1000+ books - how do you do a restful sitting room?

[Dontsvetmuchforafatgirl]

Can anyone help? I would love a restful, slightly floral sitting room but at the same time I cannot bear to part with my books. We will move soon.

We currently have four full size wall to floor Ikea Billy units and are already overflowing , so will probably need 5 in future.

At the moment we have the tv against different wall and sofa facing tv. So books are just back drop. But we are considering 3 different options for new room . Which one would be most restful? I love my books and want them in my face and able to touch them at any time but at the same time staring at shelf after shelf can give me a slight headache.

what would work best?

a) a built in tv unit into a wall of books
b) a full wall of books and sofa with its back to it and furniture facing tv as focal point
c) breaking the bookcases up around the room

We only keep the display and collection copies in the sitting room, and most are kept in a glass bureau and separate bookcase. I don't think I'd like all the paperbacks, reference and reading-copies in there.

Or if you must keep, I'd ditch the Ikea bookcases (irrational dislike of Ikea furniture) and have built in book shelves.

Sorry for absence overnight. Had to hit the sack (am several hours ahead of GMT).

I like the ideas of dividing them up between rooms. Also possibly doors to tidy them up.
Built in shelving would blow the budget. Have checked local joinery websites and we would get seriously amputated, minus several arms and legs.
Cannot face colour coding. I fail to even organise my sock drawer.

If I had the money I would definitely have a wall of books in a purpose built shelving unit.

We too have loads.

I did sell off a lot of old textbooks that I wouldn't use on Amazon for a couple of reasons: I did finally accept that I wouldn't use them and, with the ascent of Kindle and electronic libraries for unis, I wouldn't be able to sell them on later. Some went for what I paid for them.

I also have to have regular, merciless clear-outs of novels.

I always I have mine in dining area of open lounge. If I decided to put cases elsewhere, I would try it out for a bit. I've been in houses where they have cases in different rooms and it made them seem cluttered. (Pot, kettle, you do not want to see the state of mine at the moment.)

P.S. I quite like my Billy bookcases .

I know what you mean, Kinky Doritos. We had ours in several rooms in our place in Singapore and it looked much more messy than only having in one place.

We must also have getting on for 1000 books. About half are on sitting room. There rest stew in bookcases, cabinets and shelves in everyvothervroom in the house including downstairs loo and landing.

I love books and reading, but am quite pragmatic about culling my book collection from time to time. We have two low bookshelves in the living room, a built in one in the conservatory and bookshelves in two of the bedrooms. If I can't fit my books on those I cull them. I simply use the criteria of whether I or anyone else in the house is likely to read them again. We have quite a lot of reference books and classics which are stayers. Temporary residents are more best seller type books. I also use our local library and now have a kindle.

We also have several bags of children's books in the loft that DD has grown out of but can't bear to part with.

My BIL is unbearably snobby about books - they live in a much larger very cluttered house and can't bear to part with any book. He once announced in an annoyingly pompous voice "but where do you keep all your books" and I told him that we had a perfectly good library two miles away.

I've got a 1000+ books and they are mixed all over the house. We've got built in units in living room alcoves with cupboards at the bottom (toys one side, tv stuff - DVD, amp, v+ etc, on other) with a selection of books, pictures and confiscated toys on them. We keep professional books in our respective study/offices. We have a bookcase in the hall and another built in bookcase on a whole wall in the spare room, cookery books on a shelf in the kitchen, a small selection in the bedroom, kids books in DS's room & hall... Spreading them round the house seems to stop them being overwhelming somehow.
I love being surrounded by books and will only be parted from real trash.

Re culling them: When we moved from Singapore we had 11 boxes of books we didn't want. So I had a book party and invited loads of friends to come round with a bottle and help themselves. It was a really good night, and nice to see my friends from different "sources" becoming friends with each other.

I wouldn't keep a dog eared copy of The Secret History, cos it's rubbish

I am a late convert to the concept of a book cull; much fun. I got rid of about 40% of mine a couple of years ago, and I haven't missed a single one. I kept only favourites that I knew I'd reread, books I'd bought and genuinely wanted to read, but had been overlooked, and books that I thought friends/ family/ children might like to read. Sadly my husband is a bit of a book hoarder, not snobbery I think - he's like it with everything not just books.

One of my favourite things as a child was reading my parents' old books, dog eared copies of Agatha Christies and Ian Flemings. Only keeping the posh Everyman editions is a bit precious I think. Or displaying the posh books but keeping the pap hidden away.

I keep loads in the attic and rotate (be careful you don't overload the attic tho)

We also have loads and the majority (all hardbacks) are in our lounge. They are in bookcases at one end of the room with a settee, reclining chair and lamp in front of them . TV is the other end of the room ( long rectangle shape) with the other settee.

So we have the tv area for DD and DH and then the reading area for me and my dad when he visits!

There are also books in the bedrooms and DD is building up a large collection as well.

We do cull paperbacks but hardbacks are kept - especially as a lot are signed copies. Must admit I am a bookaholic :)

we also have 5 billy bookshelves in the living room.
we put doors on the bottom parts of some of them and use a couple of shelves for photos to make it look less solid.

I have a teddy bear called Billy

With 1000+ books how do you find the time to watch tv?

Out of your options i prefer A as i don't like TVs being the focal point of a room. And I think built in bookcases would be better than a collections of Billys.

We keep most of our books in a snug off the main living space but they're spreading to the guest room, 3 other bedrooms (our & 2 x kids), our home office and the playroom in the attic. MIL bought me a Kindle but it's not the same

I was just going to suggest doors MousyMouse.

You can buy them to fit your existing Billy stuff. You could even buy the plain glass doors and frost them.

Bonus: doors = much less dusty books.

dusting

I'd go for (b), mainly because that's what we have done. We have whole walls of floor to ceiling custom built bookshelves in nearly every room (including our bedroom!) and I think they're lovely. Books do furnish a room and all that. We had to do it as DH has loads of academic stuff (economics, history, politics) and we both read loads of fiction and are sentimental about books generally. I like re-reading, and I like still owning something I first read as a teenager. I don't think they look messy at all and only ever get compliments from visitors. But they were expensive to build and I suppose might put some less bibliophile future buyers off if we ever move. DH rigorously alphabetises and categorises to keep them under control, and I cull from time to time. Would happily lose DH's extensive thriller/detective fiction collection I have to admit - but at least it is now banished upstairs to the spare room.

Right am leaning towards a combination of
a) a moderate cull
b) half full, half glass doors with a further shelf on top in this style
www.ikeafans.com/galleries/index.php?n=13500

c) putting some books in other rooms - small half cases in hall/ our bedroom
d) placing book cases on available bit of wall rather that a whole wall of books

all excellent new ideas.

Now just need to figure out how to take curse off 40 inch television.

Set is underused by us as we end up watching DVDs on lap top in bed but vital for really appreciating the textures of Pokemon in High definition.

We have a fantastic three-day book sale every year in our village. I cull a huge boxful of books.......then end up buying a huge boxful to replace them.