“A room without books is like a body without a soul” Cicero
It would seem the older I get, the truer this quote is. For most of us books remind us a person or a point in time and hoarder or not, I think we all have at least one bookshelf worth of books in our homes. And my clients are always looking for clever storage solutions as to where and how they can store and display their books.
My basic rule, as a lover of books, is that wherever there is a space, there is space for books! A perfect example here of a well utilised alcove.
In fact, books can be displayed beautifully in pretty much any spare nook in your home. Space under the stairs that you can’t use? Um, obviously you can turn it into a bookshelf!
Walls already full of lovely art? We can turn your bookcases on their sides and bingo -amazing book storage.
There is a brilliant IKEA hack here which can be painted using any of Fenwick & Tilbrook’s gorgeous green shades of paint to make a very smart library indeed, such a great hack.
Even in cottages with typically small rooms there are plenty of nooks and spaces for bookshelves.
The following image is ideal for unused space in a hallway.
If you’ve got little people (with little rooms) these IKEA spice racks make excellent bookshelves when mounted onto either a wall of cupboard door. They are ideal for displaying small people’s books and can be painted to match the walls.
I adore this idea of designing a bookcase around the windows – would work incredibly well in a small office or box room.
And of course, if you have a secret passageway door that needs to be hidden, what better way?
I think this following idea would be great for a holiday cottage rental property…
And finally, this has got to be my dream home library. In fact, this is my dream home full stop and belongs to Emma Burns who is the senior decorator at Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.
Joinery is a much under utilised part of most people’s homes and bookshelves are a great place to start what I promise will be a long lived love affair. It isn’t as cheap as buying ready made furniture, but the perfect piece of joinery can add so much value to your space and is really a piece of art in itself.
In a world when people can now easily spend more time on their phones than asleep in a 24 hour period, what better excuse do you need to find a good book, a hot cup of tea and enjoy.