The house that we recently bought has an office space in it with some built in bookshelves and some decent wood paneling that was installed back in the 1980s.
The wood isn't oak or anything. Its actually not even a hardwood of any kind. It's knotted pine, which is a softwood and generally a fairly cheap building product. But it was built in a nice design aesthetic and it was stained a decent color, so we decided to leave it as is for now and to turn the space into a home library.
Last weekend I spent a few days setting up our books on the shelving unit and I think that it turned out pretty nice overall.
I always have fun arranging our bookshelves and sort of take pride in how I organize them. Making a bookshelf actually look decent isn't always as easy as just throwing the books up randomly.
Often there is a lot of thought that goes into it in terms of color schemes, types, and styles of the books, as well as arranging them by genre, width and height. I'm not trying to make it sound overly complicated or like more than it is or anything - it is just arranging books on a shelf. But also, there can be a decent amount of thought that goes into such an endeavor. I'm sure that you get it.
I personally like to have some book covers facing outward and to also showcase a few framed pictures and some key items that we happen to like as well, just to give it a little more interest.
For instance, this hand painted picture that my wife bought in the Montmartre district in Paris France is an example. We had it framed here in Canada upon our return home and now its being showcased in the library because its a good memory of an important time in our lives.
Check out my wife's Lego Harry Potter Knightbus! That was another "no brainer" to put up on the bookshelf. It's cool and fun and we get as much pleasure looking at it as we did building it.
My wife hates my framed animal in human clothes pictures, but I think that they really fit the space because of their old timey-ness and their wood frames. I also try create a somewhat even mix between her stuff and mine, so that the space is both of ours and can be enjoyed by either of us. I even counted the items I put up to make sure that there was a balance to it all. That might be a little too OCD but that's what happened.
We put up some of our artwork on the walls in the room as well, like the framed art pieces that we got from my wife's mom. She got them on a trip to some place in Asia and the orange color scheme really contrasts with the wood paneling nicely in my opinion.
This original poster is called the "Little Boy" and is by a Danish artist named Bjorn Wiinblad. I can't figure out if thats its official name or not or just what it was labeled when my wife bought it for me as a gift. Either way, I love it in the space.
We have a few Wiinblad pieces around our house actually. This one is much larger than it appears in the first photo too.
It's probably something like 2 1/2 feet wide by 3 1/2 feet tall or somewhere around those dimensions. Quite big.
Our Black Forest German cuckoo clock makes for a good addition also. It really fits the space in my opinion because of its dark wood design.
I think that the color compliments the wood paneling and the item is also my favorite individual thing that we purchased in Europe. I can't think of anything that I like better at the moment.
The room is currently quite bare in terms of furnishings. Our next step down the road is to buy a better area rug that fits the space, two comfortable chairs and maybe a small table to create a comfortable reading nook of sorts. But that will be a little ways down the road though. We have also talked about possibly painting the bookshelf and the wood paneling to a more modern color but we haven't fully decided on that yet. That will all depend on how we renovate the rest of the house, a project that is also planned for "down the road." We will see. Of course I'll keep you posted on any house projects that do come up.
Anyway, what do you think of our home library? Any suggestions on what to change or do differently? Feel free to show me photos of your bookshelf, office or library designs and layouts as well.
