via science blogs.

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I’m sharing this post with these fabulous blogs:

A Few of My Favorite Things * All Thingz Related * Blue Cricket Design * C.R.A.F.T. * Fingerprints on the Fridge * Infarrantly Creative * Just A Girl * Keeping it Simple * Mad in Crafts * Me and My Bucket * Miss Mustard Seed * New Nostalgia * Remodelaholic * Seven Thirty Three * Serenity Now * Super Stinky Boys * Tatertots and Jello * The Inspired Room * The Shabby Chic Cottage * The Shabby Nest * Thrifty Decor Chick * Today’s Creative Blog * Under the Table and Dreaming

and at these parties.