Beautiful Bookshelves

I’m excited to share our living room bookshelves today. They are one of my favorite areas in the flat — I went gaga over them when we were viewing the place. Gorgeously built-in, painted white and all for our books. When our things arrived (we shipped them across the Atlantic from New York to London, it was an epic site to see the crate coming down the street with all of our belongings), the first boxes I unpacked were our books. I knew the look I wanted to create: colorful, classic and a good glimpse into who we are as individuals and a couple. I wanted them to be aesthetically pleasing, but also approachable for guests to feel comfortable taking down a novel or pulling out a decorating book.

I started by sorting all the books by color. We had so many red, blue and white books that I wanted to display, so those I started with to find a suitable amount of space. A few of my favorites on our shelves are Martha’s Entertaining, Aerin Lauder’s Beauty at Home, Tory Burch’s In Color (a recent gift!), and Alexa Hampton’s Decorating in Detail. We have quite a few more books than what’s on these shelves, but these are truly for display (though I’m always pulling different ones down to read or reference). Our other books are hidden away underneath in the cupboards, or in other bookshelves around the flat. There’s an entirely different bookshelf dedicated to cookbooks–a necessity.

You shouldn’t be afraid to have the books organized in varying ways. Some of ours are standing traditionally, and others are stacked. It depends on the size, color and how many books we wanted to display. It adds some interest to the eye when you look at the shelf as well.

I decorated the spaces around the books with a variety of our favorite decorative pieces from a perfect-sized crystal bowl filled with Moët & Chandon corks from parties we’ve hosted since moving here, to red crab bottle openers from a Maryland wedding last spring, to silver seashells from my hometown of Virginia Beach [purchased at Shore Gallery & Design]. It was so much fun to play with where objects fit, and I love to linger around the shelves remembering special moments they represent.

I loved receiving this gift from our wedding — it was so exciting seeing our married monogram, and especially on a Mariposa tray {love this one too}. A lover of all monograms, I just squealed with joy when we opened it. It’s also one of my favorite gifts to give newlyweds! 

We love both New York (our old home) and London (our new home), so we wanted to display that as well. It’s fun to play around with the symbolism and your guests will ask questions about you from what you display. It’s a true built-in conversation starter.

I also believe fresh flowers are a necessity and purchase blooms every Saturday (a habit I picked up in New York where two dozen roses were $10 from my corner bodega in the Village). It’s great to have a bit of plant life amongst the books and decor. I use Kate Spade New York’s Gardner Street Rose Bowl to host the whimsy pops of color, and it nestles in nicely.

The result is a unique, creative area that houses our favorite books and pieces. It’s also a special space for us with momentos we’ve collected, and many of which serve as bookends to keep all of those books in line. I hope you enjoy creating talking points through your bookshelves, too!