31 Built-In Bookshelf Ideas for Every Room in Your Home

Minimalist Bookshelf Design

If you favor a less-is-more approach, apply this minimalist philosophy to your living room. A calming minimalist home design creates a tranquil environment to relax. In this living room, two narrow built-in bookshelves flanking the TV break up a long wall with white shiplap walls and contrasting wood shelves. A lower media cabinet connects them, cleverly concealing wires and electronics for a seamless look.  

Colorful Built-In Bookshelves

There are many ways to organize your books for an eye-catching look. If you have numerous books, try sorting them by spine color to create a vibrant, rainbow display. Visual interest comes from layers such as hanging artwork in front of your book collection, adding depth and character to your shelves. 

Contrasting Shelves

Consider painting your built-ins a moody color to make them stand out. In this modern living room, the fireplace and bookcases, painted in a trendy deep green, contrast beautifully with the stark white walls. The vibrant decor enhances the room’s cheerful, updated vibe, offering a bright pop of color against the dark shelves. 

Sliding Doors

Adjustable shelves in built-in bookcases are perfect if you like to rearrange items. If every shelf won’t be picture perfect, add sliding doors to conceal them for a cleaner look. These sliding doors can cover the mounted TV or the styled shelves. Decorative moldings on the doors enhance the style, while wallpaper behind the shelves adds a bespoke touch to the entire unit. 

Wallpapered Built-In Bookshelves

Use animal print wallpaper on the back wall of a sitting area bookcase to make a bold style statement that is different from paint. Keep the shelves understated with simple decor like gold potted plants, framed family photos, floral artwork, and a small stack of interior design books. Matching the wallpaper with the sofa pattern introduces an unexpected, playful twist to the traditional space. 

Home Office Shelving

A “cloffice”—a closet-turned-office—is a clever solution for creating a workspace in a home with limited space. However, space might be tight for storing books and supplies. Built-in bookshelves around the closet door add additional capacity and are an extension of the cloffice. They efficiently use every inch of the room without adding bulky furniture, freeing the small shelf inside the cloffice for displaying favorite art and pottery. 

Gallery Wall

Create a stunning centerpiece in your formal living room with wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling built-in shelves lit by task lighting. More than functional, these bookshelves also serve as the room’s design focal point. Use coordinating baskets and boxes to conceal clutter, and add interest with delicate decor and framed photos. These shelves offer everything needed to entertain guests, from magazines to a minibar.

Using a select palette for your displayed items enhances elegance and allows a bold color—like turquoise—to stand out. 

Built-In Entertainment Center

Say goodbye to entertainment centers cluttered with tapes and DVDs that streaming has made obsolete. Instead, make the mounted TV less obvious and more decorative. Built-in shelves, drawers, and cabinets surround it with books, accessories, games, and electronics. Using a consistent wall treatment behind, above, and around the TV integrates the built-ins seamlessly, while gold hardware and accessories add a touch of glamour. 

Custom Display Space

To control visual clutter and preserve a neutral aesthetic, display books with their spines toward the back so only the pages show. This trick avoids introducing mixed colors into a monochrome design scheme. Incorporate vintage bronze items with white and Chinoiserie-patterned ceramics for an eclectic and global vibe. Additional storage is provided by drawers under the window seat. 

Home Library

Creating a home library is a dream come true for bibliophiles. Evoke drama in the space itself—not just from your favorite thriller novels—by using dark built-in bookshelves that wrap the room. Floor-to-ceiling storage, extending above seating areas, gives a home to every inch of books and art. The dark walls cultivate a cozy spot perfect for enjoying long hours with a beloved book or a stack of magazines. 

Entryway Shelving

Transform even a small space in the entryway into efficient storage by installing shelves high up for storing out-of-season items or bulky supplies. Create seating and a spot to organize shoes in a bench with cubbies underneath. Hooks offer a convenient place for hanging coats and storing mittens and scarves. Nearby tall shelves provide additional storage for backpacks, reusable bags, and more. 

Records on Display

Display your nostalgic collection of vinyl records so they’re always accessible. Store them on built-in bookshelves, organized by artist or genre, near your record player. Add a few books to browse as you listen to your favorite music. 

Small Built-In Bookshelf

No need for a large built-in; a small bookcase is just as valuable in a compact space. If you have kids, use these shelves to store children’s books within their easy reach. Otherwise, display your favorite reads on this small shelf, keeping the ones you often revisit close at hand. Keep your bookshelves interesting by staggering book stacks, placing some vertically and others horizontally, and mixing colors and sizes for a collected-over-time vibe. 

Bedroom Bookshelf Storage

In a lofted bedroom, there’s no need for a nightstand when you can incorporate the architecture of a sloped ceiling. Combine upper shelving with lower cabinets in a built-in to display mementos and keep essentials tucked away. Painting the shelves navy blue helps them blend into the background, creating a streamlined, sophisticated look. Use larger decor items to make a statement, keeping the space intentional and uncluttered. 

Small-Scale Built-In Bookshelves

In small spaces, built-in shelves can fit into any available niche and make use of all precious floor space. A two-row bookcase between the radiators in this apartment offers a perfect spot for your current reading collection. Organizing the books by color can also create an appealing focal point. 

Sophisticated Workspace

This home office blends a neutral, rustic look, thanks to dual-toned blue and cream-colored built-in bookshelves and desk. Open shelves flanking the desk house books and antique decor, while closed desk drawers conceal essential work supplies. The bookshelves, finished with molding, stop short of the ceiling, allowing the wood paneling overhead to extend throughout the room. 

Game Room Built-Ins

Designing a game room keeps all entertainment contained and organized. Diamond-shaped shelves on one wall can store board games of various sizes, while nearby horizontal shelves suit books and photo albums. Closed cabinets below and beside the open shelves conceal electronics, cords, and any other items you prefer to keep hidden. 

Open-Concept Built-In Bookshelves

Many open-concept designs can benefit from some variation of divider between spaces. A column between the kitchen and family room offers a great spot for a built-in. Use the shelves for books, records, a record player, decorative items, and potted plants, turning the setup into a multipurpose centerpiece. Alternatively, leave the back open to offer a sightline between spaces while still providing storage. 

Beaded Board Bookcase

Create subtle intrigue by adding beaded board to the back of built-in bookshelves. The black-painted paneling is striking against the off-white shelves and base cabinets. Dress it up with an eclectic mix of books and vintage finds that match your style. Dark tones make the back of the unit fade away, giving the illusion that it’s much larger and deeper than it is.

Multi-Purpose Mantel

If you have a standalone window on the same wall as your fireplace and can’t take matching built-ins to the ceiling, try this concept instead. Level bookcases with the mantle and then decorate the shelves and the wall space above.

Built-In Bookshelves for the Kitchen

Bookcases in a kitchen make perfect sense: They ensure your culinary references are easily identifiable, ready to inspire, and stored within reach of workstations. Recess a bookcase complete with open shelves and closed storage so it sits flush with the room’s upper cabinets. Underscore built-in character by finishing the bookcase to match the kitchen’s cabinets. You can get this look by removing doors from upper cabinets, installing new shelves, and painting the new design to match the existing drawers and cabinet fronts.

Window Bookshelves

Use custom-designed bookcases to step up interest around a window and create extra seating. This trio of built-out bookcases extends the reach of a media center and supplies generous book storage and display shelves as well as a prettily cushioned perch meant for taking in views and conversation or just enjoying a good read.

Home Office Built-Ins

Arrange built-in bookshelves above a desktop framed by cabinets or file drawers to fashion a home office or a kid’s homework station. Give the built-out components the look of a built-in structure by finishing the top and bottom edges with moldings and baseboards that match those used in the room.

Fireplace Built-Ins

Aligning built-in bookcases with a focal point’s horizontal planes creates a strikingly serene scene. When designing this wall, the homeowners took their cue from the paneled fireplace mantel’s shape and height; the mantel’s top forms a shelf separating lower closed-door cabinets from the open shelves spanning the wall above. Though the two sides of the built-in are different sizes, it’s barely noticeable due to the simple paint color and carefully edited storage. Even the painting is hung slightly off-center to keep everything in harmony.

Bedroom Built-In Shelves

Take advantage of underused wall space above and around a bed to create storage-rich cabinets, built-in nightstands, and display shelves. Match the built-ins to other wood finishes in your home and keep the silhouettes streamlined so the bedroom’s peaceful aura isn’t disrupted. This construction creates a cozy bed nook made even cozier with a leather-upholstered wall.

Breakfast Nook Built-Ins

Place built-in bookshelves near an activity center and paint the bookcase a vivid color to reflect the location’s fun-filled purpose. Stow crafting materials, office supplies, and incoming and outgoing mail in handsome baskets, vibrantly hued boxes, and efficient organizers so they’re within reach of those working at the table. Arrange often-used references like bird-watching guides or gardening books alongside your favorite collections and vases of fresh-picked blooms.

Beyond Books

Built-ins can hold far more than your favorite novels. Fabulous showcases for sculptures, treasured antiques, and finely framed photos, built-in bookshelves add distinguished dimension to sophisticated spaces. During the design stage, measure the pieces you want to display to ensure the shelves are adequately spaced to give each object room to shine.

Statement Shelving

Incorporate arresting details, such as scalloped cutouts, raised embellishments, or fluted moldings, to create built-in bookshelves that command attention. These floor-to-ceiling bookcases draw the eye with shapely headers that craft fine-cabinetry compartments. Gray-painted crown moldings spanning the framework’s top edges unify the constructions and meld the bookcases into the room’s overall design.

DIY Built-Ins

Build an open-shelf bookcase partition that can be accessed from both sides to turn one large room into two distinct spaces. This thoroughly modern unit provides ample storage and display cubbies without completely blocking conversation or sight lines between the two areas. The open shelves allow light to pour in from the large windows in the rooms to increase the bright feel of the home. When styling a bookshelf like this one, choose objects that will be attractive and interesting from both sides.

Home Office Spotlight

Devise a lighting plan that focuses attention on bookcase contents, lets you quickly read book titles, and creates after-dark interest. Install picture lights at the top of the bookcases to cast a soft glow across books and collections. Picture lights immediately elevate shelves and artwork by making them a focus of the room. Add wall sconces and shelf, strip, or rope lights to brighten the interiors. Whenever possible, put the lights on dimmers so you can control the brightness and set different moods.

Bathroom Storage Shelves

Built-in bookshelves optimize a bathroom’s storage capacity. Whether you reach between wall studs or build out from a wall, remember that bathroom shelves don’t have to be very deep to hold bathing necessities, such as bath salts, body lotions, and rolled towels. Though space is limited inside walls, you’ll find enough room to install shelves between 4 and 8 inches deep.