You won’t find many homes without books. In this article we take a look at how best to display them and the impact they have on your interior space.
The first thing to note is that you don’t need to own a room the size of a library to hold your books: there are many innovative and space-saving ways for you to display your tomes. Whether you are after cheap shelving units Ireland or handmade bookcases in Ilesworth, there is something for everyone.
Your Choice
Before you begin, you need to decide whether your shelves will house just books or will also be a place for knick-knacks, plants and ornaments.
For the Love of Reading
Research suggests that the presence of books is linked to literacy, so it doesn’t really matter how they are housed – cheap shelving units Ireland or a robust towering library will both suffice. A recent study from the Australian National University concludes that homes with books provide lifelong skills for the children who live there. Of the 160,000 people surveyed from more than 30 countries, it found that those who were surrounded by books were more proficient in IT, Maths and English than those who weren’t.
Growing Demand
Shelving experts have seen a growing demand for book storage, and there has been a knock-on effect on how they are displayed. Interestingly, sales of e-books have fallen in the last couple of years, even though they were hailed as the new way to read. And, for social media lovers, Instagram has seen a surge of not just selfies but shelfies too: #shelfjoy is certainly an indicator that our love of books and how we store them is still going strong in the 21st century.
Screen Time
As part of this, book-sellers and retailers have upped their game by making sure they can compete with e-books, meaning that books are better quality. There is also the view that books offer escapism from the many screens that we stare at all day long.
Space Saving
Less space means that we have to think carefully about what we keep and what we don’t. This has an impact on the books we display – often ones we treasure and don’t want to part with.
