There are a lot of rules about what to keep in the bedroom and what not to keep. Sleep is important. Now we’re told by experts to turn off our computers and phones, and not use them just before going to bed. All these devices emit “blue light” which confuses our circadian rhythms.
While some experts might say that one shouldn’t even read printed books in bed because of the potential disrupted sleep, a true booklover knows that a book is often an insomniac’s best friend. On whichever side of the fence you land—books or no books before bed—it’s a great idea to have at least a few books in your bedroom, guest rooms, and kids rooms; a place to fill the shelves with your personal favorites and stack your to-be-read pile high!
The books in your bedroom are generally what you are reading right now and probably don’t need to be as organized as the rest of the house. With current reads, you might not yet know where the book fits into your overall story—is this book a keeper? If so, which collection should you group it with?
You won’t find many softcover books in Thatcher’s house except in the bedroom, and there you will find a stack of them on the nightstand, another stack on the floor, and a few on the shelf next to his writing desk. There’s not much styling of the books there; they are pretty functional and meant simply to be read.
Some clients place bookcases or install built-in bookshelves in their bedrooms and want to have more privacy for certain collections. If the living room and kitchen shelves are really where you display the story you want your guests to see, the bedroom is where you can keep the story to yourself. It can be completely different from what you project to the world, but nonetheless it should inspire you to read, remind you of the subjects you love, and offer an alternative to powering up the TV or your device.
Maintain some variety: Have a few books in your favorite genre (if it’s contemporary fiction, for example), but then consider keeping books outside of the norm to keep things interesting.
Keep at least three books next to your bed: Read before you go to bed and if you have trouble sleeping, reach for a book in the middle of the night instead of your phone. There are great rechargeable book lights available, so that your partner can sleep in peace while you read into those wee small hours.
If you feel like staying in bed after you wake up (and can do so) during the week, or on weekends when you have a bit more time, try it! Stay in bed and read a couple chapters before starting your day. It’s an amazing little luxury.
Invite your partner and kids to read in the same room or in their bedrooms at the same time. Turn off the TV and devices, and just have quiet time.
If a book has been on your bedside table for a certain amount of time without your picking it up (let’s say: three months), then maybe it’s time to donate it or trade it in. Move a different book to the same spot and see if it compels you to read it!
Sometimes it’s overwhelming to have a stack of unread books that you see day in and day out, and don’t make any progress on. Don’t get discouraged; you have to start somewhere. Start at the beginning of one of the books and try to make a new daily habit to read in small increments.
Children’s bedrooms are a bit of a different case than their adult counterparts, as it is often solely in the kids rooms that their own books are stored. Many clients have come to Juniper Books looking for guidance for their children’s libraries. We frequently curate collections of the classics and the books that parents and grandparents read and loved as kids: White Fang, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and Aesop’s Fables among others. We also build collections of more recent award-winning books—it’s hard to go wrong with selections of Newbery and Caldecott Medal winners, for example.
What J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter have done to inspire a reading habit among recent generations is amazing. The series has sold more than five hundred million copies. Beyond just being great stories in and of themselves, the Harry Potter series has also created a passion among readers for their specific copies of the books! Harry Potter is not a book that you read and then give away. Fans keep their books forever, re-read them, and proudly display them.
Credit: Michelle Drewes.
In 2012, Juniper Books introduced our Hogwarts house editions of the Harry Potter series. Are you a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor? You could buy a Harry Potter set in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin jackets depending on which house you, the reader, identified with (or were sorted into). The custom jackets have been a big hit for Harry Potter fans who want to tell the story of who they are through the books on their shelves. Personalized jackets in their house colors is a perfect way to do this.
For the sets of children’s classics that we curate, we often make custom jackets with fun designs for kids. The sets include classics such as The Swiss Family Robinson, Black Beauty, and The Wind in the Willows. The jackets uniquely combine what the parents love (the books) with what the kids love (a particular design element). Perhaps the child is into caterpillars, trucks, or flowers—all of a child’s interests can be incorporated into the jacket. By intertwining a child’s personality—her love of caterpillars—with a parent’s love of the stories, we bring the full scope of storytelling to the child’s shelves. The tales that books hold, alongside the story of the child, the parent, and the space, create a unique mix when all of these elements come together.
When we recommend book sets for babies and toddlers, we often turn to BabyLit® books, a series that introduces beloved adult classics to our littlest ones in board book form. These little books make the parents feel good that they are introducing the classics they enjoyed, while also introducing future name recognition to their littlest readers.
You can’t read Jane Eyre to a two-year-old, so let’s meet them where they are. A board book that they can take to the bath or build a tower out of beautifully melds a child’s interest with that of the parent. (Perhaps Elizabeth’s daughter will be sitting in high school English class feeling curiously drawn to Elizabeth and Darcy’s love story, not remembering her time spent with the BabyLit® Pride and Prejudice counting primer.)
When designing a child’s library, one concern is that books become too perfect on the shelf and the child is not encouraged to take them down and simply read. The books have become too precious. For Elizabeth’s own kids’ rooms, that doesn’t stop them from reading the books. Her eldest daughter has a set of Roald Dahl books which go together perfectly (an image of a candy bar along the spines) yet she wasn’t too precious with them—she would take the books off the shelves, read them, and put them back in any random order, regardless of the candy bar design and, in a uniquely Roald Dahl way, it worked!
Credit: Michelle Drewes.
When Thatcher’s son, Cedar, was a toddler, Thatcher would read to him and they would both fall asleep—the books fallen to the bed or on the floor, where they would remain, a problem familiar to so many parents!
When Thatcher’s daughter, Jasmine, was born a few years later, he thought of a potential solution—instead of dropping the books on the floor beside the bed, what if there was a way to stick the books to the wall, above the bed? With this system, Jasmine’s favorite books would always be within reach, fun to put back, and serve as a focal point for the room’s decoration.
Thatcher commissioned a metalworker to make an L-shaped magnetized shelving system to install in Jasmine’s room. Then Thatcher glued magnets to the back of Jasmine’s favorite books. After reading one of these books they would just stick the book to the wall!
Jasmine had so much fun sticking the books to the wall that putting the books back in their proper place became a fun game. When Jasmine and her dad got tired of certain books or discovered a new favorite, they’d rotate the collection by installing a magnet on the new book. Jasmine could choose to display any books she wanted, thus truly telling the story of who she was, even at age three, with the books on display.
One client framed the covers of her daughter’s favorite books to display around her room, while another built a high shelf on which to display her son’s beloved set of Harry Potter books. There are no limits to what might transpire with a little ingenuity and a burgeoning love of books.
Feel free to use your reading time as experimental grounds to make improvements and innovations in your young one’s reading space. Stack books in new ways, stick them to the walls . . . the ideas are endless.
Change it frequently.
Organize it with your child in different ways—by color, by size, by subject. See what they respond to and if they like seeing the patterns on the shelves (“All three of those books have bears in them!”).
Keep sentimental favorites even as they are outgrown, perhaps on a high shelf, or consider framing them. When your child grows up, they will remember these books and how they were important to who they were and who they are.
Observe how your child reads the books and places the books, and try to support them on their reading journey.
Credit: Michelle Drewes.