The Library - My Ongoing Project

Last week I had to turn my attention to our library.  I've been thrifting so much it has eaten into time that I should be spending on other things and I'm going to ease up on thrifting for a while.  One of the things we keep our eyes open for at the thrifts are interesting things for our in home library.  When hubby is not lecturing or in his office at the university,  he needs a place to work at home as well as a place for all his books. I made a home office for him some years ago, but the 11' x 12' room became stuffed full--overflowing onto the floor, so I decided to give him the front room which is about 17'x18' not counting the adjoining entry way and hall.  It feels so open and uncongested--what a relief!  He's loving it.  Here are some pictures.

The first thing I had to address when creating this new space was the desk.  We had an Ikea dining table in his old office.  It was larger than a standard desk, but I had to use an additional piece of furniture for the scanner and printer.  Since that room has to also double as his dressing room, there were too many pieces of furniture for my liking.  For the new library I built him a desk out of 2 old 2' wide closet doors and a couple of rolling cart/shelves we were using in the family room that I wanted to get out of there (I want a mid century credenza!!!!!)  Not only does this provide a spacious working surface, but I only had to spend a few dollars on hardware to secure it all together.  I reused the 12'x15' area rug we once used in the family room as well.

I put the desk together one day when hubby was at work.  His old room was deconstructed and repainted end of Spring and it was well into Autumn.  He didn't have a table anymore and he was pining for his old space.  I had packed all of his collectibles into boxes--I kept telling him to be patient.  When he came home the day I put the desk together--he was speechless.  Not only had I assembled the desk, but I also unpacked some of his collectibles and decorated a bit.

We pick up interesting objects from the thrifts, a certain amount are those souvenirs people buy and then get rid of.  We have found a number of pieces of reproduction Greek pottery that way. Hubby is a historian so art and history dominate in the library making it feel a bit like a mini museum.  There are things I have made for him.  His mom made this Castile Leon coat of arms latch hook from scratch. I had already made him a griffin latch hook and had all these leftover yarns that I collected from the thrift.  His mom took them and made him the Castile Leon piece, she did a great job!

This 1950s ranch has one of those built in entry way shelves...

Shelves are stuffed with books and collectibles, I try to match the collectibles to the subject matter of the books...

...but it's not always possible.  I recently picked up another bookshelf and had to shift books around a bit.

 

We call this the Asian corner. I have my own collection of Asian porcelain that is packed away, have to figure out where to put that.  Last week I hung the four Japanese woodblock prints we found recently, they surround a piece of embroidery I completed and framed.  Hubby found a second halogen up light like the other we already have.

 

We picked up this short bookshelf at the thrift last week.  There is still enough room for one more on this wall!  There is a fourth wall with fireplace and a recessed wall where I put wire shelving.  It is 12' long and 20" deep.  I mounted curtains on the ceiling in front of it.  There are two wands to pull the curtains open and reveal the shelving unit. It's a great storage space for all that other stuff, but it could become additional bookcase space in the future!

There is still more to do.  It will be an ongoing project.  I'd like to get new window treatments for the 10' window.  Currently there are mini blinds, which work, but I would like something a little nicer.  And sometimes I daydream about having a carpenter come in and constructing wall to wall bookshelves!