Tory Williams Photography
Staging a bookshelf is like a puzzle—you have to find the right colors, sizes, and shapes that perfectly fit together. Some people have the eye for it, and others … well, that’s when we look to Pinterest and experts for inspiration. We chatted with interior designer, Chiara de Rege, who is the mastermind behind The Wing’s interior space. Below, she’s breaking down how to properly arrange your dream bookshelf.
“I think that the key to arranging a bookshelf is to follow these basic steps:
-Decide if you want it to be by topic or by color—or if you have a ton of books, consider organizing by both.
-Designate 70% of the shelving space for books.
-The other 30% can be for accessories, framed art, pottery, plants, vases with flowers, and picture frames.
-Group! The biggest mistake people make when accessorizing bookshelves is the placement of a single frame. When you place objects in an isolated way on shelves, they look more like random tchotchkes.
-In fact, even tchotchkes can look cool when grouped together, so do not be afraid to designate shelf space where you commit to a cluster of things. For instance, create a cluster of your favorite framed pictures in one area and a cluster of found pottery or ceramics in another.
-When clustering, play with the height and depth of the objects and frames. Walk away from the shelves and make sure that each object has an angle that makes it shine.
-I love color-coding books. It is by no means necessary, and some people look down upon it, but color-coding works just like clustering to me. The books become more powerful when grouped by color, and the objects more prominent when banded together.
-Let the books be backdrops for your personal accents, but also let the books be focal points themselves. Face some of the books forward that might be meaningful to you or have a cheeky cover you would like to showcase. Let your books speak for your personality and interests. But also don’t do this too often, as then the beauty of inviting someone to explore your library is lost. I think everyone enjoys perusing a library on their own accord, pulling books out according to whim without having too much spelled out for them.
-My most important note when curating your bookshelves is to not be afraid to let things pile up in there. I have clients who want the bookshelves to stay exactly as I designed them. And in most scenarios, I love this. But with bookshelves, let your child tuck their art in there or let a new book fall on top of others in a messy way. Who cares if your partner keeps leaving their keys or the dog leash on the shelves? It’s all just personality, and a great library should be just that—full of personality.
Here are some libraries I did for The Wing. Since I was designing several of these spaces at once and the installs were fast and furious, the curation of the library become fairly formulaic. That way anyone on my design team and now anyone in-house at The Wing can channel these original locations and their libraries as they continue to open up more spaces. Color was really key here. Audrey Gelman, the co-founder of The Wing, wanted a rainbow of books, so I worked with that in mind. And of course, the bookshelves are full of female-written books that are tried and true to Wing members. In fact, for the very first Wing in Flatiron, we had all the founding members and all the writers bring in books that I then worked into the library. The Wing bookshelves are certainly not shy of personality.”
Tory Williams Photography
Tory Williams Photography
Tory Williams Photography
Shop our end-of-summer book guide to get your bookshelf started.
Since establishing her Manhattan-based firm in 2010, Chiara de Rege has created an impressive range of residential and commercial interiors. She began her career at Vogue as an editor and stylist and worked at design firms such as Molly Isaksen Interiors, Nickey Kehoe, and Suzanne Rheinstein. Chiara is also co-founder of Maison C, a wallpaper and textile company. Her work has been featured in publications such as AD, Elle Decor, InStyle, Town & Country, Vogue, and Wallpaper.