If you’re a book lover, you probably also have a major storage problem. Many of us know the joy and the pain of owning hundreds of beloved tomes, and having no real good solution for where they all go. There are few objects that feel more worthy of thoughtful display than books, so we’ve been thinking a lot about creative book storage ideas this week, and imagining how many different ways there are to go about designing your dream home library.
Designing Your Dream Home Library
This particular design challenge is a fun and creative endeavor that combines functionality, aesthetics, and comfort. Whether you have a dedicated room or a cozy nook, here are some tips to creating the perfect reading retreat in your home.
Choose Your Space
Consider incorporating your library into an existing room; for example, transforming a south-facing study or a corner of your living room into a book haven. Good light is essential for any room, so pick a spot with good natural lighting, or make a thoughtful lighting plan. The idea here is to create an atmosphere where you can imagine plopping into a comfortable corner chair and losing yourself in a good story, as the light fades into afternoon.
Maximize Unused Areas
If you’re short on square footage, think beyond traditional bookshelves in a living room space — where are the spaces in your home that have a little bit of room, and not a lot of function, like a sitting room, or the far wall of a kitchen? Creative solutions in unexpected spaces can turn a blank wall into a captivating design feature.
Assess Your Collection
Inventory your books before you begin. When Designing your dream home library, you’re supposed to solve the whole entire problem. Gather all of the books from every room, account for every box in the basement. This step ensures you will have enough space in your plan. Unless you’re done with reading new books from now on, you will want to plan for some amount of expansion; only you can be truly honest with yourself about how much library space you really need.
Organize the Chaos
Decide on a filing system and organize your books alphabetically by author, or by subject, or by color. Group similar topics together for easy browsing, or organize every book you own according to size, from tiny to huge. You are the master librarian, and this is your world; we’re just living in it. Designate a prominent bookshelf for your favorite reads, or something else you’d like to display as a collection. This could be the focal point of a central wall or a cozy alcove.
Create Comfortable Seating For a Restful Vibe
A plush armchair, a window seat, or a chaise lounge is an inviting addition. Place small side tables next to any seating, for coffee or tea.
Use Color and Texture to Up the Cozy
A library is a quiet sanctuary, so it comes naturally to decorate it with hushed, calm colors, earth tones, deep blues and warmer neutrals. Art and plants go a long way towards cementing the library vibe. Soften the space and the sound with rugs and plush curtains; they absorb sound and create a snug ambiance.
Get Creative — You’re Designing Your Dream Home Library
If you’ve got boxes of beloved editions and paperback best friends who are waiting patiently for the day when they can be reunited in the library of your wildest dreams, then settle in. Just for fun, we’re going to run our ideas through an AI image creator, so we can create the most fantastical examples of each book storage idea, and also delight in the mistakes it makes. (AKA — Dragons obviously are not included.)
Bathroom Library
With the right air filtration system to prevent the books from taking on water damage from the steam, the dream is truly possible, though we certainly wouldn’t recommend this design in real life. We asked the AI to make it snowing outside of the window, but we quite appreciate the ambiance created by this book-ruining alternate universe.
Kitchen Pantry Library
Perhaps you’ve got a lot of cookbooks, and you’re trying to design a space around the portal that appeared in your south-facing wall, which revealed a misty, serene forest where giant butterflies live forever? Have we got the solution for you.
Living Room Floor To Ceiling Library Wall
The butterflies will probably have to reach the tall books for you in this fantasy version of a classic dream home library, since AI did not understand that the ladder needs to be a rolling ladder. If you’d like a towering library wall, we can definitely include one in your design.
Greenhouse Library
Books, plants, and diffused natural light are always a winning combination. This dreamy cathedral greenhouse library is the perfect ADU outbuilding for the backyard of your ancient castle. This library is also a great example of not planning for library expansion — the stacks of books on the floor are a dead giveaway.
Children’s Bedroom Library
Passing on the love of books is one of the glorious and sacred tasks of parenting, and building a fantastical library in their room guarded by an energetic but good-hearted dragon will surely help.
Secret Moving Bookshelf Room
Neither of these images even remotely resemble the idea we were intending to generate — the iconic moving bookshelf that’s a secret door or a torch-lit passageway. However, we quite appreciate this portal we have created into the library of the universe, and we are eager to help you create this in your own home.
Are You Inspired Yet?
Get in touch, so we can start designing your dream home library together.