Although you can use bookshelves for jut holding books, like I do with this one:

…there’s a certain art to decorating bookshelves for a more artistic look. There are a ton of tutorials online for this sort of thing, but here are the tips I like to follow when I’m decorating shelves.

And I’ll certainly admit that my bookshelves aren’t necessarily the best in the blogosphere, but I like that there’s a nice mix of books, games, photos, and some of our most treasured “stuff.” So, I’ve decided to share a few tips on how I arrange the shelves in our living room.

1. It’s not all about the books! While I certainly do appreciate bookshelves as a place to store as many books as possible, I like to use my more “formal” shelves as a place to store other items, too. Plus, we have this bookshelf in my office that’s already full of books so this one can be a little more fun, while still being functional.

2. But, don’t forget the books! If you have cool books, or pretty books, or interesting books, a nice bookshelf is a great place to display them! I use this nice bookshelf in our living room (built by my awesome brother-in-law) to feature my collection of old readers, Mark Twain classics, and a few other old, cloth-bound books I’ve been given by friends and family over the years. I also use my awesome A-Z bookends on these shelves, because they’re too awesome to not show off.

3. Use some sense of organization. I like to group books by type, and then size. For instance, all my readers are together on one shelf, and my collection of Tom Sawyer books are stacked together on a different shelf.

4. Vary your layout. I use books stacked three ways, sometimes horizontally, and sometimes vertically, with the spines either in or out, just to add some variety to the shelves. Remember, books are beautiful, and there’s no reason to not feature them in artistic ways.

5. Have fun. We have a few unique pieces on our shelves, from an ceramic apple on a pedestal to this red Vietnamese cart from one of Wyatt’s good friends from college. I also have some games, and my FRIENDS mug. It’s just fun to display some interesting pieces. Don’t worry about everything matching or looking super sophisticated. Eclectic is a style all its own.

6. Don’t forget the top. It’s another shelf up there, so use it to display large picture frames or other big items. This one goes well with our love story books on the top shelf.

7. Alter the layout. If I have a horizontal arrangement on books on the left side of one shelf, I usually try to alter that by not placing a horizontal row of books on the shelves directly above and below that. It helps the bookshelves look balanced.

8. Leave some space. Bookshelves can start to look messy and overcrowded really easily if you fill each shelf all the way up from left to right and top to bottom. Of course, you also don’t want it to look sparse. If you go with a singular theme, like all books, it’s usually okay to fill it full. But if you have a mix of all different types of items, like we do, I think it works best to let the space around the stuff tie everything together nicely.

Well, those are my best tips for organizing bookshelves. What are some of your suggestions?