Color Coded Bookshelves
This is a guaranteed headache maker in my opinion. What were these folks thinking?
This looks nice but how many of us are lucky to have books that seem to match (unless you arrange by color rather than subject)?
from the combox:
MightyMom has left a new comment on your post "Journey of the Bookcase Part One Now that is on...":
girl. I stopped making brown paper covers for my books in the 6th grade!! hated it then hate it now. and I REALLY don't like the look of a bunch of covered books with hand written titles....no matter how pretty your writing is. each book is different...and as such adds to the prettiness of the shelf. I like the proposed paint job. want to do that to my shelves but my hubby has vetoed the project on principle. now if those were my shelves.... (be warned..you're gonna hate this) all the books would go down the middle, no boxes or anything all alphabetized by author's last name. Then the pretties would be arranged on either side...symmetrically (or at least balanced)
Obviously Mighty Mom has no trouble saying what's on her mind and that's why I like her so much. The book covering project has been in major stall mode for just some of the reasons MM has so nicely stated. I can't find a book without a name and making labels turned into a nightmare of epic proportion, so I switched to hand written (just a minor nightmare), but hated the way they looked.
The other major problem is the craft paper actually clashes with the future background color. Oy vey! Alphabetizing by author is out of the question as I cannot always remember the author's name or even the title of a book. I can, however, always find a book by it's spine color and design. I'm a visual person and my color memory is excellent. For that reason my books have always been arranged by subject and will have to remain so.
I'm headed on the path of ripping off the silly covers and just arranging my shelves as I always have, which really have always looked pretty dang nice. I spend way too much time obsessing!
Below are some examples of neutral color covered books. Very zen, but no titles on the spines. How in heck do they find a book?
More zen booshelves
In doing my research, I did run across someone who suggested that checking your arrangement by taking a photo was a good idea. Whoee! I figured that out when I took the "before shot." Was that a "great minds moment??"
4 comments:
When I worked as a Reference Librarian, we often ref. to different 'tools' by their color!
I group my little home colletion by subject.
It would be a nightmare to locate something based on its book color. Esp. since so many editions could change color on a whim.
I have my books sorted by subject, then alpha by author (or topic, in the case of biography, just like in the Dewey Decimal system!) - all my theology books are together on one set of shelves, my lit books, "Domestic Goddess," writing, etc. --- all clustered together.
My suspicion on the Zen shelves is that they were thrown together by a decorator to look "smart," and never were and never will be, read.
I"m with laura....matter of fact. I'll place a bet those aren't even all BOOKS. but rather things of a particular size covered so as to not attract attention from the seating arrangement or focus of the picture....just because empty shelves look sad.
thanks for quoting me...I was a bit tart huh? ;-)
Color coded books ??
BRILLIANT !! Does it matter that you would NEVER be able to find the book that you are looking for? No, because my OCD would be satiated.
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