Bookshelf Heaven

I am a bit of a nerd about a lot of things, but Bookshelves might actually come top. A friend of mine sent me this link to a Guardian piece all about them today: he says he sent it to all his friends, but I have a sneaking suspicion it may just have been me. It all started when, procrastinating from revision for my University finals, I came across a beautiful little turquiose bookcase in a second hand shop. I fell in love with it. I bought it. I filled it with my books.

But by then I wanted more. So, after leaving Uni in 2004 I blew my savings and commissioned a bookcase for my flat. It turned out ok, and all my books fitted onto it, for a while. Due to lack of space (but not lack of books) I managed to curb my enthusiasm enough to stop building.

Then I moved in with my lovely boyfriend in 2007. He's a writer, I work in publishing - we own a lot of books. And the flat isn't very big. I spent weeks fitting bookshelves into every nook and cranny without making it all look cluttered. And I did it! Most of the bookcases were fine - pretty boring but they do the job. But, the piece de resistance was an architectural bookshelf made by ____. They took my design, made the thing, commissioned a library ladder (the cheap version!). The day it was delivered, we spent a whole afternoon and evening deciding which of our books deserved pride of place there. It's an ongoing project. Here are the shelves - who said it was all about the books??

 

You probably noticed I chose my shelves as the background for this blog, too. SO much better than the default one. If you want to adopt my shelves as wallpaper, just let me know!