Dear Reader,
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I am on the phone to my youngest daughter. The matter is of some importance, for a decision needs to be made. Do she and her sister want floor to ceiling bookshelves in their room ? Or do they want space for a running seat as well, with bookshelves above them ?
We go back and forth with the pros and cons, but finally she says “I just want to wake up and see a wall full of books in front of me. It’s so comforting“.
And so the matter is decided.
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The Other Reader and I decide to be practical. We need storage space and a shelf for knick knacks like a lamp and a vase full of flowers. We design bookshelves from a height of four and a half feet above the ground. Below that we build 16 inches deep drawers that go up to a height of 33 inches.
As for me, I want to cram all the things I love into one space ; books, paintings, a desk, and space to sit.
I have started to take photographs of bookshelves I love, in libraries and in bookstores around the world and sometimes even in people’s houses (with their permission!). I check my ctly what I am looking for.
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In my study I will have window and wall seating that goes up to 20 inches high. Then I will have four feet of wall space for a back rest for seating and for paintings, and only after that from a height of five and a half feet will I begin my bookshelves, which will then go all the way up to the ceiling and travel over the door as well, just like you see in this ‘inspo’ picture.
The problem in our house is that people keep buying books and no one wants to give their books away. The girls want to hold onto all their kiddie books as well. The Other Reader and I are as bad. So we need to be very scientific about our bookshelf design – cram in as many books as we can and yet be able to see the titles of each.
This is why ready made bookshelves don’t work for us. Most readymade bookshelves are way too deep and also too high. So you end up double stacking your extra books behind each other, which is very frustrating since you can no longer see the titles.
Here are my three top tips to fit in as many books as you can in a limited space
Build shallow bookshelves – anything from 8.5 inches deep to 10 inches works great. The few large coffee table books that are wider can be housed on the lowest shelf of your bookcase where they will spill out a bit but look just fine.
Vary the height of your bookshelves. The bottom shelf should be 13-15 inches high to accommodate your large books. The middle shelves can be 10 or 11 inches high. You can happily have a few shelves 9 inches or even 8 inches high where paperbacks will fit in. And if you absolutely need to file your books precisely subject wise you can create a ‘lying down’ stack at one end.
Create book nooks wherever you can. If you have pockets of space, say between your cupboards and a column, or little corners anywhere, they can be fabulous for books. I’m even building bookshelves into the kitchen island. These will be deeper, 12 inches — and taller, 14 inches — than the regular ones, as recipe books are generally large.
Then there is the matter of what material you use for your bookshelves, the thickness of the shelves and also the color you paint them.
We’ve used both marine ply and wood for our bookshelves. The shelves should be at least 1 inch thick, as books are heavy and you don’t want your bookshelves sagging in the middle.
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Another decision to make is whether to give your bookshelves glass doors. Glass protect your books from dust but it also distances them, adds a layer in between. Which I why I reject glass, preferring to go straight for the books, never mind that I am adding the arduousness of dusting and dusting and dusting. It’s worth it.
With colors, I love olive greens and blues whenever I see them in bookstores and other people’s houses. But when it comes to it, I end up alternating between painting ply white and using wood. White is the perfect backdrop for all the colorful titles of the books, while natural wood has such an old-library warmth. So it’s a tough choice.
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My one exception to fitting in as many books as possible is adding all sorts of knick knacks to my bookshelves – art, photos, tea pots and mugs and even money plants.
And then there is the matter of how you arrange the books – The Other Reader would like them to be rigorously arranged by subject, never mind their heights. When I try to arrange them aesthetically he gets annoyed and implies that I am shallow. Then one day I found a little book entitled ‘Bookshelf’ by Lydia Pyne, part of the delightful Object Lessons series by Bloomsbury. It had whole sections on how many book lovers arranged books by size and even by color!
Tell me, dear reader, what does your dream bookshelf look like? Are you team colorful paint, clean white, or classic wood? And do you lean toward a neatly organized system, or do you embrace the beautiful chaos of overflowing shelves? Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to hear your thoughts (and see your book nooks!).
(Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and Founder, Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. For all questions about life and literature email sonyasbookbox@gmail.com)
