Our bookcase, although styled, became slightly askew with the volume of comic books (or as the geeks would call it ‘graphic novel’) Anthony has collected. It now looks imbalanced and somehow my coffee table books seemed out of place. Instead of trying to make it work, we decided to make it a library purely dedicated to my husband’s ever-growing collection.

I wanted this library to showcase a well-curated collection without it looking overly geeky like this one. My idea is to make it look effortless and inject a lot of my husband’s personality. On the weekend, we put on music in the living room and got to work. Here is a glimpse of our process and tips on how to arrange and style your own bookcase:

Categories your books: Lay all your books on a table and categories them in a way that makes the most sense to you. You can choose to arrange it by author, genre, or even by color (I would stayed away from color coding if you have a husband like me that has a collection of different series of graphic novels). Here we went with arranging it by genre.

Arrange your books in the bookcase: the next step is to start putting books in your bookcase. Stack them in different directions- vertically, horizontally, or tilted. If you have a particular favorite book or  one with a nice cover, it’s good to make it stand out by having it back against the wall or against the books. Don’t worry so much about making it right the first time, you can shift and rearrange once you’ll add your accessories.

Style with accessories: Accessories are a great way to create a sense of depth and create different levels in your bookcase. Look around the house and grab items you can display. Use a vase or a sculpture as a bookend, stack boxes or jewelry case, display framed artwork and pile on interesting vignettes you collected through your travels.

Add your personal touch: Finish styling your bookcase by adding your own personal touch. It can be anything that has a personal meaning to you like a framed family picture or even displaying your favorite flowers. An example here is the vinyl toys that Anthony and I made at the beginning of our relationship.