Begin Your Project With a Deposit — Juniper Custom

Every great library begins with a great question: what belongs here? Answering that question well — with genuine knowledge, careful listening, and 25 years of experience building collections for some of the most discerning clients in the country — is what Juniper Custom's curation service does better than anyone.

Whether you are building a single curated book set, a focused collection for a specific room, or a complete library that will define a home for generations, our curation team brings the expertise, the resources, and the passion to get it exactly right.

What This Service Offers

Juniper Custom's full custom curation service covers every stage of the process — research, selection, acquisition, screening, and organization. We specialize in collections that span a wide range of topics, genres, authors, sizes, publishers, and binding styles, all assembled according to the specific criteria that matter most to you. The result is not a generic assortment of good books. It is a collection built precisely for you, reflecting your interests, your aesthetic, and your vision for what a library should be.

We bring to every project the relationships, the knowledge, and the curatorial instincts that only come from spending decades immersed in the world of books — and we catalog everything with the care and thoroughness that a serious collection deserves.

The Process

Begin by clicking "Get Started with a Deposit" and proceeding to checkout. Within 2 business days, our team will reach out to discuss the size of your collection and the criteria that will guide the curation — author, publisher, genre, subject, binding style, or any combination thereof. A dedicated curator then researches options and availability, presenting either a full catalog or a representative sample catalog depending on the scale of the project — typically within 1–2 weeks.

You'll receive a comprehensive proposal and initial book catalog outlining the full scope, cost, and timeline. If you choose to proceed, an invoice for the balance is sent before books are acquired. Your deposit is deducted in full from the total project estimate.

Full custom projects vary in cost and lead time depending on scope and complexity.

Want Custom Jacket Design Included?
If you'd like your curated collection dressed in bespoke Juniper Custom jacket design, visit our Curated Books with Custom Designed Jackets service.

The deposit is non-refundable, as it covers the labor involved in researching your books and preparing proposals. Read our full deposit policy here.

FAQs

What criteria can I use to guide my custom curation?
The criteria are as individual as the collection itself — and that is precisely the point. Some clients come to us with a specific author or publisher in mind and want the most complete, carefully sourced collection possible. Others define their curation by genre, subject matter, binding style, or a combination of all three. We have built collections organized around a single literary period, a specific cultural tradition, a beloved childhood reading list revisited in beautiful editions, and everything in between. Whatever the organizing principle, our curators bring genuine expertise and enthusiasm to researching and selecting every title — and nothing is acquired until you have reviewed and approved the catalog we present.

How does Juniper Custom screen and organize the books in a curated collection?
Every title that enters a Juniper Custom collection passes through our quality control process — screened for condition, edition quality, and visual consistency before it earns its place on your shelf. Beyond selection and screening, we catalog each collection with the thoroughness it deserves, organizing by whatever system best serves your specific library — by author, subject, size, binding, or a considered combination. For larger collections, this cataloging work is one of the most valuable things we do: it gives you a living record of what you own, makes the collection navigable and enjoyable, and provides the foundation for everything you add to it in the future.

How is a full custom curation different from Juniper Custom's other collection services?
Where our other services begin with a specific product — a set of Everyman's Library editions, a leather-bound library, a coffee table book collection — our full custom curation service begins with you and works outward from there. There is no predetermined format, no fixed publisher, no assumed aesthetic. The entire collection is built from scratch around your specific interests, criteria, and vision, drawing on the full breadth of our publisher relationships, sourcing networks, and 25 years of curatorial expertise. It is the most open-ended and personal service we offer — and often the one that results in the most extraordinary libraries. If you have a collection in mind that doesn't fit neatly into any other category, this is where it belongs.