apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

After seeing this on AT, I organized all my books by colour. Some lined up vertically (like books) and then piles stacked horizontally once in a while. It catches my eye every time I walk past the office - Try it for yourselves! Like a rainbow in your house every day!

Indeed, this does look very striking in person.

If any AT members have done this with their own book collections and have taken photos, please share. It would be great to see each individual's approach!

As an archivist/historian, I can't imagine doing this-- my books are arranged by subject matter and author (although I don't go so far as to put them in call number order!), which makes using them easier. That being said, the subjects I've assigned to them are pretty personal and quirky, definitely not Library of Congress sanctioned. It would be fun to see what interesting subject/author combinations would result by arranging them by size or color.

Limonata, I agree--no way color is the most salient feature of my book collection! I'm fascinated by personal curatorship, and am always curious to see how people choose to organize their books. Arranging by color has some visual appeal, I admit, but it's definitely not for me.

Funny, I go out of my way to avoid grouping books by color. I find it much harder to skim book spines to locate a particular book if the surrounding books have the same spine color. So I try to keep things mixed up.

I like the idea of organizing by subject but can't decide how to do that. Would Caesar's works count as classics, ancient history, or autobiography? Would my Sherlock Holmes books count as classics or mysteries? How would I subdivide a literature section with Dumas, Kipling, Twain, Dickens, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Fight Club, Steinbeck, etc.? Is much of Heinlein YA or Sci-Fi? Too many choices so my collection is totally random.

Like Limonata, I cannot imagine cataloging my books by color, but then we both use books in a professional capacity. I would be at my wits end trying to remember the color of each spine, rather than the author and title. Does anyone who reads their books on a regular basis, with more than just a pile or two as their collection, arrange them in this way? Does it work?

I did this very thing just recently - I have a very visual memory, and often refer to books by their colour anyway (I know, the purists are tearing their hair out). But I'm more likely to remember that that a certain title is blue, with white, narrow sans-serif typography on the spine, than the author's name. A friend came over and asked for a random novel just to test me, and I found it within 5 seconds.

I also have hundreds of books, most of which are still in storage; the ones in boxes are still un-organised but it's on my list of things to do.

There is some logic involved though - I do still group certain genres / authors if common sense dictates - I'll pop some pictures on Flickr!

I have seen a post in the past where someone organized their bookshelf by color but instead of using the actual spine, they used a color coded paper wrap-around. Each color corresponded to each subject and the bibliographical info was written on the spine. I really loved that idea and I could fathom that much more. At least I could find the appropriate subject!

Fabric8 - how would that work? Can you get ready made covers?

From a purely design standpoint, I don't like this because the row of red always stands out too much. In a room with a different color scheme, it becomes an unintentional focal point.

Or maybe that's just my excuse for the mish-mash on my own shelves.

I am curious about the radiator cover / bookshelf. We have several radiators that are screaming for covers and books that are pleading for homes. Any recommendations of places to get these covers / shelves? Kits?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't do this! I need my books to be functional, and while my library is purely for pleasure (work books are left at work, for the most part, despite working at a publishing company) I still prefer function over form when it comes to books.

I agree with the historian. For example I can't imagine placing all the Harry Potter books in various places in a bookcase seeing as they span from red to blue to orange etc...

I did this too! I am more of a visual person, so the color-coding makes sense to me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jay-tee/435463253/in/pool-apartmenttherapyla/

I would NEVER do this. While color is important, being able to find the book I'm looking for in a hurry would be impossible. I like my library which is alpha order by author's last name. So, when I want to read something by DeMille or see if I already have a book, I can go to my D shelves and find it quickly. As my library is in a white room with white bookshelves, the variety of colors is much more appealing. The bookshelves take the place of art on two walls.

TallulahBelle: It took me a little while to place the link but Valerie Madill was the person who accomplished it and the title of her project is "looking at libraries: defining space through content" found here:

http://valeriemadill.com/index.php?/project/looking-at-libraries/

Her covers are indeed custom made but I think if someone was ambitious enough they could accomplish something similar. I was pretty impressed with the cataloging system though - would make bibliographies a breeze!

Not my taste. I'm a librarian, and I group my books at home by subject (although, like Limonata, not by LC or Dewey categories).

I do love the way it looks, but as a librarian (in case the username wasn't a tip-off), I couldn't do it. My books are in LC call number order (written into the first page - no spine labels or anything). Then again, my home library has relatively few titles (about 100 or so - had to scale back before moving cross-country), and I'm not sure that there's enough color contrast to pull off such a look. If you don't have an extensive home library, or depending on the type of books you have, this could look a little disheveled (sort of charming in its own way but meh). However, as a kid, when I had a lot of series paperbacks and different books by the same author from the same publishers, I frequently arranged them by color.

My wife & I have lots & lots of books due to our professions. We use them daily & there's no way we could organize them according to color only. They'd be lost forever I'm afraid. We organize them according to subject & author mostly but sometimes when we have say a whole shelf by an author or about an author, then we'll arrange it by size & then color. This comes naturally for us & we don't have any difficulty trying to locate books. But we do have difficulty with our DVD/CD collection that we keep in black folders. Several times we've had to borrow or repurchase DVDs even though we own it because it's lost & not worth the time to hunt through everything.

This is a case where "Form" is not following "Function"

I really really really cannot stand this trend. it just looks so anal and contrived. As an architect, designer, and avid reader it just makes my stomach turn. Books are for reading, learning, entertainment, and pleasure- NOT some freakish form of decorating- which in my mind totally de-values all that books and literature are about.

Sorry to rant, I am just so tired of seeing photos of this "color organization" everywhere. To each their own I suppose.

I just moved, so I did a massive book purge before packing up. As I was unpacking, I thought about doing this (since I now have a manageable amount of books to deal with) and quickly realized how much it would drive me crazy. I have to group books by size first, then by author and subject, sometimes by publishing group. This already breaks up some authors whose work I have in grande hardcover and cheapie softcover. I can't imagine having many works by one author scattered through my books. Not a visual learner, or categorizer. Although I kinda love the book cover idea, I think it is probably way more work than I am willing to put in.

I constantly refer to my books, so for me, this is too impractical to seriously consider. For example, I have half a dozen books on DesCartes' philosophy. Separating them based on the random jacket color chosen by the publisher doesn't make sense and seems a tad frivolous.

That said, I can see the visual appeal of doing this, it does make them look pretty.

my problem with this, beyond potential difficulty of finding what I am looking for and the practical complications of reorganizing my rather large library, is that not all my books fit on all my shelves. most of my bookshelves have stationary shelves and you can only fit small paperbacks on the top shelf.

We did this in a shop that had 3 2.4mX1.2m bookcases filled with secondhand fiction. We did it because we were sick of customers messing up the alphabetical order and this was stupidly easy to shelve - our book sales increased by 400%! Eventually the shop grew to a size where this wasnt practical for 3000 books, but it was fun.

I think this looks kinda shallow, and it appeals to me terribly.

Heh..

Nobody seems to be doing this anymore, but has anyone tried cutting out matching paper dustcovers for their books? I once had a tall bookshelf in my bedroom containing all my favorites, slipcovered in semi-translucent rice paper, like everyone did with brown paper bags back in school. The rice paper gives the spines a nice hazy pastel quality that's still readable, and it looks great in an all-white room.

Bet you could easily do it with fancy printed paper, and write the titles on the spine in a lovely flowing script..or if you write like a drunken chicken, like myself, title them with a labeler..

kpetuck - You took the words right out of my head!

I'm more the traditionalist - grouped by subject and alphabetized. I can almost understand the visual appeal of arranging by color, just not for me. The trend I really don't get is putting the books in backwards so everything is beige/white. I've seen it in magazines - does anybody do this in real life? As a book lover and collector it really disturbs me, almost a disrespect for the books. Why even bother having books?

PS. I've seen it done in catalogs which I do understand why, but it still bothers me.

Ooh, wait, kitchen parchment paper..

I had this done (before I gave most away) and if you love books like you claim, and you've READ the books you own, you'll be able to find things. Quite easily, in fact. I find it hard to believe that no one looks at the front (or spine) of a book in all the time it takes to read it?

Usually the spine is the same color as the main color of the cover of the book, so if you can picture, say, "Lori," even though the book was horrible you'll remember the cover was a dark blue/black and had green writing.

In addition, as you create your new system you have to sort these, again looking at the covers and spines. A second shot at reinforcing what you already have stored in your brain. So the Twilight Zone book is a dark blue with yellow writing, that book about spaceships is missing a cover so it's with the black, hardback books, and The Westing Game is dark brown with a reddish spine. The book on hand mudras is green with yellow writing, the Andre Norton book I haven't read but can't part with because it's a gift is a silver/white paperback, and the watercolor primer is white with blue letters.

Seriously people, this isn't rocket science.

Never on colour, I sort on author so I always know where to find what I'm looking for.

Sure, colour coordinated looks nice but it isn't very practical (for me anyway).