2 Shelf Bookcase Drawing

2 Shelf Bookcase Drawing

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Design ideas for bookcases

Bookcase ideas to fit any budget or space - from freestanding & modular, to custom-made & DIY

There is no furniture so charming as books, even if you never open them or read a single word,' said the nineteenth-century writer Sydney Smith. A shelf full of books adds instant appeal to any room, whether in the form of bespoke joinery or stand alone shelves. We've gone through the House & Garden archive to find the most inspiring designs for bookshelves in the living room, bedroom or study. From modern designs, to mid-century classics and spy novel numbers which conceal hidden doors, there are bookshelves of every type in this gallery to inspire something as intriguing as the tomes that fill them.

Bookcase ideas

• 

  Owen Gale

  George Saumarez Smith designed his bookshelves himself to be the exact height of his books, filling them with books on architecture. A Howard armchair sits in front of the chimneypiece, on top of a French rug that belonged to George's grandparents.

• Paul Massey

  The bookcases in tech entrepreneur Rose Hulse's house were designed by Rose and built by Brian Purnell from Distinctive Country Furniture. Walls in 'Mossy Stone' by Dulux create a refined backdrop. The painting above the mantelpiece was bought in Hamburg, where Rose's husband George has an office.

• Alex James

  There's something so charming about an abundance of books. Eschewing the trend for a perfectly harmonious, colour-coded display, the study in this family home designed by architect Chris Dyson makes the most of unusual shelving, from the vintage Danish desk from The Conran Shop, to the stackable shelf (pictured right).

• Lucas Allen

  The walls, ceiling and woodwork of this snug reading nook in a house by Rose Uniacke are painted in a custom-mixed shade of blue with a textured finish. The dark colour allows the colour on the books to pop.

• Alexander James

  The joinery throughout this Baron's Court flat by Studio Peake was done by Katie Cullinan of Richard Cullinan Joinery, who made the panelling, the bookcases and the wardrobes to Sarah's designs.

• 'This used to be one big, open space,' says Beata Heuman of her living room and dining room, 'and I added the bookshelf wall and sliding door. Strangely, I think it makes the house feel larger. The walls are light, but the bottle-green hue inside the bookshelves adds depth and mystery.'

• Paul Massey

  'There's never enough storage in a house,' says April Russell, who included alcove bookshelves in her drawing room. Their interiors, painted in 'Dollar Bill Green' by Benjamin Moore, provide a regular punctuation of the neutral walls at the library/television end of the room.

• Hugo Rittson Thomas

  Who says you can't fit a square peg in a round hole? This nifty bookshelf design in Beckside House fits the neoclassical style of the room perfectly, with the alcove at the top displaying three lovely vases.

• Andreas von Einsiedel

  In the library area of Farrow & Ball colour curator Joa Studholme's house, the bookshelves and ceiling below the gallery were painted in 'Railings' by Farrow & Ball to create a dramatic contrast with the lighter look of the main living space. The rugs are from Bluebellgray.

• Paul Massey

  The sitting room of Susan Deliss's house in France has blue walls, which soften the effect of the original floor tiles. A grand antique cabinet provides stylish book storage.

• Simon Upton

  After restoring the Georgian details to this Marylebone flat, its interior-decorator owner, Douglas Mackie, added furniture with a French bias and twentieth-century art to create an elegant, sophisticated ensemble. Many different textures are seen against a background of paper-backed linen, by Warris Vianni, in the sitting room. The large, asymmetric bookcase, designed by Douglas, is made of bog oak, brass and straw marquetry. The two armchairs by Terence Robsjohn-Gibbings are covered in a custom-made fabric by Toyine Sellers.

• Kate Aslangul of Oakley Moore decorated this light-flooded library on the second floor of a Parisian home, in which architect Pascal Collange incorporated a bookshelf into the staircase, a signature style. The room is painted in Farrow & Ball's 'New White' while the pendant lights are from Mullan. Bespoke metal spindles create an arts and crafts feel together with a striped runner from Hartley Tissier, an Anglo-French carpet company.

• Yuki Sugiura

  At Matilda Goad's new north London house, the sitting room contains reeded joinery designed by Matilda's husband Tom and built by his company Blockhouse Build. It hides a radiator and is flanked by deep drawers either side. The paint colour is 'Beetle Nut' from Paint and Paper Library. Matilda added brass bow-shaped handles from Beata Heuman.

• Paul Massey

  Bespoke shelving frames the double doors and artfully conceals two radiators, in this project by Scandinavian designer Ebba Thott. A chic apple-picking ladder, created by Ebba's Notting Hill shop Sigmar, allows access to the upper shelves.

• James Fennell

  The library at Bowhill, a stately home, is a 'much used family room' with bookshelves on every available bit of wall. In keeping with the aesthetics of the house, the books are mostly first editions with gold-leaf binding, rather than modern tomes.

• Natalie Dinham

  Tara Craig designed this living room in a London home, finding the perfectly proportioned bookcase for the living room. The shape adds interest to the space and mirrors the lines of the cornicing.

• Paul Massey

  In the open plan living area of Bridie Hall's North London home, the shelves are painted in Paint & Paper Library's 'Chinese Emperor' and filled with books, trinkets and decorative objects.

• Rachel Whiting

  Pandora Sykes is a freelance journalist and podcaster and so has created a stimulating study in her west London home. A built-in bookshelf has a handy reading chair situated neatly in front of the colour-coded books.

• Paul Massey

  Beata Heuman worked on a Sussex cottage, giving it a modern country look. The carpeted dining room has a wall of bookshelves in a calming teal, broken up by a central pair of French doors through which light floods.

• Simon Brown

  Our former editor Sue Crewe has an eye-catching red dining room with a wall of shelves framing a portrait that overlooks the table.

• Simon Brown

  Taking time to execute his ideas, the owner of this London flat has created a spacious and airy home with interiors to match the stunning views. The large open-plan living area contains a library, which has bespoke bookcases that draws your eye up to the high ceilings adding height to the room.

• Sarah Hogan

  Interior designer Jane Taylor has taken an awkwardly shaped little corner of the dining room in her London home, and hidden it behind a bookshelf, turning it in to a miniature study for her husband Simon containing a desk and shelves. Height has been utilzed with shelves all the way to the ceiling, accessed by a fold-away step ladder.

• Paul Massey

  This eighteenth-century barn has been converted into a stylish sitting-room-cum-guest-cottage, by its owner Emma Burns, senior decorator at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. Emma adapted the internal configuration to create a striking way of displaying her book collection. The built-in bookcase equipped with a ladder also acts as a secret door to a hidden bathroom.

• Chris Tubbs

  Designer Adam Bray transformed this typical Eighties conversion in east London for a young client to create an environment that is 'dark, exciting and sexy', stripping out non-original ornate cornicing and replacing it with simpler architectural detailing. The rear sitting room has been reinvented as a library, with book storage cleverly integrated in above-door shelves.

• Paul Massey

  Hugh Henry, a director of Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi has interspersed the books in this bookcase with an idiosyncratic mix of ceramics. 'The family love visiting Africa, and had several African pieces in their collection that we then built upon. In the library we've displayed them with bold Fifties Italian ceramic pieces to provide interest and decorative value among the rows of books.'

• Michael Sinclair

  A painting by Sidney Sime hangs on bookshelves above a Gothic Revival desk in Guy Tobin's London house. 'I put it here partly due to a lack of wall space, but also because it depicts a Shakespeare play, so having it over a library feels appropriate,' says Guy. For a picture hanger who could recreate this look, try Paul Carter at Phoenix Fine Art (020-8319 3527), and for more on picture hanging and framing, visit houseandgarden.co.uk/picturehanging.

• Michael Sinclair

  With a characteristic respect for the fabric of this eighteenth-century house in Bath, designer Patrick Williams has carefully transformed it into a welcoming home. The library, which had lost its original panelling, has regained its gravitas with new bookcases created from Georgian reeded uprights and architraves, and filled with colour-coordinated Penguin Classics. The bust is of the Duke of Wellington.

• Michael Sinclair

  In the drawing room of the London house of Lady Wakefield the fireplace is flanked with traditional fitted bookcases which hold both a treasured collection of fiction and ceramics from Iran.

• Paul Massey

  A recessed bookcase has deeper shelves for larger tomes and, above a ledge, space for smaller books, in a spare bedroom at Giles Vincent's west London townhouse, rich with inherited and collected antiques. The dark, handsome wooden furniture in front of it make the space a seamless study area.

• Oliver Pilcher

  The ground-floor sitting room of [link url="https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/vanessa-bransons-marrakech-hotel-and-london-home]Vanessa Branson's house in Holland Park[/link] has subtle shelves built in to the right of the fireplace in the same colour of the mantelpiece, over which an artwork by Hassan Hajjaj hangs.

• The side hall of Cadland House coastal country home has a purple geometric wallpaper chosen by David Hicks. Never known for using quiet colours or retiring pattern, Hicks purple geometric wallpaper in the side hall.

  Underneath built-in shelving is a convenient bench and coat nook with pegs and space for shoes. Various free standing book shelves are also fitted to the space.

• Simon Brown

  In interior designer Vanessa Macdonald's elegant Georgian home, a large bookcase with Georgian-style reeded uprights and an elegant architrave fills a wall and provides both book storage and cupboard space. Details which seem as though they have always been here - a tribute to her sense of proportion.

• Michael Sinclair

  The walls of the dressing room in architect and designer Charles Rutherfoord's London home has a wooden bookcase and drawer storage. The column of shelf space between the organ and dresser make use of available space and gives the air of a charming, antique book shop.

• Paul Massey

  A yellow sofa adds a pop of colour placed in front of a bookcase in this converted Somerset chapel that artists Laura Stoddart and Jonathan Delafield Cook now call home. The room itself looks like the perfect place to curl up with a good book, with its cosy Moroccan-style rugs and throw.

• Simon Brown

  Since moving into her husband's Wiltshire farmhouse, designer Sarah Vanrenen has enhanced its quirky charm, with an adjusted layout and unexpected colours. A bookcase houses antique volumes in the drawing room to create a cosy nook for books.

• Michael Sinclair

  An ethos of timelessness combined with simplicity and sophistication characterises Arnaud Zannier's collection of hotels, and his family home. The elegant rural villa not far from Aalter, between Ghent and Bruges, is styled with a wealth of organic materials lending it depth and warmth. This library area adjoins the living room, which has plenty of shelving to display books and family photographs.

• Alexander James

  Bookcases in Victorian Dining Room | Bookshelf Ideas

  The bookcases in this Victorian dining room were designed by Lubos Kracmar and painted grey to match the internal door frames. This paint colour also complements the grisaille walls painted by Jessica Fletcher.

  After 40 years at Colefax & Fowler, Wendy Nicholls is clear about what makes a good interior, and the decoration of her London home reflects the style she has honed both personally and professionally.

• Andrew Montgomery

  Pale Wood Built-in Bookshelves | Bookshelf Ideas

  Pale wood built-in bookshelves match the panelling around the room in the library at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire. The space doubles as a living area and the stairs lead up to the working studio of garden design duo The Land Gardeners, one of whom, Bridget Elsworthy, occupies the manor as her family home.

• Simon Bevan

  Small Pink Living Room With Alcove Bookcase | Bookshelf Ideas

  The living room of Ben Pentreath's former flat in a Georgian building on Great Ormond Street has the original marble fireplace surround. The walls are painted a soft pink and hung with an electic array of art. A stack of vintage Observer's books and a scientific model of a tadpole decorate the alcove bookcase.

• Cosy Traditional Country Armchairs | Living Room Design Ideas

  The library of artist Anne Massie's house is cosy and eclectic. While patterned chairs, lots of paintings and a gorgeous rug add colour and visual interest to the wood panelled room; the grand bookshelf is the real star of the show!

• Simon Upton

  In the library at Bowood House, Etruscan-style Wedgwood vases dating from 1813 stand on bookcases under the coffered ceiling, both of which were designed by Charles Cockerell in 1821. The 5,000 bound books were mostly collected by the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne. Through the double doors is the drawing room.

• Simon Brown

  The sitting room of this converted artist's studio decorated by Caroline Holdaway is lined with books. A fire flickers within a stone chimneypiece and in the broad, high alcoves on either side of the chimney breast, bookshelves climb towards the apex of the double-height, sloping ceiling. Around the fire, two plump sofas and two stout armchairs offer an irresistible temptation to sink down, kick off your shoes and settle in for a quiet read or a long conversation, while admiring the view of trees, birds and sky through the towering studio window. The painting hanging about the chimneypiece is by John Bellany.

• Davide Lovatti

  The library of Carskiey Estate, returned to the first floor by owner Tom Helme, has a B&B Italia sofa and Maxalto ottoman, covered in Fermoie 'Silver Something' linen. The bookcases are original to the house and were made by Whytock and Reid.

• Simon Brown

  Reclaimed ceiling beams were hollowed out to conceal steel structures in Robin Muir's study, where the look of shelved books is reflected in a striped rug.

• Sharyn Cairns

  Mrs White in the Library | Bookshelf Ideas

  Across the landing in this house designed by Rabih Hage, the study has bespoke built-in shelving to display not only the owners' large number of books the couple have collected, but also the Chinese artefacts and Danish blue-and-white porcelain that they own. The white sofa lifts the beautifully dark room.

• Simon Upton

  A hallway or landing is a prime location for a floor-to-ceiling bookcase. 'Never be afraid to scale up; rooms can be theatrical and comfortable at the same time,' says Emma Burns, one of the leading interior design directors at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. The lesson was gleaned from legendary designer Roger Banks-Pye and executed at The Dovecote, Emma's home in the country.

• If you have a blank wall what better way to give it life than sturdy built-in bookshelves, like these in the home of gallerist Rebecca Hossack. Note the way that the size of the shelves subtly increases, so that small light books snugly fill the top, while the largest, heaviest tomes have ample room at the bottom.

• Rachel Whiting

  The bookshelves were already in place, but were repainted by Maria Speake for the owners of this Barbican flat, high up in one of the towers of the Grade II-listed Seventies brutalist landmark. Maria created a sliding door so that the sitting room can be shut off from the hall for extra warmth. Maria runs Retrouvius - the reclamation company - with her husband Adam Hills.

2 Shelf Bookcase Drawing

Source: https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/gallery/bookcase-ideas