How to: Decorate a Bookshelf

After checking out my first blog post, my friend reminded me "All the world needs is more cats on the internet". So I am happy to oblige all those cat haters out there and post about something unrelated: how to decorate a bookshelf.

Here are some pictures of my bookshelf as it looks now:

This is far from my old bookshelf that I had while living in San Francisco, which had books lined up with no particular order, and only books. Here are 5 tips to transform yours:

1. Arrange books by color. In the picture on the right the top shelf has all my books which are dark red or pink, with some neutral colors mixed in. This helps give the bookshelf a more orgazined, visually appealing look.

2. Alternate between arranging books vertically and horizontally. I stacked my biggest books horizontally, so they could fit on the bookshelf and offer a nice contrast to the smaller, vertically lined up books.

3. If you collect anything, like me, put a couple of them on the bookshelf. Just a couple. I have a ton of elephant themed trinkets that I have collected over the years, and so I decided to put three of them on the bookshelf. In the picture on the right is a closer look at a beautiful elephant piggy bank my fiance gave me, which nicely blends in with the books.

4. Do not put any of those beat up old books on the bookshelf. Store them in beautiful boxes, and put those on the shelves instead.

5. Throw in other visually appealing things, and place them on, in between and in front of books.

Let me know if you have any other ideas for decorating, or if this post helped you transform your bookshelf!