Reading Nook No More – How to Set Up the Perfect Home Library
If you have harbored a deep passion for books, then you would probably swoon for all the rare editions that you could store in your home. But when you think that a reading corner is just not enough for your collection of books anymore, then you just gotta find a way to retain the number of books that you want without affecting the overall theme of your home. This is the time to turn your reading nook into a home library.
Establish a library style
No matter what sort of books you prefer to read, what you have collected over the years definitely represent who you are as a reader and as a person. Don’t give books that you don’t even like, a home inside your new home library.
You can begin sorting or stylizing by copying the look that bookstores evoke. You can group all the works of non-fiction together, or you can alphabetically sort according to the names of the authors. If you have a much larger book collection, then you can organize by topic.
Another fun way to organize is by theme, say financial books, then you can have an area for the children’s books, and yet another for the encyclopedias and other reference books.
If all these don’t seem to make your home library customized, then you can also sort according to color. Also referred to as the rainbow order, you can visually store your books according to the colors of the books’ spines.
There is also something soothing about looking at the different colors that will be housed in the shelves. You can also use the main color of your interior design style as the anchor hue for the rest of your home library.
Care for your books
Books need support and proper storage. In doing so, you are ascertaining their survival for many more years. If you have heavy books to store, you might want to lay them flat instead of the usual erect manner in which they are stored. Doing this will reduce the wear and tear on the spine of each book.
You can also stack the books in ascending order where the smallest books rest at the top of the pile. If you want each book to be readily accessible, then don’t allow the stacks to get too high.
You can also invest in some stands that are especially made for heavy books. These will become the homes for your Oxford English Dictionary and other such heavy reference books.
If you have some rare books or those first editions that you would want to become a family heirloom, then it also pays to consider the overall atmosphere inside the home library. Keep these books out of the sun’s reach since their covers can get bleached due to overexposure.
The shelves for these special books must not be too crowded and make sure to tell everyone that they wash their hands before handing any of the books.
Rotate
If you want your home library to remain interesting year in and year out, then be ready to rotate the books now and then. While it can be tempting to just leave the books in the manner when they were first stored, it would be more fashionable to have your collection periodically rotate.
One of the reasons why bookstores don’t run out of customers is that they know how to visually rotate their displays. In your case, try to look for a space in your home where you can display some colorful books with their covers facing outward. These can go on a special rack that will welcome the guests into your new home library.