Adding depth and color to your living room is not just the task of your mobile furniture pieces. The couch serves its purpose, but can change with the seasons to reflect new fabrics and accessories. Your chairs are adjustable, as are your lighting options and table top elements. However, to truly anchor a room with striking color, nothing beats revolving your living room design around a classic, built in bookcase. Placed either on the off wall or between your windows (or both), your bookcases function as steadfast color and texture elements, while having the flexibility of adjusting elements and objects with eye catching flair.
Reaching for bold color 
Your bookcase should be one of two things when it comes to melding in your living room space. On the one hand, you can choose to have it match your wall color nearly exactly, with only a slight variation to hint at separation. Walls of a lighter white, eggshell, or taupe work best in this situation, as heavier colors will become blocky and solid is there’s not an opportunity to break them up across your bookcase.
Your other option is to place striking focus on your bookcase trim by going dark. Natural wood colors in stains such as mahogany or a reddish cherry will serve a lighter room well, just as a near black looks from and ebony tone will work nicely. This darker tone and bold color choice allows for lighter colored objects to stand out amongst the usually dark antique books placed on display. Look for lighter objects in the form of porcelain (if that’s your passions) or thematic elements that match your central art look. Match curves and angles with other objects to tie the design together.
Break away from lattice worked shelves
Look to provide movement in your living room space by offsetting your shelves from the traditional square/rectangular look. Envision your wall as a canvas and decide how best to skew your shelves to be both functional and visually striking. Unless you have a knack for carpentry DIY, be sure to hire a licensed and insured contractor who can visualize and translate your design elements into a fix bookcase.
You should look for ways to incorporate shapes and textures from other striking elements in your living room by sketching them into the new bookcase design. If you have an ottoman that stands as a central piece, use a compatible round or octagonal space in the bookcase construction to bring the elements to the forefront of your design. If you rely on floral patterns, try to have your contractor mimic creative interpretations of leaves and petals into the layout of your shelves. A light, simulated cascade of staggering shelves looks wonderful when used to display glass of other delicate objects.
Surround yourself
Another fun and innovative design element that can be added to a bold bookcase look is expanding it outward so it wraps around a central seating area, much like a window seat, only within the bookcase. Here you can have your carpenter install pull drawers below the seating area for excess bedding and comfort item storage, while allowing you a private lounging space, much like a day bed, within the bookcase itself. If you have chosen a darker tone for your trim, offset it with warm patterns and overstuffed pillows and cushions. If you are working from a lighter pallet, go with bold representations for classic designs such as rich paisley’s and broad stripes.
Your living room can benefit from a steadfast bookcase, and installing one will do your space one better by giving you a secure location for hard to display books and objects d’arte.
