10 Tips for Styling Your Home With Books

“A home without books is a body without a soul.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero. A collection of well-loved books brings personality to a home and tells you a lot about the people who live there. While the pages within may be viewed as either academic or entertaining, books are also part of the decor, lending their style, color and texture to even the smallest vignettes.

Books, especially old ones, are a classic styling element on open shelving or horizontal surfaces. Leatherbound books add warmth and history while cloth-bound books add texture and color. When shopping for vintage and antique tomes, select volumes that are the right scale, color and material to relate visually to the other items in your display.

So much of creating a visually pleasing arrangement relies on composition and using pieces in a variety of sizes, materials, shapes and heights. Books are a wonderful way to add height to an item in a vignette, acting like a pedestal. As a bonus, it puts the books' colorful covers on display.

There is a whole world of enthusiasts who collect antique books for their appearance, along with their historical value. Books bound in materials like leather, vellum and linen have a beauty and patina that's just not found in new books. Flea markets are a great place to pick up old books at a good price if you’re not picky about condition, edition, author, etc. To shop for higher-end collectible books from more knowledgeable dealers, search online marketplaces that specialize in antiques or websites that specifically sell rare books.