5 Ways to Fit a Home Library into a Small Space

In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast gave Belle an incredibly enormous, incredibly beautiful library as a gift, and bookworms everywhere swooned. Watching the movie as a little girl, I promised myself that someday that would be me. Maybe not the hairy boyfriend, but definitely the giant library was on my list. Fast-forward a few years, and I’m starting to think it might be difficult to shoehorn a space like this into my less than 1000 square foot home. But there is hope for me — and for you if you have the same dreams. Here are five different rooms that can do double duty as a library, enabling you to squeeze a dedicated space for your books into almost any size home.

For example: have you ever found yourself resenting your hallway for all the space it takes up in your home? Every hallway is really just a very long room itching to be turned into a library — like the hallway/library hybrid above, spotted on Dezeen. Get some shelves and put that space to work.

Why not tuck a few bookcases into the space behind the sofa? You’ll only lose a few feet from your living room, and you’ll get that cozy English library feel. (Of course, the shelves right behind the sofa won’t be super easy to get to — so use those for things you know you won’t be referencing much.) Image from BHG.

If you’re lucky enough to have one, the dining room is another great candidate for library-fication. In the room above, from Nuevo Estilo via Savvy Home, wall mounted shelves take advantage of the full length of the wall.

Hall closet + shelves + overhead light + glass door = perfect tiny home library. It’s genuis, really. From a Manhattan apartment featured in the New York Times.

And finally — what’s cozier than a bed surrounded by books? If you’re the type who loves to read in bed, this arrangement makes perfect sense — you don’t have to go far to pick out your next bit of reading material. The bedroom pictured above, from Lonny, has built-ins, but you could get the look in a rental with some IKEA Billys. A lamp can be mounted to the side of the bookcase or the wall for a reading light, and one shelf can do double duty as a nightstand.