Home Interior: How I store my Books | Shabby Chic

Last year I was on the hunt for a sideboard for my living room. I came across one, and when I went to collect it, I realized it wasn't really what I was looking for, in fact I didn't quite know what it was. My mum said it was meant as part of a kitchen dresser or something...

Being stuck with a piece of furniture I had no idea what to do with, I then had a lightbulb moment.. it has shelves, and 2 doors.. why not use it for my books? After all, my book collection was growing by the month and I had no where to put them.

With a quick lick of paint (and I mean quick... I hate painting, and techinically it's not even finished, but shush!) it was sat looking pretty in the corner of my bedroom. It's a bit different to what you'd normally store your books in, but I like that.

I was thinking of putting some fancy wallpaper behind the glass so the books can't be seen, but I kinda like how they're all on show.. I love occasionally sitting down by it and looking through all the books I've managed to read through the years. I do own a few more books than this, but they are somewhere else...

The bottom shelf has a few decorative items on at the minute, simply because I don't have enough books to fill it just yet, but I'm sure by the time the year is out these will have to be moved in order to make room for more.

It's doesn't have heaps of space to store books - It can probably fit around 60 books, which is good enough for me. In time I'll probably rotate them, and when new ones come in, I'll take some old ones out and find another place for them (or give them to charity!).

I decorated the top of the 'bookshelf' with a bouquet of flowers that originally sat on a windowsill in our hallway, but I've since had decorated. Luckily they go with the colour scheme in our bedroom. The iron star I got from a homeware shop in Manchester about 4 years ago just before we moved into our house. I think it's quite unique and a bit of a statement piece. I don't often get round to lighting the candles for this though. The photo is of me and my boyfriend - it's when we were first dating, before we became 'official' - this was one of my boyfriends favourite photo's of me... it's over 7 yrs old now.. crazy! The photo frame I received as a gift one Christmas.

Some people ask why I don't 'upgrade' to a kindle instead of buying paperbacks. Truth is, I love to hold a paperback, and then see them all building up once I've read them. It gives me some sense of achievement, knowing that these are all the books I've read. I love covers of books too, and I've seen some that are pretty enough to be part of my décor. I'm a very visual person and although having a kindle would free up so much space in the long term, I like my books too much to give them up completely.

Are you a paperback or kindle kinda girl?