When you walk into a library (and get past all the computer terminals and listening stations), you step into a world where “content” isn’t something to skim as you scroll, but to be digested as you turn each page and let the information unfold in front of you.
This captivation powers the social media-driven trend of “bookshelf wealth,” a quiet-luxury interior decorating trend that displays hardbacks and paperbacks along with a few decorative pieces.
It’s about artfully displaying things, ideas and concepts that mean something to you.
Getting the shelves right
If you’re lucky enough to already have built-in bookshelves, you’re most of the way to mastering this look. If not, you might want to build some, which can get expensive when not done as a DIY project, or buy enough freestanding shelves to accommodate your collection.
Some recreate the built-in look with units that reach from the floor almost to the ceiling. Another approach is to buy shelves of different heights for variety and put them in multiple rooms. Taller bookshelves can also double as room dividers.
Get a little messy
The kiss of death to the aesthetic is to arrange books as if you don’t actually read them, or at least as if you value them more for their color, size or shape than their words. Grouping by author, subject, time of purchase or other categories that make sense to you shows your literary life in all its diversity and heart.
Storing them backwards on the shelf works for a few people, but don’t feel like you must be one of them.
Arts and crafts
You may have to do some winnowing if your books take up nearly all your shelving, since bookshelf wealth also is about the other meaningful objects you can display there: heirlooms, awards, souvenirs from special moments and art that you value — framed pieces, figurines, pottery, baskets and other gems.
