bookshelves

A Cunning Stacked “Bookshelf” with Twine

Recently I stumbled an article about lighting designer and photographer Christopher Baker and potter Odette Heideman’s home in Maine in House & Garden. Amidst a trove of clever ideas was one I plan to steal.

Karl Lagerfeld’s Inspired Ideas

The legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld had an immense talent and sensibility. Our friend Susan Dworski sent us this picture of him at his extraordinarily messy desk, which as with other these other views of his home, provides unexpected inspiration and…permission

A Clever Solution to Low Bookshelves That Minimizes Visual Clutter

In a house-tour of a mid-century apartment in São Paulo we spotted a clever iteration of low bookshelves that too often look cluttered and domineering.

Add Some Imaginary Books to Your Library, Like Dickens

Like Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote short stories referencing imaginary books, Charles Dickens filled part of his study with fake books whose fantastical titles he invented. He had a bookbinder create imitation book-backs that he affixed to real books. The effect is rather dazzling.

DIY? 70’s Striped Brick Bookshelves

We generally viewed bookshelves using bricks as uprights as simple college student decor UNTIL we saw these fab shelves designed by Gionatan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino and Lomazzi for Longato in 1971. Of course the designers used just the right bricks for their striped shelving and a great deal of thought and vision, i.e. the width…

Good Idea: Bookshelf with a Built-In Ladder

If you are lover a books and a person who stacks them high on shelves, you know of the problem of access. Either you need to pull up step stool or wobbly chair (pain in the neck), or to have one of those stylish sliding book ladders that take up a lot of space both real and visual. We really like the idea of Karen King’s Higher Ground, a tall shelf with a built-in ladder.

Cool D-I-Y Rope and Stacked Block Shelves

We’ve long admired this wonderful stacked block shelf we clipped years ago. It is made of scrap wood (salvaged from a lumbar yards garbage bin) that was bored, threaded and secured with thick rope, and hung from hooks anchored in the wall. Then we wondered: What if you didn’t bother with the rope part and…

how to lighten the look of shelves filled with books

Arranging books in in vertical and horizontal stacks, interspersed with art and objects, is a simple way of lightening the often weighty look of book shelves.

diy: long wood shelves with wood brackets

Knowing that I am in the process of designing a wall of bookshelves with a berth-like murphy bed built-in, Maria Robledo sent me pictures of the bookshelves in Creative Director Anne Johnson’s country house. The simple wooden shelves are held up by triangular wooden brackets nestled into horizontal supports. It’s a way to have a…

lookbook for our next project: bookshelves + murphy bed

A year or so after moving into the Harlem Laboratory, we’re finally mulling building bookshelves and horizontal Murphy bed (called wall beds these days)…like a berth in the living room. We’ve had that forelorn space hidden behind folding screens FOR A YEAR, waiting until we could wrap our head around designing it (at bottom, with…

soapbox is a stylish, durable ikea alternative

soapbox: stylish, durable ikea alternative

(Video link here.) Recently, while discussing a particuarly stylish Ikea creation, our friend Maria remarked: “I figure Ikea’s stuff is only good for about 5 years.” Suddenly, we flashed on all the discarded particle board Ikea storage units we’d seen on New York City streets. In the long run, Ikea can simply be a waste…

a solution to the busy visuals of vertical book towers?

When we first saw the Sapien vertical book shelf, we were smitten. What a great idea: an impermanent shelf that stacks books vertically, making use of odd spaces. We bought one, well, er, a less expensive knockoff. Once we actually stacked it with books, we realized how problematic it actually was; it was too heavy to…