Bookends

Weight is what makes a bookend work

The single thing that separates a bookend that works from one that slides is mass. A heavy row of hardbacks exerts real sideways force, and a light ornamental piece will simply travel along the shelf in front of it. Metal, stone and solid wood have the weight to resist it. If you like a lighter design, use it at the end of a short row, or against something fixed.

Shapes and how they sit

An L-shaped bookend slides under the first book so the books' own weight holds the base down, which is the most effective arrangement and often the least visible. Free-standing sculptural bookends rely entirely on their own mass, and look better for it. Sculptural pairs read best on an open shelf where both ends are seen; a single bookend works where the run finishes against an upright.

Buying as a pair, or as a set

Bookends are usually sold in pairs and occasionally as halves of one design, where each end shows part of a shape that only reads when both are in place. Those look excellent on an open shelf and pointless if you only need one end. Check which you are buying, particularly on sculptural designs, and check whether a stated price is for the pair or for a single piece.

Materials

Cast metal gives the most weight for the least footprint and suits a modern scheme. Stone and marble bring pattern along with mass, and no two pieces are quite alike. Wood is lighter, warmer and better suited to shorter rows or lighter books. Whichever you choose, check what sits against the shelf: a felted or padded base protects the surface and grips better than bare metal.

Styling a shelf

Bookends give a run of books a beginning and an end, which is what makes a shelf look arranged rather than filled. Leave a little space beside them so the shape reads. Where a shelf holds several short runs, a repeated pair does more than several different ones, and grouping books by height either side of a bookend is kinder to the eye than sorting them by colour. Books do not have to stand upright either, and a short stack laid flat beside an upright run gives the eye somewhere to rest.

The space a bookend creates is as useful as the support it gives. A short run of books held at both ends leaves room on the shelf for something else, which is how a bookcase stops looking like storage. Use the gap for a small piece rather than more books, and keep the tallest volumes at the ends where the bookends are, so the line steps down rather than jumping about.

Where else they work

Bookends are rarely bought only for books. A heavy pair holds a run of vinyl upright, though records push considerably harder than paperbacks so the weight has to be there. On a kitchen shelf they keep cookbooks from sliding and take the splashes that a fabric spine would not. On a desk they organise files and folders without a rack. And a single sculptural bookend against the side of a bookcase works as an ornament that happens to be useful, which is the most honest description of the product.