Sarah is a staff writer at Apartment Therapy. She completed her MA in journalism at the University of Missouri and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Belmont University. Past writing and editing stops include HGTV Magazine, Nashville Arts Magazine, and several outlets local to her hometown, Columbia, Missouri.
Savannah is Assistant Editor for the Home Team at Apartment Therapy. When she’s not writing about style tips, product launches, or interviewing designers, you can catch her re-watching Gossip Girl or on Facetime with her grandma. Savannah is a proud HBCU graduate and Clark Atlanta University alumna who believes there’s nothing good food can’t fix.
Noella is the assistant editor for Apartment Therapy’s News and Culture section. You can find her words in Scalawag Magazine, Healthline, them, Uproxx, Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue. In her free time, she enjoys roller skating and listening to Solange.
Stop what you’re doing and find a window in your home. Notice the space above it? That right there is an opportunity. Similar to that curtain hack you’ve probably heard before (where you mount your hardware almost to the roofline to fake height), placing shelves above your window frame can draw the eyes upward to create the illusion of taller ceilings. Plus, if you’re short on storage, taking advantage of this vacant wall space is a great way to show off books, prints, vases, and other knickknacks.
When I moved into my current apartment, I was blown away by the height of my ceilings at almost 10 feet. What my floor plan lacked in square footage was offset by this soaring height. My windows didn’t disappoint either: I had a set of two vertical sliders that brought in plenty of sunshine from my south-facing street. Months after I unpacked, I still had a pair of floating wooden shelves that I hadn’t found a home for yet. Before I moved, I used them in my old bedroom to prop up my projector. Now that I had finally pulled the trigger on a T.V. (the pandemic made me cave), I wasn’t sure where these pieces should go. I had always wanted to display my favorite classics and smaller coffee table books in the living room — the covers themselves like artwork — so when the bookcase in my bedroom began to overflow, I decided to incorporate a little library-chic moment above my living room windows!
Working with a small gap between the top of the window and the ceiling, I measured about two inches above the casing (the wooden trim that frames the window) to avoid this installation from looking too cramped. The purpose of the shelves was to create the illusion of abundant space, so they needed to have some breathing room.
While I can still access them with a stepladder (or my taboo technique of stepping on the back of the couch), I only chose books I didn’t plan on reaching for anytime soon. Then I added some knickknacks for extra personality, like my old trusted Polaroid that had been gathering dust in the back of my closet. It felt fitting to place the camera next to my illustrated edition of Patti Smith’s memoir “Just Kids, “a coming-of-age story featuring Patti and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Now my favorite books serve a purpose, even if I’m not currently reading them.
I stepped back after I centered the wooden shelves over the windows. These pieces added an extra framing element to this spot, creating the impression that the street outside was also a pretty picture that complements my home.
Greg Mania and his partner, Pete, live in a 700-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn that’s filled with hundreds of books. Though the space is filled with meaningful objects galore, the rooms don’t feel overly cluttered because the couple strategically placed just about all of their belongings. The most unique thing about Mania’s home just might be how books are displayed everywhere, with stacks and rows used like sculptures nearly everywhere you turn. He has vertical book towers almost to the ceiling in his living room, books placed above the TV on floating shelves, and a line of volumes inside the media cabinet. “The floating bookshelves are so useful, not just for the sheer volume of books I own, but for anything that’s sort of just marooned and needs a permanent home somewhere,” Mania says in his house tour.
One spot in particular stands out as an unexpected place to display books, and that’s the kitchen. In fact, Mania created a row of over a hundred books are organized by color on top of the kitchen cabinets. These aren’t just cookbooks, either, which you do often see in kitchens. These books are all kinds of tomes from the couples’ extensive collection.
When you think about your kitchen cabinets, often there’s a gap in between their tops and the ceiling. Why not utilize this area for books of all types? The only issue is your books getting a little dirty, but that could be fixed with regular dusting. “My home is basically just a storage unit for my books — even the kitchen!” Mania says of his decision to use the tops of the cabinets. “Between work and pleasure, I amass a lot of books every year, so it’s all about organizing them in a way that’s pleasing to the eye, but also sustainable.”
If your book collection is outgrowing your bookshelf, it may be time to consider some out-of-the-box storage solutions, and the top of your kitchen cabinets should be the next spot at the top of your search list.