I’ve been wanting for years to do a color-coordinated bookcase. I even had two colored shelves (in two different bookcases, for some reason.) But it seemed like such a huge undertaking, and when I looked at all my book spines, I couldn’t see how I could manage it—it always seemed like I had SO many black spines and not enough color.
When I recently got rid of a bunch of books, though, I decided it was time to organize anyway, so why not at least try? And I am SO happy with the results!
Taking good pictures was a bit of a trick. Unfortunately, I don’t get tons of natural light in my bedroom, and the bookcase that I chose to color-coordinate (the one I can stare at adoringly from in my bed) is really far away from the windows. In addition, my quarter-sawn oak bookcases are dark and don’t show off the colors nearly as well as white ones would. (But I LOVE my bookcases, and they match my bedroom set beautifully—my bedroom has the nicest furniture in my house by a mile). One solution that I came up with that helps A LOT is pushing all of the books to the front of the bookcase instead of the back. This also makes the books line up a little nicer. Still, I couldn’t rely only on natural light, which I know everyone who knows anything about Bookstagram would insist is best. Hey, I tried!
Here’s the unveiling:
In order to get this effect, I had to … gasp … separate series. This was kind of hard to convince myself to do, but it’s worth it!
My other two bookcases aren’t nearly as interesting, but I thought I’d take some pictures anyway. I organized them with a shelf for review books and one for middle grade. I then tried to keep books I’ve already read mostly together and kept the vestiges of series together too. 🙂
This last bookcase is still overcrowded. Even after I got rid of more books (and put some downstairs in the office bookcase) I still had too many to fit well. As you can see, there’s still a lot of stacking going on here. This bookcase is in the least conspicuous spot in the room, so it’s the messiest. Once I get rid of a TON of homeschooling books in the downstairs office, I’ll have more space to stretch out. 🙂
(This was also the hardest bookcase to get a decent picture of because of its location—the bookcase itself looks just like the other two, so I focused on the shelves. You get the idea, at least.
I also decided to catalog all my books in Goodreads so that it would be more accurate as far as the books I own. Most of the books were already listed there, but it’s not completely up to date, and I wanted to fix that. I created shelves in Goodreads for each bookcase so that I would know (roughly) where to find them! I’m still in the process of going through all of them, though. It’s going to take me a little while, since there are lots of books!
Have you ever done a major bookcase reorganization? How did you decide to organize your books? I want to know!
Wow, they look beautiful! The rainbow look is so pretty 🙂 I hope you have an easy time finding your broken apart series though. I love all the little figurines too! I’m hoping once I finally have enough books (I tend to get rid of anything I don’t 100% love) to create a pretty bookshelf they’ll look pretty decorated with my old My Little Pony figurines.
Yeah, I’m hoping splitting up the series won’t be too much of a problem since I’m cataloging the books in Goodreads, but we shall see! It’s so pretty, though, that I think it’s worth it!
The coloured bookcase looks awesome! So pretty!! I would love to have a bookcase like that, but we don’t have a lot of room and so I always just give away books as I read them (unless there’s potential for a reread) and I typically buy eBooks anyway. BUT I love the way this looks!!
When I first started blogging, I always said, “Oh, I don’t own that many books.” I mostly got them from the library or read them and got rid of them. Nowadays, it’s just a little bit different. Blogging has totally changed my bookshelves! (Book conferences are one HUGE reason.)
Lovely! I was wondering f you went with color. And what a great idea to use Goodreads to help find where the books are on your shelves. I need to do that. But then, what about the books stacked everywhere. LOL
I am a little nervous that it will be hard to keep up with keeping everything organized in Goodreads. That’s one reason why, for now, I just catalogued them by bookcase instead of by shelf—I figure that gives me a little bit of leeway for moving them around. And, yeah, the stacks of books (that are sure to appear at any moment since I’m totally out of space) will be an issue. 🙂
Nice bookshelves! I want t ocolor coordinate mine too but have been too lazy to d so . 🙂 Still it looks awesome whenever I see it. I love blue spines especially for some reason.
It definitely takes a long time to get it all done. My mom helped me, and we still spent hours doing it.
So pretty! I’m scared to color coordinate. Not just of black spines but aso the multi colored ones.
I have a ton of black or boring spines—so many that I didn’t think color coordinating would work. But when I put it all together, I was surprised that I had more color than I thought!
I so love the colored bookcase! I’ve wanted to try something similar. Maybe a summer project for me?
You should go for it!
I’ve been trying to get rid of a lot of books for awhile now so it looks a bit neater but nothing too fancy. I’m loving your color coded bookcase. It looks great!! I have two shelves on my really big bookcase that’s just Harry Potter stuff. haha
-lauren
Harry Potter could easily take up two shelves. Actually, my Harry Potter series is in my oldest’s room, so it’s not pictured. (Except for the illustrated ones I own).
I think color-coordinated bookcases are just SO PRETTY. But I’ve never done because 1) I don;t own that many physical and 2) I’m not sure I’ll be able to find the books LOL
Your look awesome! I would also stare at adoringly it no-stop! funny you mention the white bookcases because I had the same predicament. I know they would showcase my books better but I love the natural wood! 🙂 lol only us bookworm think about these things right 🙂
Yes! I bought these because they match my bedroom furniture so well. I think white bookcases would look odd in there. Maybe someday I’ll get a white bookcase in the office—right now I have a dark one (almost black) in there.
Wow! These look amazing! You did a great job. 🙂
Thanks, Steph! I’m loving them!
They look so good! If I had a giant bookshelf, I’d make it rainbow colored. Right now, most of my books are just crammed wherever they fit.
Yeah, my books had some organization to them, but I’d mostly lost it. We’ll see how long this lasts! (I think the colored shelves will stay nice—the others? Probably not.)
I love all three bookcases! Of course, I may be a little prejudiced since I helped. I think they turned out great. 🙂
Thank you for your help!!!!
My pleasure! ?
Oh wow! That is beautiful! I love the color organization, but to be honest, I could never ever do it myself. I’ve been told I am very OCD with my books and it’s true. I am. Lol. I like keeping authors and series together, though since I’ve accumulated a lot of bookcases and books, I have more books than the room for them. So they are more separated than I would like.
But I go old school with my organization, alphabetical by last name, the series all in order should there be more than one on the shelf. I’ve gone so far as to create a spreadsheet listing every book I own, down to title, author, style (HC, PB, etc) and whether it’s signed or not so I know what books to look for when it came time for signings! That was probably the most tedious part of my gathering title info, as my goodreads inventory of “want to read” is basically books owned, but I didn’t start goodreads until 2010.
My next step (possibly, maybe) might be to add a column that tells me where said book is at. I’ll be in trouble if I were to move more around though! Lol. That’s another challenge for another long boring weekend, haven’t had one of those in awhile so it might be awhile still until I do that! Lol!
I’ve considered that about moving books around. For now, I just have which bookcase the book is in rather than what shelf. That gives me a little bit of freedom to move things.
I love the look of your shelves! I actually just moved around our library/computer room a few months and have a wall of bookshelves. I got all of the books up on the shelves and then did nothing else. They are kind of just randomly on the shelves so I really need to get busy organizing them.
Yeah, it can be a daunting task!
This post is making me miss the floor to ceiling shelves I had in my old house. I have yet to get any shelves, so my books sit in stacks against the wall. You did a lovely job organizing. I am a fan of the rainbow look.
Aw, I hope you get new shelves again soon!
Organizing bookshelves in any way takes a lot of time and patience. Yours look lovely!! I really like how the colors turned out but I’m not sure I could convince myself to separate series. LOL I love how you have treasures displayed on your shelves as well. They all really look nice, Nicole. 🙂
It was hard to get myself to do it, but I’m really excited about the results! Plus, it’s a great backdrop for book haul pics.
Your shelf looks amazing. I gasped when you had to separate series but the overall effect is stunning.
Separating series was PAINFUL but the end result was worth it!
Your pictures came out fine! That’s the main reason I could never do color coordinated shelves—I couldn’t bring myself to separate series. I also would have a hard time figuring out how to classify a lot of books that aren’t strictly one color lol. But I don’t have enough books for color-coordination anyway. It does look amazingly pretty though! Your other shelves are pretty too, especially with all the cute little Funkos!
Yeah, it was hard to convince myself to do it. But I love the results!
Every time I see a rainbow bookcase I get twitchy because I know series and/or author titles have been split up. Ha ha. You are a brave woman. I love the illustrated Harry Potters. I recently bought two new bookcases and they need to be reorganized already. XD
It was sort of painful to split them up, but I’m so happy with the results that I regret nothing!
Awesome color-coordinating! All of the shelves look wonderful…I can imagine just lying there staring at them.
I kind of stare at mine, too; I have two shelves in my bedroom (I used to have five, before the giant purges two years ago!). My shelves are arranged alphabetically, so there is no coordination going on.
Thanks for sharing.
Yes, sometimes I do just literally sit and stare at the prettiness. 🙂
They look fantastic. I could never do a color coordinated shelf. I’m so OCD about keeping series and authors together! I really need to redo my shelves though! I have so many series that are separated at the moment from being pulled out and read. And I have a lot of books I need to reorganize so multiple series certain authors have wrote can be put together. One day I’ll get to it. Lol. I also love your Funkos! I can’t take any of mine out of the boxes or else my daughter will play with them! Lol.
It was sort of painful in some ways, but I LOVE the results! I’m a big fan of Funkos—I didn’t even know about them before I started blogging.
I am suuuuper jealous of your pretty shelves!! I love the rainbow- I have tried so many times to do it but it’s always a fail because of all the neutral color spines! When I move I may try it again- I think my major problem is that I like to organize my shelves more by priority, and my already read shelves are the smallest because I have been trying to keep only books I really loved, so. Thanks for sharing all the pretty with us!! 😀
Yeah, I had to get over the idea of mixing up my books—-I have read and unread, series and non-series, etc. all together. The idea of it stressed me out a bit, but I think cataloging them in Goodreads helped ease my fears a little. And it’s so pretty!!
(But, yes, I have two much bigger shelves with neutral spines because I have so many more of those—I’m always amazed by people who have walls full of color-coordinated shelves. Do they buy books specifically for the spines??!)
That’s beautiful!!
I tried to do a rainbow once but I didn’t have enough colorful books lol
I have a weird system that only makes sense to me right now.
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
As long as it DOES make sense to you. That’s all that really matters!
I love your color coordinated shelf! I would love to do this someday, but right now I don’t have enough bookcases. Moat of my books are just stacked in piles all around my room.
Oh, I’ve definitely been there. Even with so many bookcases, I still had to get rid of a lot of books so I didn’t have piles. At least not many. 🙂
Awww so pretty!! I always think of organizing them by color, but then I freak out about separating my series books. And I always end up not being able to do it lol. Maybe someday? Oh I don’t know, I can’t imagine separating them. Lol. My whole closet is organized in sections by color….does that count???
Ooooh! Now I want to see pictures of your closet. 🙂
I’ll message you a pic once I’m feeling better….getting over a icky cold boo.
Hope you’re feeling better by now!
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Color codes bookshelves are so beautiful! You did an amazing job on them, I always wanted to color code mine, but then I’ll forget where I placed the books lol.
It can be an issue. I have it marked on Goodreads so I at least know it’s on this shelf. LOL!