Shelf Awareness

Stacks of ideas for displaying books and objets.

- Lucy McCabe

BELLE’S SENIOR DESIGN CONSULTANT Jean Wright (pictured with Belle interior design editor Lucy McCabe) says bookshelves finish a room. “I love to see bookshelves between windows, set into recesses, and slotted back into a wall between structural nibs,” she says. “My favourite is ‘Flat C’ by Antonio Citterio for B&B Italia. It is deceptively simple in appearance, yet complex in design. I love its minimal, clean lines, the thin profile of shelves and sides and shallow depth of just 25cm. Its modularity allows it to adapt to different spaces: tall, floor-to-ceiling or low and horizontal across a wall.

“Books look best when they are stacked in a linear grid. Inspiration can come from bookstores, such as Daikanyama T-site in Tokyo or Vincent Van Duysen’s Copyright bookshop in Antwerp, Belgium, conceived as a reinterpretation of a traditional library.”

1 CURVY LINEAR