Thank you. Our home was built in the 1940’s and we just added the shelves.

Take the pictures off of the top. They're too high for anyone to see well anyway. The glass doors help to obscure the contents, but the shelves look really full. Remove one quarter to one third of the contents to get a less cluttered look. Mix up the types and heights of items displayed.

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Not the place for photos behind glass and put nothing on top. Create variation by arranging books in vertical and horizontal on different shelves. Bring out a few favorite collectible items with a relationship to each other to use alonside books and alone on other shelves. Keep some collectibles stored so you can change out occassionally, may be seasonal, or all white glass, etc., you get the idea. There are some great ideas in Houzz regarding bookshelf arrangements. Now for the photos. Family photos are a nice way to personalize your bedrooms, even guest bedrooms as long as not overdone. I even hang some amusing ones in the bathrooms. Have fun with this.

It would help if you take the items off the top. A person can't see the details of the pictures so they look like clutter rather than decor.

Can you post a photo of the rest of the room so we can make suggestions that work with the whole space?

I would clear everything out of them, and remove everything on top.

I’d put back as many books as you want, some of the framed photographs, maybe a few decorative things. Nothing on top.

I’d replace the current knobs with pretty glass ones (Etsy is a good source).

I am never a fan of a bunch of stuff on shelves but you have them so now I garee remove all the stuff fromTake 1/2 of what you have in there and arrange it to look best when looking through the glass . I like Beverlys advice about making them look built in if that is possible . If you google how to arrange bookshelves there are tons of ideas

Agree with everyone else. First step is to take everything off the top. The bookcases are too crowded. The books shouldn't all be together. Arrange the shelves with some books (both vertical and horizontal), a few decorative items and leave some empty space.

Tried to do a panoramic picture. Look at the photos in order, starting with the dining room, transitioning into the living room.

Ignore the kids on the couch and the slightly messy home. We have a snow day here in Wisconsin.

Cute! I would get some large, chunky pottery in bold colors to put on your shelves. Use your pillow colors as a guide. Or put the kiddos to work and have them do some colorful art projects. Pop art "sculpture" or bold, modern "art" canvases (you can buy at Micheal's) and placed on small easels.

https://www.stonegableblog.com/decorating-a-bookshelf/

This is a good article about styling for people who have lots of books. You appear to like color and displaying things, and books and photographs add soul to a space. I think you could organize your things a bit and have a really attractive display. You're also lucky to have the closed storage on the bottom for less tidy books.

Right now your whole right side is filled with the black and gold books, which makes it feel heavy over there. Those might look better if they were taking up the bottom shelves across all four sections, which would visually anchor your shelves. Think about balancing color across the whole space. In your original picture, I see hits of yellow on the left but no yellow in the right-side bookcase. And more balance -- your original picture has framed photos in the top left side but no books; those are the only sections with no books. I agree with the others who say to remove everything, add some books both vertically and stacked horizontally, and continually step back to look at color and balance.

For the family photos, you could create some breathing room by cutting the number of frames you display (definitely take the ones off the top and don't put anything on top of the bookcases). You could also help tie them together by matting them in a similar way and with coordinating frames. Since your photos are in color, connecting them with similar frames would help elevate the look. Here's an example of color photos that are framed in the same way (maybe consider changing up the stairway photos to something like this too).

Or color photos with the same color of frame.

Actually, I take back what I said about nothing on top of the bookcase. I think something like this could work because they're all basically the same item. Do you have a collection of large items that could go up there? (This is from Emily A. Clark; I like her content because it's a real home with multiple children. So not always perfect, but beautiful and curated.)

Good luck with your snow day! I'm in Austin and we're supposed to get really cold with maybe ice next week, so fingers crossed our streets don't shut down and that the electric grid stays up! Gotta keep those kids at school!

Agree with removing the items on top. Maybe this could help with arranging. Just depends on the look YOU like.

We might suggest just removing the items on top of the bookshelves. Otherwise you could try moving stuff around inside the glass doors to make things work better. Here are some ideas for you:

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Not sure if this was mentioned or if you’re open to it but maybe removing the glass doors would make it look more balanced. I think it’s difficult on the eye adding anything on top with the closed glass doors yet having nothing up there seems off.