Table of Content
A plush armchair, industrial-style task light, and small side table create a comfortable place to read by the window. By using a transitional style in your home library, you can add openness and flow to an already comfortable design. Larger chairs and brighter colors to help natural light bring the room to life.
Walls in a custom peacock-blue lacquer by Fine Paints of Europe give depth and richness to the library of a Chicago townhouse designed by Steven Gambrel. The leather sofa and King George club chair were designed by Gambrel and made by Dune. Huge rooms give you ample opportunity to do anything you like with the space. You can have built-in and freestanding shelving as well as desks, tables, sofas, and chairs.
Create new collection
Maybe dark walls to evoke an old-world theme brought up to date by carefully selected detail and accessories is more to your liking. Since 2011, she has been writing about interior design, DIY solutions, and the latest trends in home architecture. Organize a separate area in the family room where you can spend some time with your favorite bookby archia Homes. If the wiring in the lights isn’t an option because you live in an apartment, just use stick-on, battery-powered puck lights. If space is extremely limited, even a small wall-mounted drop-down desk will give you a useful working surface when you need it. In my guest room, the wall is just long enough to accommodate two book cases, one on either side of the bed.
Similarly, if you don't have enough space to store all your books but do have super high ceilings, use that vertical space! Here Crosby Studios broke up the powdery blue monochrome with a white cubby lining the tippy-top of the wall. Mirroring your ceiling will make a small home library feel larger while also adding a modern touch. Transitional style brings class and elegance to your home library, which makes it a very popular choice. Blending style touches from both traditional and contemporary styles, you get warm and bold colors, or light and neutral colors to mesh with elegant lines and soft textures.
Home Library Design Ideas (Photos)
This guide is meant to show you the different design aspects of a home library and to alert you to things you and your budget may not have thought about. Large living room with comfy seats and an antique shelf on the back of the couch. The upper floor of the home library with circular stairs leading to the first floor of the library.
Home libraries help you organize your book collection, make it easier to find books and make reading fun and relaxing within the comforts of your home. Of course, many summer reads will be lapped up on the beach, in the mountains, or at your favorite vacation site. But if it's too hot outdoors, these rooms are very inviting as is. Choosing the colors for the walls in a home library offers endless options. If you choose to buy beautiful leather-bound books with contents that don't interest you, you can treat them as decorative elements. You can decorate with books by using them to elevate objects in a tabletop vignette or by stacking them on the floor to create an alternative occasional table.
A Practical Ladder for a Large Library
In this contemporary California sitting room designed by Corinne Mathern, the library collection complements the neutral, earth-toned color scheme throughout the space. The decorative items adorning the bookshelves also create visual flow so that the built-ins feel like they're fully integrated. Large living room with classy multiple bookshelves and a cozy sofa set on top of the hardwood flooring topped by a stylish rug. A white home library with multiple bookshelves and hardwood flooring and a bench seating lighted by track ceiling lights. Large home library with stylish built-in bookshelves and blue walls matching the blue seat.
But if you do have some discretionary money in your budget, spending it on the construction of some custom built-in bookshelves is a good choice. And if you are a DIYer with modestly good skills, built-in shelves can be more affordable than you think. If there is any unfinished space in your home, such as a basement or walk-up attic, this can be an ideal spot to place a home library. Ideally, the space you choose should have good lighting or at least plenty of wall outlets for plugging in lamps.
But a home library doesn't necessarily mean a room exclusively filled with shelves full of books. The space above the doors is perfect for installing bookshelves. It normally remains empty so, if you want to save space, this would be a great way to do it. Of course, in case you have lots of books, you’ll also need a wall. The shelves will be impossible to reach so you’ll need a ladder, another ineresting décor element to put in your home. Just because you live in a modest or smallish home doesn't mean you can't convert an existing room—or just some found space—into a functional home library.
The bookshelves add warmth to the walls while still keeping the formal feeling. Similarly, in my small home office library downstairs (the room is less than 10′ x 10′), I built the bookshelves around the closet door. Designed by Gene Meyer and Frank de Biasi, this library features seahorses throughout the room, including the vintage plaster lamps with rattan shades.
Pure white works fine if you're going for a stark, Scandinavian-inspired space. Otherwise, soften white library walls by choosing a shade with warm undertones. The next one of my small home library ideas is to create a bedroom library by adding bookshelves around the bed. In any case, here are my favorite cozy reading room ideas and small home library design ideas. Miles Redd designed the ebonized wood and sterling bookshelf, where a colorblock painting by Leora Armstrong hangs. When they're alone, the owners of this Manhattan apartment dine at this carved flip-top game table from Agostino Antiques.
Painting them the same color as the walls and adding some mirror details to the front panels make them look built in even though they’re not. Adding a built-in window bench to my home office library also makes great use of this small space. Since bookshelves are very flexible in how wide, deep and high they can be, I like to install them in places where not much else will fit. I have a lot of decorating and gardening books and magazines that I like to read.
Designer Todd Klein's high-gloss brown walls play up the grid pattern of the bookshelves, derived from a design by architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Pillows in Ixtapa by Jacques Bouvet et Cie make a handsome, well-worn chesterfield sofa look even more comfortable and inviting. In this bedroom designed by Tamsin Johnson, the elaborate, moody bookshelf contrasts with the modern bedskirt and pale blush pink and white color scheme. Take note if you don't have a separate room dedicated to books but still want your collection to have a special home.
Whatever seating you choose, opt for pieces that fit your body and your decorating style. If the frame and cushions feel right, you can always reupholster your seating pieces using remnants or other low-cost fabrics. Reupholstering the seats of dining-style chairs for your desk or conference table is an especially quick and simple fix. While it's possible to buy a wall's worth of inexpensive laminate bookcases, they often sag over time under the weight of your books.
