Is this what 99% of mumsnetters homes look like

[Damaged27]

After all these interior design threads this is what I'm imagining everyone on mumsnets homes look like. Just curious if I'm way off because iv never been in a home like this. Maybe if the person is in their 80s. Do people really have bookshelves?

Mine doesn't look like that. I love books and reading but have only a few bookshelves, most of the books I read I give away or have borrowed and give back. We have a lot of books for dd though, which are in her room.

I really like that

My house is a similar style to those pictured though not nearly as big. I have multiple bookcases, all full of books. A cosy squishy couch, soft curtains over harsh blinds. Lots of wood and according to ds a jungles worth of plants.

I wouldn't have it any other way. A house isn't a home without books and animals (preferably cats)

I have bookshelves, book piles, book boxes, book bags

Fair enough we all have different tastes. My books are my decor I love them. Different strokes...

Also, I like clutter. Clutter is great, you can see all your stuff (which presumably you like), and you remember you own it. And it looks like humans live in your house.

Love that can I ask where you got that grey vanity unit from iv been looking for something similar

We had a library in our last house. We packed it up when we moved and didn’t set one up in our current home. We have all the books in storage, but since we use our kindles, we decided to save the space and only have some out as needed.

I don't have the floor to ceiling books in the living room any more. This is due to getting rid of them through Kindle; just having less time to read than when I was in my 20s; rotting my brain through using my phone all the time; and, embarrassingly, because I don't think it's as cool looking as before, shelves with one or two ornaments and plants are in now.

But we still have 7 or 8 bookcases about the house, I just don't display them. Which I suppose equates to about 900 books.

I take a bag of books to charity about once a month.

My living room is plainer than those. More free floating shelves with inbuilt lighting, a deep rich colour on the walls, and far less traditional shapes for furniture and lampshades. Shutters not big swishy curtains.

OP what do you mean you can't think of what people are into? If you don't like books or plants, you might have in your living room...
Speakers and audio equipment and the music format of your choice (cd, vinyl etc)
Art on the walls
Things for pets
Musical instruments
Crafting or modelling stuff under way
Board games
Children's toys
Exercise equipment
A vast gaming chair with inbuilt haptic controls
a telescope to look at the neighbours
etcetera

I have a kindle and use it but it's not the same as reading an actual, physical book. And you can't loan your kindle book copy to friends... and it's not really yours, either.
There have been cases of Amazon taking back Kindle copies, (erasing them from your device) for various reason, which is appalling.

I haven’t got rid of many books, hence book shelves. It’s not a status symbol, I am just a bit nostalgic about things (a hoarder)

I can understand not wanting book clutter. If I look too closely at my shelves I often want to chuck the whole lot out.

I love it and I'm still discovering new things in them; every so often I'll look something up and find some hand-written note or recipe that I hadn't known existed before.

Do people really have bookshelves?

Of course they do, you must know that people hold on to books for lots of reasons.

Our bookshelves aren't in rooms that people would see, but like most people we've gathered a lot of books over the years. Our house doesn't look like that though, we don't have a lot of things out on display.

It's not at all I'm sure we can all have an adult discussion and agree to disagree on what styles we like. I was just surprised by the other threads as I don't know anyone in real life who has homes like being described

I used to have bookshelves with hundreds of books.. but not for years.. l used the library.. then my kindle and de cluttered.. that does look like my sisters house with the bookshelves.. but her decor is Boho hippy including furniture.
Mine is a mixture of IKEA and Barker and Stonehouse.

I have a bookcase in my bedroom, one on the landing and 3 squeezed against the wall in the box room! Couldn't imagine a life not surrounded by books, am having to get rid of some I will never read again (the majority I do) as have no room to fit anymore. None of my friends have bookcases, find it hilarious that I do! And no, my house is nothing like the ones in your pictures.

Oh, and have a few on the sofa as well!

My house is quite like the second picture and most people I know are fairly similar. Why would having books in your house mean you are 80?

I'm always reading. Constantly have many books on the go. I don't have bookshelves!

Same!!

Not now with kindles. My husband had bookshelves in his office, my parents had some amazing art books, but I have very few. No space for them for one thing.

We've got shelves with a few books on but they're full of everything else as well. We have clutter everywhere. We have tiny rooms and it looks messy everywhere.

It's not just the books that makes it look like the home of an 80 year old its the clutter the mismatched furniture

I do find the desperate rush to demonstrate how many books you are hoarding to be a little cringeworthy.

Physical books are not morally superior to their digital siblings for the most part.

Having 1000s of shitty paper-backs languishing on Billy bookcases does not an intellectual make.

We have bookshelves but my house doesn’t look like that. We have a bookshelf in the spare room, on that is a handful of books, for me they are books from childhood and for DH they are his favourites that he will re-read again and again. I will donate books or use the library, DH likes to collect them for evermore so one book shelf seems manageable. We do use kindle though so that helps keep it manageable.

We have another bookshelf in the study but that doesn’t actually have books on it, but collections of other things. Then we have some cube storage, and some of those sections have books in them but again they also store other things, so the cube storage in the living room has DC’s books, my craft books, toys, pens/sellotape/envelopes and other random shit that doesn’t have a home.

DC also has a toniebox and their tonies are on display on a shelving unit, I don’t know if that counts?

II hadn't noticed either
We literally have books in every single room.