Building Your Own Home Library

If your To Be Read Pile is currently larger than you’ll actually get through in the next couple of months or if you can’t resist picking up another title whenever you pass a bookshop, designing your own home library may be a good idea. Books can make fantastic ornamental detail around a home but where you’ve got one too many or simply not enough shelf space, making a proper feature out of your collection and building a home library may be for you. But how and what should it look like? You don’t need a whole room with shelves and ladders to build one but there’s lots that can be done creatively; so read on for some Refresh ideas and get planning yours!

Zone Out A Living Room Space

Using a ‘zoning’ technique in a living room to separate up a space for a library can really highlight a literature collection. Painting a colourful square or large shape around shelves and arranging the books in colour order or displaying them artistically to show off colours creates a feature that isn’t just a bog-standard bookshelf. 

Build Bookshelves Into The Stairs

Understairs storage is far too often just a cupboard full of assorted old items and cleaning products, but why not build shelves under them to show off your collection? This also encourages people to pick a book before bed to take up with them – a much better option than a tablet or a smartphone AND it uses wall space that so often otherwise goes unused.

Create A Book Nook

Got an odd little corner or nook or cranny that you don’t use for anything else? Create a book nook! Bespoke bookshelves can be easily created for awkward shaped spaces and if there’s room, pop in some cushions to make it a nice place to sit and read too! Windowsills make for great reading nooks, as do the space under loft hatches. Any unused space will do – you just need to think outside of the box.

Use The Guest Bedroom

If you have a spare bedroom that’s not often used, why not use it for books? In a guest room, the bed doesn’t need to be the focus of a room like it usually would be. Instead, consider adding in shelves and some comfy chairs and pushing the bed either to the side of the room; or investing in a sofa bed. It makes good sense to utilise the space all the time rather than once in a while and guests can easily work around it when they stay.

Convert The Orangery

If you’ve got an orangery or conservatory, consider converting it into a library. These rooms often go un- or under-used through the cooler months of the year, yet present fantastic light levels and relaxing environments. If you find the room a little chilly through cold weather, invest either in specialist insulation as part of a minor home renovation, or consider decorating in the hygge style and adding in lots of chunky blankets and comfy cushions. What could be better than snuggling up with a good book on an autumn evening?!

Make A Micro Library

Even if you’re super tight on space, there’s always room for a library! Reserve a corner of your bedroom for a single armchair and clever shelf usage above it and designate this your evening reading corner. 10 pages a night will always be preferable to 10 minutes of scrolling on a smartphone, and you can always crawl into bed with a good read too! Keep your colour scheme calm (a must before bed) and consider tranquil blue or cosy coffee tones.

Fake A Library

Love the idea of a home library but not actually a big reader? Or want to echo the aesthetics of bookshelves but haven’t yet built up much of a collection? Fake it until you make it – use the illusion of crammed bookshelves with printed wallpaper along a single wall and make it look as though you’re quite the reader until you have enough to stuff shelves of your own.

Listen In At The Library

Audiobooks are still books, and if you’re a music fan too, a listening corner may make more sense for your home than a traditional home library. A comfy armchair, snuggly cushion and shelf with power point and good headphones can make for a relaxing spot to download your next read and get swept up in the story; all without turning a physical page at all. 

Level Down For Kids Books

There’s something very nostalgic about the idea of children sitting reading a book with their parents or grandparents, yet it’s rarely a popular pastime anymore. Children’s bookshelves should be placed at floor level or just above so that they’re able to reach in and select their titles themselves – making them much more curious about reading and likely to pick a story. If you’ve got some wall space around the shelf, why not decorate it with posters of famous characters or a mural themed by a story?

Use A Whole Wall

If you’ve got a large book collection but not an extra room to fit them all in, fear not. Invest in some floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and line them against a single wall in your living room or other largest room. With lots of titles lined up you don’t need to worry about colour coding or alphabetising and instead can create a smart looking feature wall from your shelves with little else to be added. A lamp here and an ornament there can break up the lines if you feel them too chunky, or you can display special books cover-forward to really show them off.
They say a house without books is like a body with no soul; so if you’ve got them, and you enjoy them, use them! 

Get in touch!

Home libraries can be made to a variety of scales and sizes, so indulge your inner bookworm and get in touch today to see how Refresh Renovations can help you with a home transformation.