5 minute bright bookshelf

A quick and simple way to liven up a room that features a bookshelf is using the books themselves.  My first step was to remove about 1/3 of the books on the shelves to reduce some of the cluttered feel.  Then I wanted to reorganize them in a way that would improve the room.  I'm a visual person, I can often remember what a book looks and feels like even if I forget the author, title or even what the book is about.  Sometimes my desire to read a book is driven by wanting a particular aesthetic feel when reading: do I want to flip through brash glossy pages?  Do I want something soft and grainy?

So, I decided that colour and texture would be the best way to organize my books this time (I've tried a variety of other ways including: size, alphabetical and even my own version of the dewey decimal categories)    After perusing the interweb a bit I found this article from Design*Sponge and this exceptionally well written piece for great inspiration.  Some people arrange by hue or gradient within the rainbow theme, but I wanted to change it up a bit.  To make the bookshelf fit my own style I arranged the books by height and stacked some horizontally to avoid visual repetition and on some shelves I split paperbacks from hardcovers to create some contrast.