Home Decorating Guide: Shelf Decorating

If you have a large collection of books, consider arranging them by color for instant bookshelf pizzazz. The rainbow-hued display can be quite dramatic — though it can also make hunting down a specific tome a bit of a chore. "Library sales are a great way to pick up groups of colored books inexpensively," designer Megan Samuels suggests. Try removing the dust jackets on your hardbacks, too, especially for vintage books with interesting spines or luxe cover material.

Other ideas: "Display some books up and down and others laid on their side," says designer Nancy Barsotti, ASID fellow. "And group books by subject — mass all the photo books together, for instance — or by size, which instantly creates a sense of order." As for those tatty paperbacks, get rid of them or hide them in good-looking boxes or baskets tucked into your bookshelves.