How to Style a Functional Bookcase

FOLLOW ALONG TO GET SOME IDEAS ON HOW TO STYLE A FUNCTIONAL BOOKCASE. IT'S ONE THING TO SEE A BEAUTIFULLY STYLED BOOKCASE, BUT ITS NOT ALWAYS PRACTICAL. GOOD THING FUNCTION CAN ALSO BE BEAUTIFUL.

I would have never guessed it, but we have a lot of books in our home. When I was growing up I wouldn't have been caught dead with a book. I really don't know how I made it through school.

I can remember back to grade 2 and knowing, hey I am a good reader! And then I have a clear image of me in grade 4, knowing full well that I was struggling with reading. It didn't help that I had a one-track mind and nothing interested me unless it had to do with a sport, and unfortunately, you don't get to read a lot of sports-related books in school.

Well fast forward to adulthood, well actually to motherhood. Our eldest daughter was practically born with a book in her hands. I vowed pretty early on that I would do my very best to make sure my child loved reading. Because you know what? When you don't like reading, it makes school pretty difficult. And school is life for a very long time!

As you can see I took my vow to encourage the love of reading pretty seriously, we have a lot of books! And what fun is having a lot of books if the bookcase doesn't look nice?

Here are my tips to help you style a functional bookcase.

Pull everything off the bookcase, start with a blank slate.

It's best to start with a blank slate, this will allow you to really see what you have to work with. Pulling everything off the shelf is also a great time to get rid of anything you don't use anymore. Creating a little donation pile is helpful so you can display items and books that your family actually uses.

Group books into series and gather according to size

Once you have pulled everything off, start grouping your books into different categories. For me, I grouped our books according to series; so all Franklin books together, according to size, reading level and in some cases theme.

style a functional bookcase with colourful books

Organize by colour

After grouping like books together I gathered the remaining books and organized these by the colour of their spine. Children's books are naturally colourful so it was easy to take advantage of colour coding.

Use baskets

Baskets are great for bookshelves because they can easily be taken off and it doesn't create a big mess. I used our baskets and fill them according to the season. So at Christmas, I will pull out all Christmas books and place them in a basket, and Easter I will do the same. Other times I will put all of our Bible storybooks together or all of our Easy Reader books.

Bring books to the front

A simple tip to make your bookcase look a little more polished is to bring all the books to the end of the shelf so that all the books' spines are flush.

Bookends

Use items you already own as bookends. This can be as simple as tipping books over and stacking them, using a plant, a globe, picture frames, souvenirs.

Added Bonus: Want to keep your bookcase looking styled?

Use a return basket

Create a return basket for your little readers to return their books. After our girls have pulled a book off the shelf and are done with it, they put it into the return basket. Once the basket is full I put the books back onto the shelf. This keeps the bookcase styled and functional, still allowing them the freedom of picking any book off the shelf.

Rotate the books

About every month or so I will also rotate books. I have noticed after about a year of doing this that rotating books helps a lot. It encourages them to read something new and prevents boredom, allowing reading to always be a positive experience!

I hope that you have been encouraged to use your bookcase, for just that, books! It's beautiful to have a perfectly curated bookcase like those ones you see in magazines. But my intent is to make you see the beauty in what you already own!

Tag me on Instagram @iekelroadhome so I can see how you style your bookcase to be functional and beautiful!