It can separate the hall from the living room, it can somehow delimit open spaces, or it can be a dividing element for the kitchen in rooms with a long floor plant: the bookcase can meet the aesthetic and functional needs of contemporary living.
It would be anyway belittling to limit its function to practical aspects: this piece of furniture allows to freely express the personality of the ones who use it.
Every object which you put on the bookcase becomes a way to reveal something about yourself. There is much more than books, therefore.
In this article, we will discover how to enhance a bookcase by using decorative objects, to turn this piece of furniture into a stage where to enact a work of harmony and elegance.
How to enhance a bookcase: 3 ideas to decorate the shelves
The possibility to create customised combinations playing with colours, finishes, decorative objects, can provide the bookcase with lots of different features and styles.
1) Furnishing a bookcase… with books
If you love reading and have lots of books, using the bookcase for its original functional is surely the ideal solution. This does not mean, however, giving up creativity and personalisation.
Rather, in this case the challenge is to put the volumes as if you realised a single, large, solid and “monolithic” group, for a really unique, spectacular effect. An apparently easy arrangement which anyway demands attention in order to preserve “dynamism”. You need to create a regular, pleasant movement by combining books with various heights, avoiding too different heights or strange diagonals.
In this case, the bookcase becomes the place where every book finds its place, providing an irresistible invitation to seize every story which dances in its pages.
The importance of bookends can’t be disregarded as well; they both help you to organise the books and they add a unique touch of style. Same as the books, they can tell stories: of passions, interests, personality. For example, if you are fond of art, you can choose bookends which look like sculptures or work of art. If you love animals, you can choose bookends which call them to mind.
Ideas to furnish the bookcase with a mix of books and objects
And when the books are not enough to be able to create an arrangement?
Mixing books and decorative objects is a solution to enhance the bookcase. Being a perfect balance of functionality and beauty, this mix charmingly combines words and precious, refined objects of design.
The whole interior becomes a symphony of colours, textures and sensations, while books plunge in the broader context of visual aesthetics.
How to furnish a small bookcase … without books
What about trying to imagine a bookcase without books?
In this case, the solution to embellish this piece of furniture must be found in the decorative beauty of the objects of design.
In this third type of styling, the bookcase becomes a small art gallery, an exhibition of unique pieces which dance on the shelves. Vases, decorative objects, diffusers, plants, photo frames: everything becomes pure aesthetic symphony.
Each object is carefully chosen to light up and inspire the nearby space turning the bookcase into a temple of visual beauty, an ode to creativity and artistic expression which goes beyond printed words.
Which objects to put on the bookcase?
Embellishing a bookcase with decorative vases
If you want to use decorative vases to decorate the bookcase, you should choose elegant, refined shapes and materials which perfectly fit the interior design of the room.

How to put them in a pleasant way?
- You can choose a symmetrical arrangement and place the vases at regular intervals on the shelves. This elegant, orderly position creates balance and calmness;
- If you prefer a non-conventional touch, you can play with asymmetry, alternating vases with different height and size;
- If you want a touch of sophisticated elegance, you can use vases with minimalist, modern design which become real decorative jewels thanks to their delicate yet powerful presence.
How to decorate the bookcase shelves with diffusers
Turning the bookcase into an olfactory voyage: that is what a diffuser can do when used to decorate a bookcase.
Perfumes can take you to faraway places, recall memories, create a magic atmosphere. That is why the decorative power of a well selected diffuser can’t be disregarded. You can choose a minimalist, elegant design which harmoniously fits the context it is used in, or you can dare with a diffuser with a unique, astonishing shape, which becomes a decorative object apart.
(Would you like more ideas about how to decorate with diffusers? Read also the article “Where to put the room diffusers?”)
How to decorate a bookcase with plants
A touch of green in the house is fundamental: it provides colour and joy, it makes the room more lively. What can house a small green corner better than a bookcase?
Plants are a practical, satisfying solution to enrich a bookcase and give rhythm to its organisation. Even when they are artificial. What is important is to choose very high quality ones, which look like and seem like real plants.
Original decorative objects for the bookcase
Decorative objects can be considered little expressive masterpieces which can easily turn into an original idea for the bookcase shelves.
How shall we choose them?
They must have personality and “decorative power”, they have to stand out by creating an original, charming dimension, always avoiding the too much effect.
Decorative spheres are, for example, an original solution. When carefully put on the shelves, they can become eye-catching “visual treasures” thanks to their harmonious shape and wonderful chromatic shades.
A jewelry box or a pocket emptier could be other objects to put in a bookcase, especially if the bookcase is next to the hall. Small chests of elegance, made of precious materials, these objects designed to meet practical needs can become beautiful objects of design.
In the world of interior design, every detail has its own meaning and every choice is an assertion of style. This is also true for pieces of furniture such as the bookcase, a functional problem solving object, with aesthetic plus.
Discover the most beautiful decorative objects to furnish it on locanera.it: you will find lots of ideas to turn your bookcase into a wonderful voyage among pages of beauty and elegance.







