Face-Out Bookshelves--Part Two

So yesterday Valerie posted about her face-out bookshelves, inspired by Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook. Having also read Jim Trelease's book after Valerie raved about it for so long, I was enamored of the face-out bookshelves too! After some quick googling for images similar to what was posted yesterday I was practically drooling :)

This obviously called for a trip to Ikea. I found the perfect solution for us since my husband has little time for building shelves and our budget is rather tight. These picture ledges from Ikea are the perfect size for displaying books. We got two long ones and two short ones. Honestly I much prefer the long ones, but the short ones can be useful in a tight space and you can go vertical with them. I also like that they come in black or light wood tone so if white isn't your style you can make them fit into your home's decor.

(this is our playroom, note the shelves above the toy bins)

(I recently changed out some of the lower shelf books)

(this is the other side of the playroom, with 2 small Ikea shelves within reach of our glider rocker)

(see, perfect for cozying up with a book during roomtime)

Jim Trelease claims that books that are more visible will be used more, and I can say that those books on the lower two shelves get read ALL THE TIME now. In fact I confessed to my husband the other day that I am tired of reading aloud to Tobias and wish I hadn't put the shelves up, lol! (I'm only joking, I'm happy he's loving his books).

Now I'm using those lower shelves to display books according to our theme. Right now we have books on Family on the small shelf, come September I'm sure it'll be full of books about pumpkins and trees and fall.