Decorating With Books

Every time I move I'm forced to face an ugly truth - I'm a hoarder. A book hoarder. It's a problem I've struggled with most of my life, and no matter how many books I donate or swap, there's always more coming in to replace them. The worst part is that my husband is an enabler, so the cycle continues.

Whenever we settle into a new house I’m amazed that we ever found room for them all in the old one. My writing study is a much smaller room in this home, so I’ve been forced to spread out our shelving space, and even use some of it for other things (gasp). Another issue is the open layout of the main floor which has a high ceiling and lots of decorative nooks in elevated places. I’ve never had to deal with such things before and it’s been a challenge figuring out what to do with them.

In particular, there is a rather large area above the fireplace that screamed for something wonderful to be placed there and admired. But what? I finally opted to try and kill two birds with one giant pile of musty old books, and I think it turned out pretty well.

I have a collection of classics and outdated study books scraped together from various sources that came from my grandparents house before it was demolished. I dragged them up a ladder and stacked them at varying heights in a somewhat spiral pattern. Then, I just threw a few knick-knacks and small paintings around, and suddenly it looked like an artful display.

The skull is made of wood and belongs to Hubs. I little macabre, but he loves it. The overall effect:

I suspect the book piles will become a theme around the house until I acquire the proper number of bookshelves to hold them. Maybe not anything as fantastical as the stacks in Flourish & Blotts, but you can find all sorts of ways to use small book stacks for decoration. I’ve stacked them under a lamp on a desk, beneath a large fruit bowl in the kitchen, and of course, right on the floor next to a cozy reading chair. No one ever has to know that my innovative interior design is just a sneaky way to cope with my addiction.

Any other ideas? Where do you display your books?

Cheers!
Ella