When I was younger, my mom and dad installed some bookcases in my dad’s office. A wall and a half of all shelves. Guess who got to transfer the books to their new home and alphabetize them? Yep, me. Fast forward to us finally adding some bookshelves to our house. Visions of alphabetizing hundreds of books for hours on end danced in my head. Do I categorize them by title? By author? By category and then by author? Do I separate the children’s chapter books from the adult and young adult books?
I decided to forgo the traditional organization and go for sorting them by color! I posed the question on Facebook and Instagram of whether or not it would make you guys twitchy and I was shocked that almost all of you were on board with the whole book by color thing. Now I do have to say that if I had a million books that I would probably have to alphabetize in some way. But since we have never had a place to put our books, we have not bought a lot of them over the years. Instead we relied on borrowing them from family and the library. But since we have only these, I felt like I could find what I needed just fine.
These shelves are on the left side of a window and I actually have four more that will hang on the right side of the window. Eventually I will spread the books out across all eight shelves and add some plants and things to fill in the gaps. I love that I have room to grow! I feel a book shopping spree is in order :)
I wanted to be able to have books on the ends of the shelves without having to put something there to keep them upright. I decided to try and find some metal bookends. I was able to find some white metal bookends (affiliate link) on Amazon. They had all different colors, but I got white because the shelves are white. The have a grippy material on the bottom to keep them from slipping too.
I really didn’t want them to show at all if possible so I tucked them into the inside cover of the last book on the shelf.
It was really that easy! I have seen others use glue and wood and an old book spine but I didn’t want to ruin any books especially when I don’t have a lot to begin with. You can barely tell it is there at all.
I realize that the OCD people are cringing right now. Some books are turned the wrong way. Never fear! When I spread them out, I will remedy this. I just needed my books on the floor so the puppy wouldn’t chew them and I was excited to see what they looked like in all their rainbow glory.
Would you ever sort your books by color or would that drive you crazy? How do you organize your books?
Oh I do like your idea of slipping the bookend into the cover of the last book! I love the look of the color coding but would never be able to find the books I am looking for… so I organize by topic and sub-topic. :)
I like your bookends, and the way you tucked them into the last book. Cool effect. I can imagine myself looking for a book and remembering the color of the cover, in which case organizing by color would be a big help. but, I don’t organize my books by color. I say, whatever floats your boat is the best way to organize. I like to organize by category, and leave it at that. I absolutely don’t have the patience to organize alphabetically, but I do derive satisfaction out of organizing a collection of things, whether they’re books or other objects. Whatever gives you a sublime sense of pleasure is the way to go. That’s the difference between getting a job done, and putting it off forever.
I love the look of organizing by color but would never do it in my home. If I don’t organize by category and then Author it would take me far too long to find anything. ADD kid organizes so she doesn’t go crazy, but that’s a personal thing.
That’s one stylish bookshelf!
How on earth would you find a particular book?!?!? We have hundreds of books and they are sorted by author then title. Sorting by color would make me crazy! People who READ books, and not use them for display, would never sort them by COLOR!
These books get read a lot. And now that they are out of totes and on shelves I imagine they’ll get read even more. One day when we are lucky enough to own even more books, I’ll probably have to change how they are organized. But for now, this works for us.
I’ve been an avid reader since age four and I sort all my gardening books (hundreds, as I’m a book reviewer) by color. These are books I use quite often and while at first I had to think a bit where each book was, it took me no time at all to learn where they are. I can visualize each book and it’s not hard to remember what color and size the book is, which makes it a snap to locate. It’s actually the books that get used most often that are easiest to find. I prefer the look of like colors together because more time is spent in the room with that visual staring me in the face than I would ever spend looking for a book. But that’s just me. :-)
I love this look!
My bookshelves are currently seeking big jumbled up mess. We are moving soon so I have just given up on organising this house… you do have my sold on this though – your shelves look lovely. I NEED to start sorting everything by colour. Rainbows everywhere!
Great idea!! Gonna have to try it. :)
Honestly, I think the books look ok, but I like mine categorized on the subject of the book, i.e. inspirational, history,mysteries. But that is me. I would find what i want faster, but I love the unvisable book ends. Sincerely, Judy
I use books as mini display areas. I stack several horizontally, against the vertical row, to hold the rows upright, as a bookend would do . I display small collectibles on the horizontal stack. I collect old, worn books from thrift stores, and use them a lot for display. Your colors are pretty, but I would not have enough to make it obvious. I like a more eclectic look.
Oh, I love it! Looks amazing! I like when there’s lots of books in the room! they give a special mood to the whole house and you always have what to read)
I love your color coded library! I never would have thought to do this. I do color code my closet and I love Charming Charlie because they color code their store. My books are sorted not by author but by size. Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea! I initially thought you did something to the books themselves to make them strong enough to hold up the others but I like your idea much better. I have very few old, vintage books and I wouldn’t want to destroy them either! Visiting from Creativity Unleashed party.
Oooh, I organize everything by color, so I LOVE This!! We have way too many books to do this with, but if we ever get rid of enough so I could fit them all on one wall (or in one room), then I am totally doing this!
Great idea to give the row of books support with those hidden bookends! I never thought to group books by color, but I really like the look. Thanks for linking up with Funtastic Friday!
I’m more than a little A/R ~ my books are alphabetized by Author, then by date of publication. I like your idea for the invisible holders
What a neat idea! Looks great! Thanks for sharing #HomeMattersParty
Jeannee
Too many books to organise in this manner. I go by author than date of publication and/or series. We you have 1000’s of books in fours rooms with shelves 3/4 of the way around the room, it’s the only way. Love the idea of slipping the bookend inside a book. I am going to do this.