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  1. How to arrange bookcases in the living room

    Not only does your bookcase provide a practical and convenient place to store your books, the content of your bookcase also illustrates your interests, style and personality. What you choose to display on your bookcase can say a lot about you, but while they’re widely recognised as suitable storage for your favourite reads, a bookcase can also offer another element to your home’s design.

    Along with sofas, coffee tables, lamps, plants, sets of drawers and ornaments, a bookcase is an important component of any living room. However, it’s only possible to strike a balance for the desired design of your living room by utilising these items in the correct way. Read on to find out how you can incorporate a bookcase in your living room.

    Where to put bookcases in a living room

     

    Before you choose the best location for your bookcase, you should consider a number of factors:

    Practicality

    An aesthetically pleasing bookcase is all well and good, but it’s not much use if it’s poorly situated. Consider putting your bookcase close to sofas or a dining set to make it easier to retrieve and read any of the books on it. That said, where you put your bookcase depends on how much you wish to read books from your collection or what you need the bookcase for. For example, if you frequently work from home, you may need specific books close to hand, but if you read casually but not often, overly easy access to your bookcase is not as important.

    Spacing

    Introducing another piece of furniture - however big or small - can alter the shape of your living room. You don’t want everything to be grouped together in the centre of the room just as you wouldn’t want everything to be at opposing sides of the area available to you, so it’s important to strike a balance by spacing everything out evenly.

    Purpose

    Aside from book storage and visual appearance, you have the option of making more uses out of your bookcase. It’s unlikely that you’ll want your bookcase to become a glorified drinks coaster, but if it’s situated near to sofas and chairs, it could be a good place to temporarily hold drinks, especially if you’re entertaining guests. Alternatively, if you have an entertainment system or games console in your living room, you could put your bookcase near to your television and use it to store DVDs, blu-ray and videogames.

    Coordination

    Even if you’ve gone out of your way to keep your furniture evenly spaced out around your living room, you may want to consider grouping your bookcase with another piece of furniture. This is likely to require some trial and error until you’re suitably happy, but if the design suits your sofa, fireplace, sideboard or television stand, it could be best suited near it.

    Shape

    Organising your living room in an effective manner is partly down to finding a harmony between every piece of furniture, alongside other components such as the flooring, colour and structural design of the room. It’s likely that you will have been wary of ruining this harmony when you first picked out your bookcase, but as much as you will want to make it work with how your living room is already set out, it’s also important to make use of the bookcase’s design.

    Introducing another piece of furniture such as a bookcase should accentuate the other elements that are already in your living room rather than making everything conflict with each other. For instance, if it was designed to be put into a corner, that’s likely to be the best place for it, and if it’s especially tall, it shouldn’t be put somewhere that it’ll stand out.

    A bookcase placed in the middle of a luxury sitting room.

    Can you put a bookshelf in front of a window?

    When you’re planning where to put your bookcase, you may consider putting it in front of a window. Whether it’s out of preference or simply due to a lack of space elsewhere, it’s worth considering, but you may be concerned if it would look clunky or block out natural light.

    Fortunately, it’s possible to avoid both of these potential issues by only partially covering the window with the bookcase. Tall bookcases are capable of covering just one side of a window, while short bookcases that block only the bottom of the window could also be utilized. Although not traditionally recommended, if a loss of natural light can be tolerated and you are struggling to find a better location for your book storage solutions, individual bookshelves that overlap across a section of the window could provide a good compromise.

  2. A guide to UK bed sizes to find your perfect bed

    Considering we spend a third of our lives asleep, it’s important to find the perfect bed to rest our heads. As the central feature of a bedroom, it’s only natural to crave a piece of furniture that is as comfortable as it is stylish. Whether you’re relocating, redecorating or simply think it’s time for an upgrade, choosing a new bed Read more...
  3. How to clean wood furniture

    Wooden furniture is a household favourite. Not only is a wooden finish simple, elegant and versatile, but it also requires very little maintenance. However, regular cleaning is necessary to keep the wood looking fresh and healthy. Knowing how to clean a wooden surface is important if you want to maintain the longevity of your favourite pieces Read more...
  4. How to move heavy furniture

    While everyone is inside protecting the NHS, it's important to remember to avoid injuries. Although we have outlined some basic principles here, we know that any heavy furniture moves can be risky and complicated. We urge our readers to do their own research and thoroughly evaluate the job at hand! At this time we are all doing our best to avoid Read more...
  5. How to arrange a small bedroom

    [caption id="attachment_1368" align="aligncenter" width="959"] How to arrange a small bedroom[/caption] Even the most bijou bedroom can be transformed into a luxurious, stylish and tranquil space with just a little interior design know-how. If your bedroom or guestroom is on the smaller side and you want to ensure it’s both beautiful and Read more...
  6. Bespoke Furniture

    For us at Crown French Furniture, the most important thing is making each piece of our furniture perfect for everyone of our customers. When ordering from us you can rest assured that we will be able to make a piece that is perfect for your home. Our website showcases our finest collections of French, reproduction, contemporary and shabby chic Read more...
  7. How to furnish a bay window

    Bay windows can be a beautiful feature in any room, but when it comes to furnishing and decorating them, you might find yourself a bit stumped. Should you leave yours empty - to accentuate the extra square footage... Or turn it into an intimate cosy reading space? Would a bold colour scheme work, or should you stick to something neutral and Read more...
  8. What is a Console Table?

      [caption id="attachment_1351" align="aligncenter" width="956"] Console Table[/caption] Commonly associated with European aristocratic mansions and royal palaces of the late 17th century, a traditional console table is a table whose top surface, or tabletop, is supported through the use of corbels or brackets. With their origins thought Read more...
  9. What is a Sleigh Bed?

    Choosing a new bed? Whether you’re furnishing a new house or replacing your old bed, it’s a big decision to make. It’s very important to get it right, to strike the right balance between comfort and practicality as well as style and of course, budget. A popular choice is the sleigh bed, a type of bed that has been around for hundreds of Read more...
  10.  Should you put a rug under a dining room table

    Rugs in dining rooms tend to divide opinion. Some people swear by a rug under their dining table, offering practical benefits as well as aesthetic, whereas other homeowners think it’s a real no-no. But which is the right option for your home? Rugs under dining tables - the pros and cons There are two main things to consider when deciding Read more...

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