It's not often that you come across a professional book curator who counts Gwyneth Paltrow as a close friend, but that's the life of Thatcher Wine. After a week of media buzz, including a Town & Country interview and a New York Post Page Six article about his work curating books for Paltrow, Wine checked in with ED to reveal his tips for designing the perfect home library.
In addition to spreading the word about his upcoming title, For the Love of Books, and keeping his ever-growing list of A-list celebrity clients happy, Wine serves as the founder of Juniper Books, a company known for sourcing rare titles for clients around the world and creating custom jackets for literary classics.
Here, Wine opens up about the significance of books in our digitally-driven world, his thoughts about books being used for decorative purposes, and Juniper Books' new subscription boxes.
ELLE Decor: Why is this the right time to release "For the Love of Books," which will be available on September 3?
Thatcher Wine: Books are more important than ever. Considering the digital world that we live in, taking the time from our computer screens and our smartphones to sit down and read and bring our attention to the printed page is really comforting. Over the past few years, as ebooks have increased in popularity, and time spent on our phones has gone up, people have this feeling that books are special. Books are a really good alternative to calm our nervous systems and bring us back to what really matters.
ED: How do you view your job as a personal book curator and founder of Juniper Books?
TW: I oversee all the curation at Juniper Books. Half of it is custom projects for people who want curated books for their homes, and sometimes office spaces and hotel lobbies. The other half is taking existing published books like sets of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Jane Austen and making them a little bit more elevated and special. My job is really connecting people with beautiful editions. Sometimes, it’s what they already love, and other times, it is connecting them with a beautiful edition of something they are interested in that they did not know existed.
ED: The New York Post’s Page Six just mentioned your recent Town & Country interview, where you reveal curating up to 600 books for Gwyneth Paltrow. Of course this led to a great deal of media buzz. How do you feel about this?
TW: The attention is not something I seek out. I’ve had the business for over 18 years. We have gotten great publicity for what we do, because it's innovative and against a lot of the trends. I have always protected the privacy of our celebrity clients—and we have a lot of them. It's a very personal thing that we help people pick out books for their homes.
Gwyneth happens to be a personal friend who I've known since we were kids. I have a different kind of relationship with her than I do with my other clients. She has mentioned us several times on Goop and we have mentioned her several times on Juniper Books. It is interesting to observe what people go crazy for. Gwyneth is very used to being in the spotlight, and she's extremely smart and well read. She knows what our intentions in talking about each others' businesses, being entrepreneurs, parents, and trying to encourage our kids to read, are all about. It comes from the right place. Having a curator who can pick out the best books that you can share with your family and guests is something similar to other services people provide in the world. I am grateful that she trusts my book recommendations.
ED: Considering your work with Gwyneth, what would you say to the person who is skeptical about the idea of using books for decorative purposes?
TW: You can only read one book at a time and yet a lot of people have more than one book in their home. They have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of books. Why do we have that many books in our home if we can’t read them all at the same time? Over the past 18 years while doing this work, I’ve given people permission to do more with books while they are not reading them. They should be doing something for you. They should be telling the story of who you are on your shelf. They should be looking good and fitting into the decor of the home. I don’t think it is superficial at all to have books in the house that are meaningful and perform a function while you are not reading them. For the Love of Books allows people to think about books in a different way; to think about what functions books perform beyond reading them.
ED: From a visual standpoint, what are some elements that can add interest to a collection?
TW: Some of the tips I share in the book are you can take all your books off your shelf and gradually add them back. I recommend a ratio of two-thirds books to one-third objects and accessories. Usually that means if you have a three-foot wide bookshelf, you have two feet of books and maybe one ornamental vase, family heirloom, or Buddha sculpture. I even have an old lucite phone from my grandmother.
You can also do a mix of books that are standing straight up and ones that are horizontally stacked. This creates visual variety and interest and makes the books dance along the shelf. One other tip I recommend is taking a picture of your bookshelves. You often realize things that you don’t see with a naked eye. For instance, all the books might be on the left and you need to make them more balanced.
ED: What’s one of the most interesting approaches you’ve used for a curated book collection?
TW: We've been asked to do anything you can think of relating to the intersection of interior design and books. Sometimes it's a request to match books to a carpet or Pantone color. Some people spend years picking out every single detail in their home and now they can bring that same level of detail to their bookshelf, which is great.
For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library
For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library
ED: What's new at Juniper Books?
TW: We are launching these subscription programs, where you can build your library over time. We have a program called the Seasonal Edit, where we send you three contemporary fiction books every three months. They arrive at a pace that is nice for reading and adding to your shelves.
We are also just about to launch a program called Books Everyone Should Own. It will be 12 books—one book a month over the next year. It features classics in beautiful jackets, and I picked them all out. The idea of doing your whole library at once is not for everyone.
Monique Valeris is the home design director for Good Housekeeping, where she oversees the brand's home decorating coverage across print and digital. Prior to joining GH in 2020, she was the digital editor at Elle Decor. In her current role, she explores everything from design trends and home tours to lifestyle product recommendations, including writing her monthly column, "What's in My Cart."
