BOOK (sm)ART Creative ways to stash your stacks

Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Floor-to-ceiling windows, steel appliances and slick floors meant that the condo here that lawyer David Joy and diplomat Offy Ismojo bought in 2007 looked mod the second they moved in. Well, except for the boxes of books, which the duo packed into the den.

“We had more room in our last place,” says Ismojo, 47. “But here, we didn’t want bookshelves everywhere. That would look like the Library of Congress.”

So the pair consulted designer Shannon Wang of Apartment Zero, who picked out a pair of modular white bookcases and placed them behind the room’s gray wool sofa.

Now, Joy and Ismojo’s cookbooks, Michael Chabon novels and travel guides fill the bookcase cubbies, along with vases and family photos. “It encourages us not to collect junk,” says Joy, 44.

Until everyone gives up books for Kindles, storage will challenge most nesters, be they college students cramming textbooks onto Ikea Billy shelves or recovering English majors lusting for home libraries.

Ironically, part of loving books is learning to let them go.

“Some people hold on to every book they’ve ever read,” says Libby Langdon, an interior designer and author of “Libby Langdon’s Small Space Solutions” (Knack, 2009).

“If keeping organized is tough, thin out your collection. Keep hardcovers that mean a lot; donate the zillion little paperbacks.”

Still, many people aren’t happy unless they live surrounded by old novels and new art books. “Books add warmth to a home,” says D.C. interior designer Sarah Wessel, whose plush library at last spring’s D.C. Design House featured built-in bookcases painted white.

On the shelves, hardbacks covered in wallpaper scraps mingled with artwork and shells, creating a room both bookish and beautiful.

Coordinating storage systems, either by building shelves into walls or using matching bookcases from Ikea or Design Within Reach, can make a mass of books seem like a meaningful collection.

“Instead of having a million bookshelves all over the house, put them in one area,” Langdon says. “It’ll look like a library.”

You don’t even have to stash books on shelves. Instead, artfully pile them on a table or ottoman. “One client had these neat vintage leather benches,” Langdon says. “We stacked them on top of each other for very cool book storage.”

Another task for bookworms is organizing. You can alphabetize by author or group by subject matter.

Design fans have been known to display books by color, though some pros and bibliophiles dislike that idea.

“How do you find what you’re looking for?” Wang says. “It seems like lots of work.”

Place your most prized books, be they along the lines of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” or “The Iliad,” between bookends near a cushy armchair.

“Some readers have a chaotic order that no one in the outside world understands,” says John Thomson, co-owner of Bartleby’s Books here. “It’s just important for them to keep the books they love close.”