The art of styling bookshelves had never really been important to me until I started perusing pictures on Pinterest and saw the carefully curated collections and beauty in the organized book spines.
Of course, I don’t have an unlimited budget where I can add decorative books in one carefully choreographed color or an unlimited budget for fantastic looking odds-and-ends to update my bookshelves.
That is why I am excited to share with you some easy ideas for updating your bookshelves with inexpensive items and a few budget-friendly craft materials.
Cover Books With Paper
If you have an eclectic collection of books or you want to pick up a collection of books at Goodwill to stock your shelves, one frugal way you can add order and beauty to your bookshelf is to simply wrap each book in paper.
These beautiful bookshelves from Chloe Moore Photography have beautifully hand-stamped spines that add a unique detail to them.
I also love how she has weaved in her photography equipment, adding her own personal nods to her favorite interests.
Spray Paint Items to Create a Cohesive Collection
Instead of trying to find items of a similar color for your bookshelves to add those unique details, consider creating your own collection of groupings with an inexpensive bottle of spray paint.
My own bookshelves were cluttered with items that did not mean anything to me and did not showcase my personality.
I took a day to declutter my shelves, added a fabric back to my bookshelf and then found items that I loved and spray painted them with a little gold spray paint.
It created just the look I was going for, and cost $15 to update my shelves.
Stack Your Books In a New Way
Sometimes we get into a rut with our styling. I thought there were only two ways to style my books- vertically or horizontally.
The Art of Doing Stuff though has me rethinking my book stacks and groupings because there are actually 7 ways you can stack your books.
The names are even fun- the Sandwich Stack, On the Bias, and the Spiral Stack…just to name a few.
Consider regrouping your stacks in new ways and adding to your stacks with items you can find at your store to round out your collection.
Add an Eye-Catching Design to Your Bookcase
Even inexpensive laminate bookcases finds can be transformed with a little paint and thoughtful styling into true things of beauty.
One thing I love to see on bookcases, is an interesting color on the inside of the bookshelves.
This can be added with a pop of color from a brightly colored paint, a pretty fabric, scrapbook paper, or even stenciling.
I love this fantastic idea from This is Our Bliss to use removable wallpaper to add a decorative touch that is both frugal and fast.
Add Your Own Personality
One thing that I have been trying to do is to weed out the clutter in my life and make room for the good stuff.
The same tactic can be applied towards our bookshelves and what we place on them.
My shelves have yarn and knitting books, a shelf dedicated to my favorite classics, and I have a cookbook shelf that not only holds my cookbooks, but also holds the biscuit cutter that my great-grandma used to make biscuits for me when I was a little girl.
Consider creating a bookcase or shelf towards your own personal hobbies and collections.
I love this beautiful cookbook collection from The Inspired Room that celebrates her love for beautiful cookbooks.
This would also be a great spot to find some pretty vintage cookbooks or vintage kitchen items that you could weave into your shelves.
What’s one of your favorite things on your bookshelves? What is one styling trick you like to use when styling your bookshelves? Feel free to share here!
This post contains affiliate links.
Don’t miss those other great ideas from MomAdvice.com:
15 Easy DIY Updates to Help You Love Your Home
How to Spray Paint Furniture
How to Create Vignettes in Decorating
DIY Table Runner
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As you can see, I can wheel them over to corners in our office so they don’t get in the way. I am so thankful for these smart solutions for our space. I am also thankful that I finally feel organized in this space.
I hope this craft inspires you for your holiday giving. I will confess to you now that I am going to have a very hard time parting with these cute ornaments. I just might be making myself a few over the holidays!
If there is one holiday I love it is Thanksgiving. Any holiday that focuses on all of the blessings of the year around a dinner table filled with those I love is definitely a holiday that I love to celebrate. Oftentimes though, the details of holiday preparation and decorating can interfere with the things that really should matter the most.
From the knitting/crochet accessories section, you will need size 5 straight needles. If you want to vary the sizes though of your leaves, you can select anything between 2-5 to play around with different sizes. This might be fun especially if knitting the leaves in just one color.
This Fall I am committed to ridding my home of some unnecessary clutter. My bookshelves were in need of some true organization and updating. Today I am sharing a fabric-lined bookcase makeover to update a tired bookcase and some ideas for adding a little budget-friendly seasonal beauty to your bookshelves.
Let’s start with a before picture of my bookshelves. As you can see, they are brimming over with far too many books and clutter than you could ever imagine. One side housed a million books, while the other housed random junk in our house. Since this is the front room in our house, it really embarrassed me that they had gotten this cluttered.
Here is a close-up of my, “new-to-me,” shelves for Fall. The books at the top are among my favorite. I read East of Eden this summer for the first time, my childhood copy of Secret Garden from my great-grandma is in the pile, I’m Hemingway obsessed, and each year I am collecting one new reissued pretty classic from Barnes & Noble for a holiday gift to myself. My little $2.49 owl fits perfectly in there next to a few of my very favorite books.
The top shelf in this photo holds a few of my favorite cookbooks, a golden pumpkin, and my little Pie Bird that I think is oh-so-sweet and reminds me how much I love a good piece of pie.
Here are some shots of my beautiful bookshelves now. It is one of those projects that I sit and look at over and over again because it makes me so happy. The fabric completely transformed these and the clutter removed from them brings a lot more peace and order to the room.
