Color Your Kitchen with Cookbooks

Designed as an armoire, this antique French Brittany bookcase can liven up your kitchen decor when you line the shelves with colorful cookbooks, blue Delft ware, and other collectibles.

We've been spending the month of March looking at ways to use color creatively in your decor. Today, let's liven up your kitchen by lining the shelves of your antique French Country china cabinet or bookcase with colorful vintage cookbooks.

These beadboard-backed built-in shelves get a pop of color with the addition of new and vintage cookbooks, framed photos, and collectible pottery. Photo courtesy angi231700 at Flickr.com.

Even if you never use a cookbook, what better way to add charm and interesting hues to your food prep area than through the colorful spines and covers of vintage recipe collections? Antique cookbooks tend to be expensive and leather-bound, so they don't do much for adding pops of red, green, yellow, or blue to the decor. Vintage and modern cookbooks tend to be colorfully bound and can enhance your interior design scheme. Choose books that reflect your tastes, interests (wine, anyone?), or the era of your home. Depending on your budget, you can include pricey antique cookbooks or affordable vintage editions picked up at a used bookstore.

An inscribed set of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child commands as much as $7,500, making it far too valuable to use as a mere decorative object!

Display your cookbook collection on multiple shelves and break up long rows with collectible pottery or other kitchen-themed items. Instead of displaying only the book spines, turn more interesting or colorful cookbooks so the cover faces outward. This will not only create a pleasing design but will encourage guests to browse your collection. Your previously plain bookshelves will quickly turn into a conversation pit.

A surefire conversation starter is this Salvador Dali cookbook, titled "Les Diners de Gala." Face the cover outward for instant art on your bookshelf.

If your taste or design scheme changes over the years, it's easy to add and subtract cookbooks from your display to complement your updated decor. Much more than how-to books, cookbooks can play an important role as a design accessory in your kitchen.

If you are interested in learning more about cookbook collecting, from the high-end to the low-brow, AbeBooks offers a great primer in its "Guide to Collecting Cookbooks."

Do you collect cookbooks? Send us photos showing us how you display them!