Antique Book Nerd

I love love love design books. I have them everywhere around our apartment: on the coffee table, in the shelves, on my desk, you get the idea. I really love antique books, though. I don't have a ton, but the ones I do have are arranged strategically in my bookcase so that they look like art--which they sometimes are.

From Houzz. I have collected antique books from thrift stores or tag sales and have received some as gifts.

Recently while I was shopping for gimps (yeah you know it!) at Claremont, I spotted this AMAZING screen with a bookcase display on it. It is a Piero Fornasetti screen designed in the 1950s.

Nate Berkus designed this classic but not stuffy looking living room with bunches of books arranged strategically on the bookcase. They are quite chunky so it is nice to break up the books throughout the bookcase.

Kathy Abbott designed this sweet little room in the Kips Bay Showhouse in 2010. She stocked the bookcase with beautiful encyclopedias.

Of course, Bunny Williams has some gorgeous antique books. This bookcase is packed full with no room for objects or sculptures. Just the books in all their glory.

Robert Kime has set you up here with this traditional bookcase and displays it with a set of encyclopedias or antique books.

I know you can buy books by the yard but I find that...tacky. Books should be selected for personal reasons, not by the yard, for looks. I HAVE bought books because I thought they were beautiful and DID judge them by their cover but also for their content. My favorite is a book with marbled paint on the inside of the cover and a book my friend bought me called "Book of Etiquette Volume II". Amazing.

Alicia B.

Sneak Peak of my Photo Show!

This weekend has been extremely relaxing but busy nonetheless. I had an entire corporate residence to design, math homework (eek), my little sister to spend lots of quality time with, and Black Friday deals to attend to! I got a moment to swing by and check up on my photography show in at Millrace Books in Farmington, CT and would love to share some of it with you!

It is set up in the gallery space of a small independent bookstore in the town where I grew up. I used to ride my bike there and get the latest American Girl books. Now I just love independent bookstores; they have such character. Above is a short description of my work!

The show is centered mainly around water. I love to photograph water.

Growing up in New England though, nothing quite gets me like nature or a beautiful sunset.

This one here was taken down on the Connecticut shore over the Fourth of July.

The show is up for one more month at Millrace Books, but this month really flies! I am very grateful for the opportunity to be able to show my work to more than just my family and friends. You know, photography makes a great gift, too! If you want to check out more, go for a day trip to Farmington, or take a look at my website, www.aliciabdesigns.com.


Alicia B.

Bookworm: Backwards Edition

It's no secret that I'm a bit of a book nerd. Sometimes I don't read the most intellectual books per se (Twilight will be a classic in 50 years, mark my words), but I do love to read when I have the time. I enjoy the use of books in design. I think that a library is important when I have a house of my own and I've been known to have opinions about book arrangement. I'm referring to the color coding idea for book arrangment which I'm morally opposed to. Dramatic? Rigid? Perhaps. Anyway, the latest book trend I've seen is turning the book spines inward so that the inside is visible. Take a look at some and then we can talk about it.

Luke Vahle was featured in this week's Decorati newsletter. The books here are turned spine inwards which works with the clean white color scheme of this desk. I like the use of stacking the books on either side like bookends.

Ms. Lauren of Pure Style Home did a similar bookcase display; hers with more interest and "objets". The top row really accents the little bust sculptures. The crates at the bottom break up the mass of books as well. Well done!

From The City Sage blog. Book spines turned inwards everywhere! I love how you can tell how old the book is by how yellowed the inside is.

From Country Living (via Dover Pl. blog), this shows that you don't need a neutral color scheme for this idea. Here, bright colors pop from the background of the books.

I decided to try it for myself on a small scale. Should I be embarrassed of my book selection? I'm not...

I thought I'd break up the monotony with two of my most gorgeous book spines off to the side. I kind of like the look of this but I'm still torn.

I have a really pretty cloth Pierre Deux journal that I included in the stack on the middle shelf. I understand the idea, and maybe when you're finished reading an embarrassing bestseller book you might want to turn it spine inwards.

What do you all think of this idea? I saw this done at the J. Crew in Westfarms mall in Farmington, CT (yeah!!), and in the store display it looked amazing! I wish I had a picture to show you. I'd love to do something interesting with my bookcases besides the mini displays I've created but I have so many design books that I love to show them off and admire them myself. I'm thinking of wallpapering the back of the bookcase or painting it a bright color.


Alicia B.

Happy New Year! 2009: The Year of Happy

From Eddie Ross. Yum!

I don't really believe in New Year's Resolutions. I think they're needless--don't we have enough to worry about to begin with? The usual, lose weight, go to the gym, stop smoking etc are too cliche for words and just make you feel bad and guilty if you do them (or don't depending on which one you chose). This year I'm choosing more positive resolutions--using my power for good instead of evil.

Laughing girl from Veer.

I'd like to be nicer to people, and in turn, maybe people will be nice to me and others (it's contagious, I hear). It's something I deal with in New York and it's starting to get me down. Sort of like Pay it Forward without the alcoholism and death. I was in the suburbs yesterday at the mall (I know, it sounds so 90's) but all these random people were smiling at me. Being the hardened pseudo New Yorker that I am, I was surprised but also, I smiled back.
It was a nice feeling.

Organized closet from Martha.

Another one is to cut out the clutter. You know, keep it cleaner. As Emily at Square One Organization says, it takes the same amount of time to put something in the wrong place as it takes to put it in the right place. Organizing for me is really fun, especially when I have the time. I love receiving Martha Stewart's Organizational Tip of the Day, too.

Attractive bookworm from Domino Mag.

My older sister says that she'd like to read more. That's another good one and I wholly approve of improving one's mind as a New Years Ressie. Reading is also a good way to relax. It's much easier and more mindless to just sit down with the remote and flip the channels, but I always feel better after I've read. It doesn't necessarily need to be a book, could be the newspaper too. Thanks, you passed the test.Figueres Mansion take by ME. Is this where I'll be living? Perhaps.

Design-wise, I will be moving at the end of February into my own apartment, so one of mine will be to design my own space as best I can. I think it will be a fun fun project and THOUGH I'll be missing my roommate like crazy, it will be a new experience that I'm looking forward to. Picking out my color scheme (I've already thought about it), possible new furniture, fun decorative accents, and space planning will be some of the challenges as I'm sure I'll be moving into a shoebox with a side of kitchen and a dash of bathroom.

ME again. Drink up!

Well, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me for 2009, but I remain upbeat about it! I think 2009 should be the year of getting back to basics, cut out the greed, the meanness, and just be happy and nice. Am I living in a dream world? I don't care. What are your resolutions?

Happy New Year!


Alicia B.

Book Organization

In my recent quest to find painted bookcases, I came across a trend which I've previously tried to ignore: COLOR CODING BOOKS. It seems on the ever-trendy flickr.com, that people LOVE this idea. Personally, I disapprove. I love books--art books, interior design books, silly novels, cook books etc. I love owning books, too. Organizing them in the above fashion, to me, seems like the owner of these books only has them for show, not because they truly value these books. I admit, to have something organized in such a way is fun and somewhat visually pleasing, but at the same time these objects are books, something you take off the shelf and read.  Seems suspect.

This is just my opinion however. It also got me thinking about how I organize my books. By genre? By type? By size? SHOULD I color code them? haha, please.

From Domino Magazine. I really like that painting off to the left, though.

From Domino Magazine

From HGTV.com

For tips on how to organize books, I found a method on wikihow.
http://www.wikihow.com/Organize-Books

Alicia B.