Books are a Decoration

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17249, 3 May 1930, Page 12

Books are a Decoration

VWHEX oiio thinks of the decorative value of books it is curious how comparatively little is made ol them. .Many people who possess hooks arc con tent to pile up their bookcases, distribute them rather at random about tlie rooms and staircases, whereas it is only ‘necessary to look at an ordinary library, to see that a book-room can dispense with almost till other decoration.

The French have long discovered t lie valuo of hooks as wallpaper, so to speak, which is one of the reasons why Trench books arc brought out in paper covers, afterwards to be bound up according to the individual taste.

The tendency in Franco is. therefore, rather to formalise books. Specially bound editions and complete works arc popular, and arc shown oil to the advantage, of the covers, if not always to the contentsNew Ideas.

j Since the new movement in house ‘.decoration, every kind of experiment has been tried with books. They have been shown in patches with book-ends as a conspicuous feature. They have been given shelves painted in brilliant rod and green lacquer. They have been inset in the walks, sometimes in long shelves, but more ! often in niches, which could also 'serve for ornaments. Sometimes the niches are lined with aluminiuitg '■which gives a rather pleasant color- ' effect.'

J Tn general by far the most satisfactory method of book-arrangement is the simplest. The straight shelf is on the whole preferable to all the zigzag and ceiling shelves which have been invented. But with the straight shelves conies the all-important question of proportion.

I Tn England books are very often arranged round the room to form a sort of dado, the top of which serves for ornaments or other loose articles of ,everydav life.

i One living-room has books arranged exactly the other way round —thal is to say, in long straight shelves, which are nearer the ceiling than the tloor. The proportions of the dado are kept, and fhe books are prevented from being overpowering or too unreaehnhlo by a 'broad band of wood between them and the ceiling. As this room is a living-room and not only a library, the books are here broken ’up to suit other purposes, though the straight lines of the .shelves are mostly kept. The lower part of the wall is given over quite naturally to the fireplace in the centre, and the fireplabe sets the pace for side-cupboards.

The book-room with the staircase is one of tlie many studio living-rooms which are npw so fashionable at Homo. The staircase leads up to the bedrooms,* bath-room, and kitchen, really serving as a ladder which readies most of the books in the high walk