… to accommodate a book lovers favorite collection. We dug in to our house tours for examples of great ways to fit a library in at home without the benefit of traditional library walls.
How about fitting them in…
Above a door: A Garret Transformed
In a stairwell: Veronika & Sebastian's Rooftop Victorian
In a freestanding stack-style bookshelf: Laura's Inviting Live / Work Studio
On a low bookcase, underneath some BIG art: Michael's Michigan Cottage
On an entryway tabletop: Ingrid's Wood and Wool Wonderland
In easily reconfigurable lightweight cubes: Julie & Iker's Marina City Heaven
On shelves in the niche formed by a fireplace: Cesa's Recycled Home
In some amazing moveable "walls": Sean & Daphne's Industrial Rustic Downtown Hideaway
At the end of a sofa: Todd and J.R.'s Printer's Row Passages
In bookcases that wrap a "room" in a loft: Sonia & Mike's "Quaint & Cozy" Loft
Book lovers unite! If you'd like to share your book storage solution with your fellow Apartment Therapy readers, send a few photos and info to us.
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I am about to move into a studio apartment in boston. I have a huge book collection and I was worried about how I was going to fit all my books in my apartment. After reading this post I think I will try to make a bookshelf like this one, http://sprng.me/1e6pu, into a room divider.
Love that wall of cabinetry/books in the first photo!
Some of the photos are hugely inspirational whereas others don't offer much help to people with a bit more than 50 books. I love the wall with shelves, closets and what not and I bet that it can swallow an enormous amount of things.
How many books make up a library? And how many would classify as "a small collection" (it could fit into 10-20 % of a normal-sized bookshelf) or something similar.
And not to be a book police, but especially hardbacks hate being piled on top of each other :D
"Too many books"? That statement does not parse.
There is no such thing as too many books- however it is possible to have too few bookcases.
Books are very decorative.
My current bookcase is overloaded with way too much stuff so these are my book plans for my new apartment.
-Paint the inside of my current bookcase a bright colour (haven't decided which yet, maybe yellow?).
-Hide all of my romance novels :) Nora Roberts can hide in my night table or something.
-Display my decorating books on end table. Like my copy of Domino: The book of decorating
-I will be installing a shelf in the kitchen for all of my cookbooks.
-And the magazines that I decide to keep will be stacked in neat piles on the shelf under my coffee table.
This way all my books are spaced out and organized.
Our new house has a weird little room at the front of the house we made a library -- it's where the staircase to the upstairs starts, and the only other use we could think of was a TV room. It's lined with IKEA Billy shelves, houses my computer desk, and we're pretty happy with it.
In our old house, we lined the upper floor landing with shelves -- the hall was wide enough that we didn't worry about losing the space, and it looked nice to have tidy bookshelves outside the bedrooms and the home office.
Both spaces are/were essentially walk-throughs. The new library has a chair and my desk, (plus two window seats, mainly for the cats) but in truth we grab a book and take it somewhere else, usually.
I always find the idea of piling books very high (as in picture 3) very impractical... How are you gonna get a book in the middle of the pile?
I believe that is actually a vertical book shelf, with very thin steel shelves so that books are only stacked 5 or so to a shelf giving the impression of a tall pile. You have to admit there is a lot of library going on in a very small footprint.
I love the staircase library design. It is simply amazing. I just wrote a post titled 25 Inspirational Home Library Ideas which includes a cool video slide show.