Styling books

Over the weekend, my mom and I went on a Luxury Home Tour in Minneapolis. We were able to visit about ten homes that are currently on the market in the metro - all styled by local designers. It was SO fun to see these amazing houses and the way that the designers staged them. I'm in awe of how beautiful everything was put together.

While I will likely never own a 'luxury home', one can still take away design ideas applicable in your own home. And you better bet I had my eyes open and (hidden) camera phone ready to take some notes.

One of the surprisingly simple styling tactics that I noticed was how the designers used books to decorate a room.

The majority of the homes had their books styled without their sleeve, showcasing the beautiful colored cover & spine of the book instead of the multicolored marketing cover & title.

How have I never thought of this? 

The simplicity of this was beautiful. The pictures below aren't from the home tour, but instead from here, here and here.

I've never used books as accent pieces for a room, primarily because they are so many colors incorporated into the cover art. But something as simple as removing the sleeve and arranging them in rooms based on their color is a wonderful idea! 

I'm sure plenty of you are already doing just this, but I had a complete 'ah ha!' moment while touring, so I had to mention it!

Have you picked up on any designer tricks of the trade? Anything worth sharing?