I heart books.

I love books. I love to read them, but I especially love to decorate with them. Old or new, hardback or paperback, books add loads of character to any space. Personally, I find them to be the most versatile of all design accessories. Rearranging them is a cinch and they work in any room! The books in the picture above are old antique paperbacks. They are tied with twine in sets of three and strewn about it old earthenware pottery. Obviously well loved; the wear and tear, discoloration from age, and tattered corners are what makes these books such a find. They exude old world charm.

However, even though I love how books charm any space no matter how they are arranged, I do have a favorite way of displaying them and that way is by color coordination! I love to place all the greens together, all the blues, all the reds... it makes such a statement. When books are organized by color, your eye will instantly be attracted to it. There is something so alluring about that set-up, I can't quite put my finger on it, but I LOVE IT SO MUCH! Where I work we have this 18th C. Apothecary cabinet (depicted above), I staged it just last week with books grouped by color and it is a hit! It's the first thing everyone sees when they walk in the store and everybody comments on it. It's a fantastic design tip, and so easy... as long as you are not color blind. :P

I even used this functional design approach the other night when I was helping the dear, sweet boy in my life organize his MASSIVE closet (Not fair, it has a window... natural light!!! Uh, hello??? Who has that in their closet?!?!) If his closet where mine, I would have a delicate, little chandelier hanging from where his exposed bulb is, a huge mirror that covers his barren wall (where I hung all his art under his bed that he loves), a beautiful 5 foot round rug in the center and atop it a lovely dressing bench, and my Great Grandmothers Armoire (ya, its that big). But, its not my closet. :( Anyway, after completely reorganizing the whole thing, we had left all these books scattered on the floor. He didn't want them back in his closet for clutter reasons (he is quite the minimalist) but I had a plan. So I shoo-ed him out of the closet and I got to work... stacking the books vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and the finished look was very cool. Now he's sees a groovy "work of art" when he looks at those books instead of a "feng-shui nightmare"!