Hi, my name is Cat. And I’m constantly torn about how to arrange my bookshelves.

Book lovers know exactly what conflict I’m talking about here. It’s the age old question of form over function. Do we want a pretty bookshelf, or do we want a bookshelf that can hold as many books as possible?

And then! As if that wasn’t enough, how should the books themselves be arranged? Alphabetical order? Genre? Color? Everybody seems to have their own preference. And while none of these preferences is wrong, I’m still not sure which I want to go with.

Right now my bookshelves are definitely leaning towards function. Too much so, even for my taste. While they do their job – holding books – they don’t look nice or even organized right now. I desperately need a change. And I imagine I’m not the only one that has been dealing with the bookshelf blues.

I’m in the process of making myself a small library. Nothing crazy, just an empty room that I will soon fit with as many bookshelves as possible. I know what bookshelves I want. I’ve even started refinishing a few that I’m planning on moving into there.

But how do I want to fill them, that’s the question? And how many decorations/book ends/what have you do I want to tuck in alongside the books? I know it’s going to be one of those things where I decide in a per bookshelf basis, but it’s hard not to think it over in the meantime.

Does anybody feel like sharing their bookshelf photos, for inspiration?