If books are the lifeblood of your personal space, bookshelves are the heart. A bookshelf is such an essential piece of furniture that it can be used creatively to elevate the look and utility of your space. If you stumbled upon this blog post, you are probably looking to renovate or decorate one of your rooms to be more book-friendly.

When done right, the bookshelf or shelves are the main attraction of the room. The beauty is, they don’t even have to house only books! They can be home to so many decorative items, articles of interest, memorabilia from your personal life etc. But even if you have more books than you know what to do with, you will find some ideas here today that should help you organize your space beautifully.

Styling your bookshelves can either be a work of art or a total mess. You have to think about the functioning, arrangement of the books, and at the same time, you have to worry about how well it fits into the overall aesthetics of the room you’re in. So let’s look at some decorating ideas to help you with the bookshelves.

1. Personalize It

The most important thing about decorating anything is making it as personalized as possible. This means adding personal pictures, collages, and posters. You can also base it around a theme that resonates the most with you. For example, if you’re decorating the room for a child and being into superheroes, the shelf can have collectable items, posters and other kinds of relatable decoration. This makes the bookshelf a tool of personal expression as well.

When you put that much effort into making your book storage this personalized unit, you find yourself more attached to the books. This is a great way to make a customized space where you can just disappear and be yourself for hours.

Bonus Tip: You could construct a small cozy nook to relax and read in around your bookshelf.

2. Paint and Colors

Colors are the ultimate stylizing tool for anything. When it comes to bookshelves, you will have other furniture in the room to match or contrast the color scheme with the rest of the walls and furniture. Regardless of how you choose to do it, you just have to make sure that the bookshelf doesn’t stick out like a sore sight that looks it doesn’t belong in the room. Painting the shelf yourself can be a fun activity you can partake in.

When we talk about a DIY painting project, the possibilities are endless. You can come up with totally unique colors and patterns. This is a way in which you can turn a plain and blank bookshelf attractive.

3. Vertical Vs Horizontal Arrangements

How you decide to arrange your books and artifacts will also make for a big decorative decision. When it comes to books, vertical arrangements are how it is usually done. It makes the spine of the text readable and easy to pick out. But horizontal configurations can look just as attractive if done right.

Nobody said that you need to be restricted to any one of the two styles. You can try out different arrangement combinations and use the other decorative items in the middle and here and there to come up with something beautiful and abstract.

4. Wallpaper

Wallpaper is another way to make a bland old bookshelf look exciting and an attractive feature of the room. You can experiment with so many different types of wallpaper to bring out various styles. It can also be personalized if you find the right vendor. Floral wallpapers work wonders when it comes to room decorations, and on the bookshelves, they look even better when the rest of the things are in place.

5. Wooden Crates as Bookshelves

This one is a crafty DIY idea that can give your room a unique and earthly feel. For this, just sand a few regular wooden crates and stack them in various patterns. This gives the style of décor a very rural sense which can work for some people. You can also thematically decorate the rest of the room in accordance with the wooden crate bookshelves.