All my life, I've wanted a library in my home. I am a voracious reader and one favorite way to spend a day is curled up in a comfortable chair, thoroughly engrossed in a book, blissfully unaware of the time.
As a shy, introverted child, I had a hard time making friends, so I often escaped into books to pass the time. A good book is an old friend; one to return to and reread again and again.
My husband loves books as well, so between us, we have a lot of books!
I've tried putting bookshelves in every room and separating my books by genre, but it was frustrating when I'd search for a particular book...which room was it in again?
I felt my books really wanted to be together, all in one place; to be perused as a collection.
This was my latest attempt at a home library...mismatched bookcases, piles of books that didn't fit on the shelves, games and photo albums, a table filled with scrapbooking supplies and a Papasan chair. And, a lot of my favorite books were in another room, on shelves in the basement!
A close up of the clutter
The bigger picture
First, all of the scrapbooking supplies were packed up and relocated and the table removed. It's best when possible, to use a room for only one purpose or to declare separate zones. The opposite half of this long narrow room has a desk for a home office space.
Scrapbooking overload
Then the sorting began...first by genre.
I removed the white bookcase, as it didn't match the others, and suffered a small injury when a shelf unexpectedly fell off. When organizing, ask for help!
I donated 136 books that I no longer wanted - no joy lost there, and took another bag of books to a
and made a few $!
Then I sorted my books by color. I've always dreamed of a color-coordinated library!
Ta-Dah! All books sorted by genre and color.
I brought in the wing back chair from our living room, the antique lamp is from a bedroom and all the shelving matches better! No piles, no games, no scrapbooking supplies.
Before
After
Instead, a cozy corner library with all my books in one clutter free place.
Now to find some pretty artwork, a small decorative rug and a vase of fresh flowers to finish off the space.
And look
at all the bookmarks that were hiding in my books! Bonus!
Where do you keep your favorite books? Do you have them organized a particular way?