This Styling Hack Will Make Your Bookcase Look Full While Your Collection Is Growing
When designing and furnishing your home, there are a few staple pieces of furniture you're guaranteed to need — a couch, mattress, dining table, dresser, and so on. Some pieces of furniture are more decorative than functional, like bookcases. No matter the size of your book collection, not everyone knows how to seamlessly incorporate a bookcase into their home décor.
One of the biggest issues people may have with adding a bookcase to their home, whether it's in their living room, bedroom, study, or another room entirely, is filling it out. Even those with extensive book collections may have issues making their bookshelf look full. Still, it's worth including one in your home if you have the space. Swiss Valley Furniture points out that bookshelves allow you to display decorations while keeping your belongings organized in one designated area. If you're worried about sparse-looking shelves, keep reading for a quick and easy hack to make them look fuller.
Arrange books cover out
While there are some traditional guidelines around styling bookshelves and even whole methods of classifications like the Dewey Decimal System, there are no hard and fast rules about arranging books on your bookshelves at home. Even though they're meant to help organize your books, bookshelves also show off your book collection and decorative items.
A simple way to make your bookshelf look fuller while also showing off some of your favorite books in your collection is to face them cover out, recommends The Book Family Rogerson. While slotting your books onto your shelves with the spines facing out is practical for larger collections, facing them cover out can help hide gaps in your collection and make it look fuller altogether, as well as show off some of your favorites, similar to how bookstores show off staff recommendations. You can keep it simple with a few cover-out books or create an almost artistic display of books with similar covers, making a wall of book covers on your bookshelf.
Other styling tips
Books aren't the only thing you're likely going to be displaying on your bookshelves at home, though. Bookshelves are also a great place to display different decorations or tchotchkes alongside your books and can help make your collection look a little fuller than it is. Jenny Komenda recommends starting with adding books to your bookshelf, grounding it with heavier and larger books on the bottom, and smaller, lighter ones on top. She also recommends varying their orientation — some vertically stacked, some horizontally, or, like previously recommended, cover out.
From there, add larger decorative pieces like bowls, baskets, decorative plates, lamps, candles or candlesticks, trinket boxes, vases, etc. You can also add plants — real or fake – to add some greenery and vibrancy, but just make sure you don't put real plants near any valuable books in the unfortunate case of pest infestation or water leakage. You can also add art pieces and smaller trinkets to fill out the space.