Books in your home

by Natalie and Justine

Like pictures, books can tell a lot about a person. Everything from their childhood; where they studied; their hobbies and where they’ve travelled, with various city and country guides that have been collected along the way.

Whenever I get invited to dinner, everyone assumes I’ll look at their interiors first but I usually make a bee-line towards their books and pictures as I find them fascinating. (To be fair I do usually say hello and hand over a bottle of wine first!). So if your books are cooped up in the loft then now’s the time to display them with pride and read on for inspiration…

In the alcove
As an alternative to the standard shelf, we like this display shelving, painted with a contrasting charcoal grey in the alcove. Great for all those lovely coffee table books:

Fixtures on display
There is a big trend towards showing the brackets and wall fixtures of a shelving system. A kind of back-lash to those floating shelves that took hold in the 90′s! This more industrial approach can also look great juxtaposed in a classical room too. Take a look at these two pictures as an example:

 

 

On the wall
There are some nifty wall displays around at the mo and we particularly like this one by Dutch designers Studio Parade:

And this one called the Quad by Contraforma:

Stacking your books
Books can also looked great stacked on the floor, especially if you have a huge collection of Interior Design mags like we have!

Or make a concealed book shelf using this celever invisible floating book shelf from Heals at £15!

Faking it:
There’s nothing quite like the real thing –  so we’re not a big fan of this! But this book wallpaper is quite a nifty way of carrying on your books around the room. Also a good  example of how you can take shelving over windows and doors to create a whole wall full of books:

Children and books:
There are lots of fun ways to display childrens’ books. We came across this by designer, Shawn Soh the other day:

Making it happen:
barkerbournedesign can design and implement all forms of shelving and joinery for your home. We have expert carpenters who implement our bespoke designs with stunning results. Prices start at £250 per design. Please call for further information and we’ll be happy to help: Justine, 07788 581928.