Decorating With Books

Oh, sweet friends! It has been too long!

I didn't mean to be away for so long because I get to missing you and your wonderful comments! 

I think I may be addicted to this... and to you... and to your kind words of encouragement!

Recently, I received some private messages from several of you that were SO uplifting to me! Truly, I'm blown away over how some of you feel about my blogging efforts! I certainly don't feel like I deserve it! 

There are millions of blogs in Blogland that are wonderfully written by professional bloggers. So the fact that you take the time to stop by mine means the world to me! Because as we all know, I'm an expert at NOTHING! 

(Well... If you were to ask my husband or younger brother they may tell you I'm quite practiced in the fine art of being bossy! So, let's not ask them!)

I guess what I'm trying to say is Thank You for being here and being an encouragement to me!

Let's get started on today's post!

You may remember from this past winter, a post that I composed titled, "Decorating With Birds". Ever since that post, I've wanted to write one similar, but about books.

                

Whenever I'm a guest in someone's home, one of the first things I catch myself doing is scanning the room for books. If I see a stack of books, I'm instantly drawn to it. I like to look closely; I look at the colors of the books, the titles, and whether they're old or new. 

Several beautiful books, thoughtfully placed throughout a house, has the power to make it feel like home. 

So... I thought it'd be fun to show you some of my books and how I decorate with them!

                

I love to look at books with beautiful and familiar titles...

                

Beautiful covers in colors that work well with my home...

               

               

And beautiful binding...

I like to take books that cooperate with the theme of some favored items and make a vignette, by arranging them together. Like this:

                

                  

This bird vignette sits atop my faux fireplace mantle in my front room:

I like to use easels to prop up favorite books, like you would a picture:

                 

And I also like to tuck books into shelves and cupboards. Either propped up so that I can enjoy their covers:

                

Or stacked so that I can enjoy their binding:

                  

Sometimes, the insides of books are so beautiful that I want to display them rather than their covers. So, laying open a book to my favorite page is what I like to do in these cases:

                

Isn't this a beautiful page?! The colors are soft and muted, and these children are so adorable!

               

It is possible, as some of you are reading this, that you may be wondering about a couple of things. I know this because I tend to receive the same types of questions. Two of my most frequently asked questions are, 1. Don't you have kids?! And, 2. Where do you find such things? 

1. Of course, the people who ask, "Don't you have kids?!" are implying that they don't believe having delicate and nice things laying around is a good idea in a house full of kids. To that I would say, "Well, our mothers and grandmothers did it!" We were taught not to touch. We were taught to be respectful of mother's nice things. We were taught to take good care of our home and be good stewards of what we had. So why then, in this generation of homemaking, are we abandoning what our mothers and grandmothers showed us? They did it better. But that should give us hope and encouragement that we can do it, too!

This does not mean that things don't sometimes get broken. In fact, two nights ago one of my children broke an old plate. We swept up the pieces and moved on. I was not heart broken over it because the truth about the plate is that it came from a thrift store for 50 cents. Which leads me perfectly to answer question number two...

2. A lot of what I purchase for my home comes from antique or thrift stores. Almost everything else has been given to me. I have purchased antique books from thrift stores for as little as 25 cents. The most expensive antique book I've ever purchased was fifteen dollars. This book is one of my favorites. I paid $1.00 for it at an antique shop. 

                   

It's titled, "Mothers of Great Men and Women." I got to reading it one day and found it to be fascinating! When it's not being read, it rests on my nightstand and I enjoy looking at its lovely cover. When I do pick it up to read it, I'm greeted by this family photograph. I like using meaningful photos as bookmarks.

When I'm shopping in an antique or thrift store and spot a book that interests me, one of the first things that I like to do is open the cover to see if there is a hand-written note inside. Isn't this an adorable antique book?

                

The first page has this note:

But of course, my favorite notes are the ones hand-written by my family members, in the books that have been in my home for years. Like this one:

                  

And this one:

                  

These books are in my daughters' bedroom. Children's rooms are a great place to display books!

                 

                 

All the girly books are kept in here...

               

Close to their beds so that they can be easily grabbed for a bedtime story.

               

               

And all of the manly books are in the boys' bedroom...

               

The boys' room has this shelf that Micah built. It goes all the way around the room. It's filled with interesting old books:

                  

I use a different amount of books in the stacks that are next to each other. It's more visibly appealing that way. In this case, it allows for the globes to be at varying heights:

This little stack of books sits on one of the boy's night stands:

                

And lastly, this vintage book that rests atop their little piano:

               

Not every book that I display in my home is old. My mother recently gave me this brand-new, beautiful book on Flowers: 

              

Another example would be this stack of books on the end table next to my couch. In it are various newer books. The stack is mainly meant to add height and interest to this vignette...

But one of them is a newer book on decorating. It has provided me with valuable inspiration:

               

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that we still have our family room to renovate in our 100-year old farmhouse. (Which would explain why you don't see much of that room on this blog, haha... It looks pretty bad.) But when we're ready to begin renovations, I have bookmarked several pages in this book of ideas that I want to incorporate into the future family room. 

This page, for example, shows a reading nook with wall to wall, ceiling to floor bookshelves:

               

I already know the wall in my family room that I want to do this to. And I just about have Micah on board with this idea! In which case, my obsession for displaying beautiful books is about to get ramped up! Haha!

Well, my friends, I hope I have shown you some good ways to use books in home decorating. I have another favorite way to display book pages in the home, and that is to tear them out and frame them, like this: 

               

I have quite a few book pages framed throughout my home, but I will have to show you that on another day. This post is already too long. I really appreciate you letting me show you around. Feel free to leave a comment. I love hearing from you!!!

Until next time...

~ Courtney