The Decorologist | Paint Color Consultant | Home Staging
Home Staging and Paint Color Expert Kristie Barnett, draws on her background in psychology and education to provide design and color advice to residential projects.
Did you ever wish you could make your messy bookcases look like they do in a magazine? Let me show you how bookcase styling can make yours look fabulous, too! You’ll have to empty out the contents first, then:
Design by Meg Braff via Pinterest
1. Start with hardback BOOKS. It is a bookcase, afterall. Your bookcases will always look cluttered and messy if it’s filled with trinkets and photos. I think bookcase styling should require more books than anything else. [Read more...]
I’m really excited to share a little Before and After of a pair of LACK side tables using a fabulous new product. Additik is a company out of France that has launched a whole line of appliques to personalize many of our favorite IKEA furniture.
Sometimes it’s good to be The Decorologist – the nice people at Additik sent me a few samples so I could show my readers how they work! I pulled out a few of the LACK tables I use in home staging – these are black, but they also come in birch, white, and red.
IKEA LACK side tables – Before
The appliques from Additik arrived in the mail in these tubes. 
Additix Delivery
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It’s no secret I adore books. Not just reading them, but using them as decor in my home and the homes of my clients. They are such a great way to express your interests and your creativity. Isn’t it ironic that coffee table books can be stacked to make a side table? |
The Expedit Bookcase is one of IKEA‘s best-selling products, and it’s no wonder. They’re inexpensive and incredibly versatile, making them the best value I’ve found in a bookcase. They’re backless, so the color from the wall behind can show through.
I don’t usually agree with Madonna, but I do believe it is important to express yourself. Life is for living, and creative expression in your home can be amazingly comforting and fulfilling. Here are some ideas to spark your creativity:
| In a modern home, use color sparingly but boldly – like a field of color on one wall to draw the eye to an unexpected space. If you do this kind of color block technique, make sure you want to be accenting whatever you are accenting. In this picture from coccozy, they are actually TRYING to draw the eye to the flat screen television, but that isn’t usually the case. |  |
| Let’s think outside the bookcase. I’ve found some really interesting ideas for bookcases. There are many ways to display books and create makeshift bookcases. |  |
You can stack things to make a bookcase, you know. Crates, boxes, even benches and tables. Check out this crafty bookcase from Better Homes and Gardens.
Ok, I LOVE books. I love to read. Books are like friends to me, and I have a hard time getting rid of books that I have read. So a long time ago, I decided to start decorating with them. Why not? They tell people who you are, what you like. I stack them under lamps and decorative items to give them a lift or add color. I group them by color to coordinate with certain rooms throughout my home. I stack them on tables to express who I am and what my interests are.
I have collected vintage children’s books for many years before I ever had children. The cover colors and artwork are amazing. But even new books look better if you take off those glossy covers! Hardback covers are typically blues, greens, browns, blacks, and reds. – so they are easy to group to make a color statement. Vintage books have the most beautifully illustrated covers and fonts – and many original vintage bookcovers are amazing as well – they are the only ones I don’t strip off! Any vignette is improved with the addition of a stack of books.
Here are some thoughts about decorating bookcases:
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Photo Credits: The Decorologist (formerly StoneBrook Staging).
