Color Coding a Bookcase!

Well this was fun! Not only was it a pretty quick project, but also a great excuse to clean the bookcase. Cause let's be honest, when was I ever going to do that otherwise. Never. So exactly.

First, here's my bookcase as it was for about 2 years. Not in bad shape, but with our front room consistently changing this was a great way to bring cohesion and make some sense of an otherwise cluttered space. And I just realized my blanc de chine lamp needs a shade. Oops.

If you decide to do this yourself, you'll want to take everything off the shelves. This may seem self explanitory, but before I took everything off I tried going at it gurilla style just moving things around still on the shelves. It was horrible and taking everything off the shelves is a way better plan. Trust me.
So I made piles of books organized by color...
 

...and a pile for knick knacks and tchotchkes and foo dogs, oh my.

Here are the bare bones! Yikes. Wolverine was allowed to stay. In case you were wondering, these are 4 Ikea Expedit shelves stacked.


Now for the fun part. I filled the shelves with the knick knacks and tchotchkes and foo dogs (oh my), and let them dictate where my books would go. I didn't want the whole thing to seem too ROYGBIV-y, so I just did what felt right.
I like putting pictures and vintage paintings in the way backs of the shelves to utilize the depth (Expedit shelving is super deep), while bringing some of the smaller things to the front.

Then using the tchotchkes as my guide, I filled the shelves with books.

I like a little haphazardness in my bookcase, so incorporating my husbands childhood toys is fine. In fact, I kinda like it.


So happy with how it turned out, and it took under an hour.

BTW, about an hour after I posted the picture below on instagram, Refinery 29 posted these Tips for Bookcases (so now of course I think I'm cool/trendy/onto something).  

I'm always a sucker for a good before and after shot, but holy cow is this one overstimulating!

I think this is definitely worth a try if you're tired of your bookcase situation. 

So tell me, do you think you'll do it? Or DID YOU!? If so, send me pics!