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35 Built-In Bookcase Ideas to Make Any Room Feel Custom
Dust off your piles of hardbacks. They’re ready for their time to shine!
Is there anything more dreamy than a wall of built-in bookshelves filled with volumes of books? We think not. Shelves come in many shapes and forms for displaying your books and collections (think free-standing, floating, and more), but we’re partial to the form-meets-function of a built-in, so we’ve rounded up 35 of our favorite built-in bookcase ideas from designers across the country to inspire your next built-in project at your own home.
The rooms pictured below will give you lots of ideas to help with your plans for adding shelves to living rooms, family rooms, bedrooms, and home offices, plus outside-the-box spaces like dining rooms, hallways, and even bathrooms (yes, bathrooms!). You’ll also find plenty of inspiration for how to upgrade any shelves you already have in your home. After all, what better way is there to fill any empty wall space, especially around a fireplace!, for both modern and traditional-style rooms? Now scroll on down and start dreaming those lovely bookshelf dreams...
Here are even more design ideas for book lovers and trinket collectors alike:
Create a Seamless Look with Paint
Unify the look of a room by using the same paint color on your new built-in shelves as is on your walls, like you see with this handsome living room’s smoldering hue. Place swivel chairs nearby like you see in this cozy English country-style home so you can easily grab a novel off the shelf and get to reading in front of the fire.
Get the Look:
Wall & Bookcase Paint Color: Fairview Taupe by Benjamin Moore
RELATED: Cozy Living Rooms You’ll Want to Snuggle Up In Forever
Bring Book Space into Small Spaces
There’s no space too small to add built-in bookshelves. Here in Nora Murphy’s coastal cottage they are tucked into the corner next to a window of an eat-in kitchen to provide ample room for cookbooks or other volumes. In front of the shelves, a massive wood-burning fireplace is the anchor of the room fronted by an Irish pine and black-painted Windsor chairs and a long bench.
RELATED: Breakfast Nook Design Ideas for a Stylish Start to Every Day
Outfit a Landing
Have empty wall space along a hallway and lots of books that need a home? Make it a wall of shelves like this one in an upstairs landing that leads to the attic and doubles as a studio space. New beadboard on the remaining walls round out the custom look of the space in this New York farmhouse designed by Jersey Ice Cream Co.
RELATED: Beadboard vs. Wainscoting—What are They and How are They Different?
Paint Your Bookcase a Pretty Color
In this family room, designer Cameron Ruppert took a cozy stone space crowned with wood beams and added style and function with
wall-to-wall blue-painted bookcases. For a unique touch, she added custom strawberry vine needlepoint panels on the lower closed cabinets. The room is outfitted with an antique trestle table and chairs that serves double-duty as a workspace or gathering spot for playing cards or board games.
Get the Look:
Bookcase Paint Color: Stone Blue by Farrow & Ball
RELATED: The Top 100 Paint Colors For Every Room in Your House
Work with Your Architecture
Designer Mark D. Sikes dreamed up this happy little corner in a home in Birmingham. Working with the quirky slant of the roof, he embraced the shape of this room and added a slanted bookcase above a bench. A colorful assortment of books and trinkets bring a happy spirit.
RELATED: 70 Stylish Kids’ Room Ideas That Even Grownups Will Love
Think Beyond Books
When temperatures drop in autumn, homeowner Justin Reis stacks firewood along the bottom of his living room built-ins, which are painted a deep navy that took three tries to get right.
Get the Look:
Wall and Bookcase Paint Color: Dark Navy by Behr
RELATED: Tour More of This Connecticut Georgian Colonial That is an Old House Lover’s Dream
Use Reclaimed Wood
Reclaimed barn boards add cozy texture to the walls of this primary bedroom, which features built-in shelves and an antique Swedish desk topped with a collection of tramp art boxes.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Buying and Using Reclaimed Wood
Create a Multi-Use Room
No library? No problem. Inspired by Irish pubs they visited during their travels, Minnesota homeowners Jeff and Jill Murphy created what the family calls its “Dibrary,” a dining alcove lined with bookcases.
Get the Look:
Wall Paint Color: Deep Caviar by Benjamin Moore
RELATED: See More of This Dream Cottage on Minnesota’s Lake Pulaski
Create a Campy Space
Homeowner Kelly Gray counts old camp movies like On Golden Pond as major style inspirations for her choices, such as this living room’s rattan chairs that have drink and magazine holders. The perfectly crammed built-in bookcases add to the campy spirit of the room and a small desk in the corner provides a quiet place to read.
Balance with a Window
Homeowner and Country Living Editor-in-Chief Rachel Barrett filled her original built-ins in the family room of this former hunting lodge with antique treasures. The symmetrical casing with the window on the right side of the room brings balance to the fireplace wall.
RELATED: Tour more of this before and after former hunting lodge in Mississippi.
Keep It On Theme
Homeowner Carter Smith embraced the mystery of his coastal Maine cottage (and indulged his Scooby-Doo obsessed niece!) when he dreamed up a secret revolving-door bookcase that leads to a powder room. Keeping on theme, he filled the shelves with his collection of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.
RELATED: Just Buy Old Books From the Thrift Shop? Try This Trick Before You Bring Them Home.
Create a Small Nook
This inset, channel-back banquette off the kitchen created the perfect narrow space for a built-in shelving nook used for storing cookbooks and extra kitchen knick-knacks.
Get the Look:
Kitchen Wall Paint Color: Dark Night by Sherwin-Williams
RELATED: Tour More of This Wisconsin Cabin That Feels Like Happy Hour
Try the Cocoon Effect
Painting your built-ins the same color as your walls and trim can make any room feel more modern and cozy. Bonus: The cocoon effect can really help your books and antiques sing. Here, a vibrant green paint color compliments the warm wood floors and antique desk.
Get the Look:
Room Paint Color: Arsenic by Farrow & Ball
RELATED: Get more pretty green paint color ideas than will liven up your rooms.
Think Outside the Box
If we’re honest, one of life’s great joys is reading a book in the bath. Here, built-in bookshelves in a bold blueish-black hue keep books nearby for just the occasion. Tip: Drop-in, alcove, or undermount tubs like the one shown here are best suited for this look, as they provide a natural base for built-ins.
RELATED: Dozens More Ideas to Help You Add Soul to Your Bathroom
Add a Library Ladder
When the Wright family turned a welding factory into their family home, this library/music room was created to connect two larger sides. The dressed up the simple white built-in shelving with a brand-new rolling library ladder. The nestled-in piano dates back to 1914.
Go with Dark Paint for High Contrast
Homeowner Jeannette Fristoe takes a “more is more” approach to decorating. Here, dark black built-ins showcase a collection of creamy white books and patinaed silver under the careful watch of a flock of antique sheep.
Get the Look:
Bookcase Paint Color: Jet Black by Behr
RELATED: Find treasures galore in this serene Maryland bungalow.
Make it Modern
In this Massachusetts cabin, the homeowner set the scene with pickled knotty pine walls and simple bookcases. Filling the shelves with neutral books and objects helps the texture of the wood shine and the graphic tin “B,” part of an old gas station sign, pop.
RELATED: Wood Walls Are Back! Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Knotty Pine.
Use as a Bedside “Table”
Skip adding a nightstand to your bedroom and add a floor-to-ceiling bookcase or built-in bookshelf unit instead. Then tuck a comfy reading chair and side table in front to create a reading nook for when you’re not quite ready for bedtime.
Add Game Room Storage
Built-ins traditionally grace living rooms and libraries, but here they enhance a game room with much-need room for game storage. Additionally, the extra shelving makes room for more personal collections like the homeowners vintage National Geographic magazines, which provide a fun yellow punch.
Surround a Window
A window can be a lovely anchor for a custom bookcase. The sunny view helps break up visual density and the space underneath the window can be turned into a upholstered window seat or small shelf depending on how deep the space.
RELATED: 35+ Cozy Reading Nook Ideas for Whiling Away the Afternoon
Maribeth B Jones is the Design Director of Country Living where she creates seasonal content full of warmth and playfulness. When she’s not wrangling chickens for a cover shoot you can find her collecting vintage oil portraits or flipping pancakes in her sunny, yellow kitchen with her two chatty daughters.
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