Home Library: A Room for Your Soul

With all the technological advancements, people are turning to reading books on their tablets, laptops or eBooks. Still, there are some of those romantics left who love to feel the paper rustling between their fingers and adore the smell of a new book. They are the ones sighing on the “Beauty and the Beast” scene when the breathtaking library in Beast’s castle is shown. If you are one of those people, you’ve probably always wanted a home library. And if you’ve just bought a new home, or you are renovating, that might be the perfect chance to make your dreams come true. In further text, we’ll try to give you guidelines on how to turn a room into a library.

Shelves

The books are the most important part of your library, and shelves are right behind them. Depending on how large your book collection is and how much are you planning to expand it in the future, you can buy a set of shelves from wall to wall which are covering one entire side of the wall (they can leave space beneath or go from floor to ceiling) or couple of shelves strategically arranged around the room. You can even put your DIY skills on test and try to make interesting shelves out of most unusual items (ladders, chairs…).

Walls

To add up to the general romantic and aged sense libraries usually reflect, walls should be painted in warm creamy colors. You can additionally decorate them with wallpapers (which shouldn’t make too much of a contrast with the warmth of the wall colors) or photographs and paintings. Choose black and white or sepia photographs to avoid disrupting the overall feel of the room. Same goes for the paintings, modern art shouldn’t be a part of this room, unless you are aiming for eclectic style.

Floor

Since we have established that the feel we want to create is warmth, when considering what to do with the floor, we must say that adding a rug is an obvious solution. Because the very function of rugs is to add the warmth, you should find the one which will go well with the rest of the room. Among the wide selection of rugs you can find today, surely there will be a few of them matching your home library décor.

Furniture

You are probably already noticing the pattern here. It should also have that vintage appeal which prevails in the whole room. Depending on the purposes of the room, you’ll need to choose what furniture pieces you need. In case you are going to use the room just for reading a comfortable armchair (or a rocking chair) and a coffee table will be enough. If the library will serve as a workroom, then you should acquire a working desk and a chair.

Lighting

For a pleasant reading time, you’ll need an access to daylight and enough lamps carefully distributed throughout the room. The artificial light should be sufficiently intense to read without stressing the eyes, but it shouldn’t be too intense, to avoid tiredness. It is a good idea to have lights which you can direct towards a book. If your future library doesn’t have big enough windows, than you should at least try not to put anything that can block the sunrays on the windows you have.

Don’t worry about the lighting too much, though, because, as Vera Nazarian once wrote, “Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light”. Considering you now have your home library, we are not worried about you.