If you weren’t tipped off by the yellowing of the trees, the cooling of the breeze, and the presence of pumpkins on porches all across the valley, allow us to be the ones to break you the news: it’s officially fall—arguably the loveliest and most-fleeting of Utah seasons. One of the [many, many] bonuses of living in this salty city is that we get to experience all four seasons in all their wrath and glory. And, while it’s admittedly cliché AF, the phrase “curling up with a good book” has seldom felt more apropos than in the last couple days. No, you needn’t the Harvard University Library to get your daily intake of culture and the literary canon, but it’s still somewhat comforting to see the spines of your favorites in a tidy, shelved row. In this edition of Quint-Essentials, we’re bringing you a novel concept: this is our love-letter to the art of the bookshelf. Some are fastidiously organized, others are an amalgam of shape, size, and cover, but each have played a part in our textual awakening. For your consideration, here are a few cases in point...
1) Teton House
Simple and succinct, these clean, white shelves are the perfect frame for the pops of color that punctuate this minimal look. In this cityhomeDESIGN project, the walls are bare--it's the book jackets that act as an art piece above the couch and help break up a potentially stark space. If you ask us, it's got full-on Breakfast at Tiffany's vibes...timeless, chic, and just a little bit undone. Full story here.
2) Ninth South Circle
The arches in this Spanish-style home are some of our favorites, and we're smitten with the idea of having a few of your fave editions adjacent to the dining room table. A bit like Pride and Prejudice, this one: it's playful but also whip-smart. It's refined, yes, but it never takes itself too seriously, and this home's architecture was also quite forward-thinking for its time, say we. Every inch of it lovely. Full story here.
3) University House
The crammed cases, austere, minimal vibes, and worn surfaces render this spot authentically, idyllically academic. The shelves here, sagging under the weight of haphazardly stacked volumes, would surely make Freud and Foucault feel right at home and, consequently, we feel this one is the Ulysses of home-libraries: extensive, masterful, and undeniably nuanced. Full story here.
4) Marathon House
This bookcase is clean and minimal, but also has a touch of warmth that the mid-century paneling affords. There's a retro feel, but the overall look is still very much rooted in the modern age, and while at first glance it might seem like this collection is disorganized, we feel there's a quiet order, here. Sort of like Kerouac's prose in On The Road. They're both strikingly chaotic in all the right ways, but with framework that makes them easily palatable--and classics for generations to come. Full story here.
5) Hillsden House
Firmly functional but undeniably beautiful, these bookcases are clearly the product of some serious architectural ingenuity. Clean, dark, and mildly futuristic, they manage to adeptly blur the line between bookcase and dividing wall in a way that is reminiscent of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein--a work that expertly combines the gothic novel with seminal science-fiction themes. And if shelves like these were to become pop-culture phenomena, that would be alright by us. Full story here.
