On the shelfie
For those of us who aren’t into posting “selfies” I rather liked the idea of posting a “shelfie”, especially after reading this headline by Sadie Whitelocks on the Mail Online – ‘The selfie for intellectuals’: Rise of the ‘shelfie’, the geek-chic social media trend to show off your book collection’.
I have a collection of art and craft books that sit, for easy reference, on a painted pine bookshelf in my workspace. One of my favourite books is Tricia Guild’s Painted Country. It is vibrant with colour and texture, and fully embraces elements of home crafts, from painted furniture to the simplest soft furnishings. Tricia Guild, as many of you will know, is the founder of Designers Guild. I bought the book, which was first published in 1994, from a garage sale relatively recently. Despite time passing, and fashions changing, the book is still a true inspiration for anyone who loves colour. Visit www.designersguild.com for a range of colourful fabrics and home accessories, or buy a paperback version of Tricia Guild’s Painted Country from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tricia-Guild/e/B000APOR36/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Last year, after having a new carpet laid on my stairs and landing I decided to rearrange my rather tired collection of reading books. I reinstated my hand forged Baker’s Rack that had been neglected for a while and sorted through my collection of paperbacks.
The majority of books were taken to a charity shop and just a few favourites, and unread ones, kept. Rather than line them up in a conventional row I decided to sort them into their different colours and arrange them to sit decoratively on the metal rack. The paperbacks were easy to arrange and now sit neatly on the bottom shelf between a pair of wooden bookends.
The remaining books, mostly greens and blues, were an eclectic mix of paperback and hardback novels, family photo albums and some aged reference books. I sorted these into size, piled them high on the middle shelf of the rack, and topped them off with a vintage toy motorcycle and sidecar.
I love the end result – the Baker’s Rack and books are now a decorative feature rather than a dusty bookshelf full of books that needed dusting down and given a new home.
