Over the time you’ve seen a lot of bookshelves on Freshome, but what I’ve found today is really impressive. I was browsing Flickr and I found this beautiful example of organizing books by color and the smart guy that managed to do it, is user chotda. This is a very good way of changing the whole aspect of a bookshelf with a little bit of creativity. I guess you’ll have to pay more attention to the book’s cover from now on if you want to reproduce that effect and have your own rainbow bookshelf.
You should follow Freshome.com on - 
facebook, 
twitter, 
rss or 
e-mail
[...] Color-Coded Books: This amazingly organized color-coded bookshelf arrangement is a great example of how not only bookcases but the books stored in them can be decorative. Can you imagine the time, energy and dedication it would take to meticulously sort your entire book collection by color? And worse yet: what do you do when you have to add another book to your collection? [...]
[...] credit: Freshome.com Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Join the Club…And I’m back…againSpring [...]
[...] of my friend Sonya, who first introduced me to this fad. And even her collections pale against this. Though I have to say that Sonya’s books are more accessible (ordered by subject first, color [...]
[...] Ordenar los libros es todo un arte, y aparte de lo que te aporten intelectualmente, estéticamente pueden llenar de [...]
[...] While blog surfing today I found this nice article… Rainbow Bookshelf… [...]
[...] Rainbow BookshelfI guess you’ll have to pay more attention to the book’s cover from now on if you want to reproduce that effect and have your own rainbow bookshelf. [...]
I love it.
As for practicality: “It is truly useful since it is beautiful.”
fun!
this is a truly creative endeavor…
good job.
[...] 18, 08 in Arte e Design http://freshome.com/2008/02/12/rainbow-bookshelf/ Karina, 29 anos, designer, brasileira, baiana, casada com Felipe, mora em Brasília desde [...]
I think it’s great, and I think most of the people here who are leaving comments take themselves waaaaay too seriously. Lighten up everyone. How is this hurting you?
[...] with a little bit of creativity, to make it look like a beautiful rainbow. Simply amazing …read more | digg [...]
This is Photoshopped.
Really . . . how many books are the green at the top and yellow at the bottom . . . and identical shades at that.
Photoshopped.
[...] think I would go insane organizing my books this way, but I do think it’s [...]
[...] E para fechar olha que idéia baca. Uma big estante organizada pelas cores das capas dos livros. O efeito é, sem dúvida, excelente. Mas não sei se ficaria contente em misturar Cervantes com Rubem Fonseca, ou Drummond com Mangás. Mas…quem não tem toc que atire a primeira lista de Cd´s organizadas em ordem alfabética 
. Vi neste excelente blog que acabei de descobrir: FresHome [...]
And again, there’s more than just the rainbow ordering that’s making this look so good – it’s the rainbow ordering in context of this room.
The rainbow books are well-complemented by the paint color, the pillows, the rug, the couch, and probably most importantly, the huge, wide dimensions of the shelf. In your standard skinny, tall bookcase, I’m betting this would look pretty weird and out of place.
Notice, though, that she’s got quite a preponderance of pastel, saturated color books.
I’m willing to bet that most book collections would make a pretty drab rainbow.
[...] Rainbow BookshelfNot practical, but gorgeous: Rainbow Bookshelf is an example of organizing books by color. What comes out of it is pretty unusual. A good way of changing the whole aspect of a bookshelf with a little bit of creativity. [...]
Yes. In a library, you’d never find what you needed.
At home though, where you’ve presumably purchased, read, and have some familiarity with your own library, this wouldn’t be that much of a boundary.
With a collection this big, anyway, you should have a shelf list. A shelf list will tell you where to put stuff, anyways.
I love it. I am going to do this to my books at home. I rarely try to find a book among them anyway. In fact, I am putting them all up for sale on Amazon so they might as well make they place more attractive while they are here. I was already planning on keeping a spreadsheet with the shelf location of each book for easy mailing once it sells.
[...] (Image source: freshome.com) [...]
[...] Стырено отсюда [...]
Damn, it is so flipping awesome!
*She* (flickr user: chotda) takes amazing captures and I think it’s a wonderful use of colour.
[...] Seuss book the other day, I noticed there was a wide range of colors on the bindings. Inspired by chotda’s rainbow bookshelves, I quickly threw the Seussian volumes into their proper ROYGBV order (I left all the white ones on [...]
[...] to my friend Quan for directing our attention to this masterpiece on freshome. Now I’ve just gotta figure out which of our rooms could handle a “library” wall [...]
[...] Source : Freshome [...]
[...] i så fall hade det sett ut så här hemma hos [...]
[...] This is a neat idea if ever there was one, plus it will sattisfy the book lover in the loft liver. Lose the horrible slippy, over-glossy sleeves from your library shelf and see what happens.. Chances are you will be presented with something like this: a rainbow array of your literatures true colours. This interior design idea has no doubt been seen before – but these images show it beautifully. Besides, if you find a dull collection of grey spines under your books covers.. you can always bow to your style conscience and buy new ones you’ll never read. Thanks to Smashing Magazine who flagged this one to my attention.. although I think it originally cropped up at freshome. [...]
Man,
I am doing this at home!
[...] el post acerca de la valla màs colorista?Entonces sabèis que no podìa dejar pasar por alto èsta biblioteca que imita con sus libros de colores el espectro del Arco iris:rojo,naranja,amarillo,verde,añil y [...]
Hmmm, I think I’d like to do this in my apartment. A lot of my books are rarely referenced, so I don’t really need any real order on my shelfs. I’d prefer to look at them randomly, other than the obviously ordered colors.
Must there be 100 assholes that note how impractical organizing books by color is? A child knows that. You aren’t witty. It’s art.
[...] practical, but gorgeous: Rainbow Bookshelf is an example of organizing books by color. What comes out of it is pretty unusual. A good way of [...]
You could always try this out at your local IKEA before attempting it at home.
[...] read more | digg story Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] librero con un poco de creatividad y hacerlo parecerse a un arcoiris. Simplemente asombroso…read more | digg story Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can [...]
Okay … I’ll be the asshole here I guess:
I agree that it is absolutely beautiful. A stunning commentary (if you’re one for getting … ‘deep’ and all that) on the relation between knowledge and beauty.
BUT … what a retarded way to have one’s home bookshelves organized. Books are meant to be organized by subject and then, intrasubject, by author. These are, first and foremost, a tool of the mind. Efficency is demanded!
I’ll try and find a reference to this, but I know that ages ago, there was a book store that did this. Apparently, got them written about too!
[...] Rainbow Bookshelf [freshome.com] [...]
[...] Rainbow Bookshelf [freshome.com] Thank you for reading this post. You can now Leave A Comment (0) or Leave A Trackback. [...]
My Dad hired a decorator a few years ago and one of the first things she did was remove the dust covers from all the books and arrange them by color.
It was the best part of his remodel, and it did not cost a dime.
I use this system at home – it actually works! Without realizing most people know which colour and size a given book has. Trust me, it’s quite efficient. And you can always spot a miss placed book 
I did that with my shelves for a while and had the worst time locating individual books.
[...] practical, but gorgeous: Rainbow Bookshelf is an example of organizing books by… color. What comes out of is pretty unusual. A good way [...]
[...] bookshelf organized by color. It’s quite stunning. However, I wonder how many of those books the individual has actually [...]
Very great way to memorize the color of book that you read.
I think this kind of sorting is very helpful in daily life.
It’s not like there are thousands of books here people. If this is just books accumulated for the pleasure of reading who needs it to be alphabetical?
i really dont understand why everyone here is being so negative, im sure whoever took the time to create this piece of art realizes that it will be tough to find a book.
i also have a feeling that seeing as how they put so much time into this, they probably have somewhat of an idea of the books they have and where to find them. i know me and you wouldnt be able to find something easily.
ps. if anyone read the blurb on top of the pictures, you would know that the person who took this picture is a pro photographer. (most likely this was just a set up shot)
I have my home library organized exactly like this and find things without any trouble, but that is likely because I am a visual person and don’t have a huge number of books (about 200). I know that my Stephen Leacock Treasury is dark green, that my four Madeleine L’Engle books are pink, lilac, blue and greenish-blue, and “War in the age of sail” is gold. I find things far more quickly this way than any other way I had my books organized.
That said, it’s a total pain in the rear when I buy a new book and have to move the entire blasted shelf to fit it in where it belongs!
And for what it’s worth, I’m a professional librarian and would never try this at work (unless it was my own personal resource shelf). 
Easy when it’s PHOTOSHOPPED.
