The Home Library – Alaska Edition

I think this is now the third iteration of my home library that I’ve shared on here (3rd or 4th I can’t recall) and this one is my favorite of them all. I don’t know if I’ll ever have this set up, this perfection again, so I firmly plan on being here every single day (and I have been so far). But first, let’s go back and see through the years how the home library has existed in our various houses…

The 1st edition (the one I don’t know if I shared or not) was known as the wall of books. And was simply, a wall of books. It was dreamy in its own way (I mean who wouldn’t want to just have a wall of books), but there wasn’t much seating within the books- the chair was opposite- and it was also in the office- so lots of other things happened instead of reading. 

The 2nd edition was the first corner set up. It was where I first started becoming “Belle”. It didn’t have a chair within the library itself, but it was moldable, and I would move the boy’s little nugget in, I would re arrange easily, and it became our Hogwarts library of dreams when we did the hanging candles from the ceiling. It was my first chance to start seeing what I’d like in a library and what I don’t need. 

The 3rd edition was the shortest of them all- our one year in Texas. Another corner shelf set up, though we added a lamp, had the chair in the library, and had a separate area for library books. This was a great set up- I learned that I absolutely need a lamp (multiple would be nice if possible) and I placed a speaker on one of the shelves- which was a great addition. 

Finally, here we are this 4th edition. You will be able to see why I won’t be able to top this one- it’s an absolute dream. I’ve got a cushioned window seat, the wall of books, but still two corners, the chair and lamp within the library, but also plenty of space to host/bring in more cushions for the kids to read too. It’s dreamy in all the best ways and I really truly plan on spending a little bit of time here every day.

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Welcome to our Home: The Home Library (and Kids Space)

It is finally time to start talking about our new home! It’s been a long time coming (not really, hard to believe but we’ve only been in this house for 2 ½ months), but I think it’s finally time to start sharing. I think I’m going to do this in a couple different posts, sectioning out our downstairs into 5 or 6 posts. This is the only part of my house (and just home in general) that I do share as I am going to keep the bedrooms and office private. 

I figured I would start things off with what may be one of the most important spaces in our home (in only my opinion…my husband and kids beg to differ), our home library. While I couldn’t recreate my “wall of books” (HERE) from our last home, I was able to create a cozy little space and a full chunk of our downstairs just to the shelves. 

So, we’ve got a little corner nook set up in this home, just off the main living room. In the center is the boys school table where they do their schoolwork as needed. I liked that I could have a similar “library” set up as you would find at their school with a table in the center. The way the house is laid out and the other rooms are set up, I ended up preferring this to have my reading chair in the corner. 

Aside from the main shelves, which we will get to in the moment, I do have one end table that holds a variety of “coffee table” books that I reach for frequently, as well as my current month “TBR” stack of books. On the top of the shelves there is a wide variety of décor, the various castles we’ve visited on our travel, some important books (both childhood and adulthood), as well as a framed quote from Pride and Prejudice, my wedding dress, and a framed piece of quilled paper artwork. 

Now on to the shelves themselves. There is a total of 5 (though I would like to get one more at some point and I’m sure I’ll need more in the future), and they are the Threshold Carson bookshelves from Target (HERE) in Espresso Brown. They’ve held up through two to three moves now and we’ve been really pleased with them.

A note of my organization system, I organize by “category” and then author last name within that. So, we’ve got (from right to left): Classics, Non-Fiction, General Fiction, Collections, Poetry, Memoir/Self Help, Religious/Belief/Spiritual, Manga & Graphic Novels. The final bookcase on the far left is my unread books. The goal is to keep my unread books to only one bookcase, preferably even less than that at some point, but as I’m a mostly mood reader that can only go so far. 

I also split this chunk of our downstairs (which is an open floor plan) into both the Home Library as well as a kid’s space to play downstairs. As much as our boys love to play in their room (though not as much as we would maybe prefer) they inevitably bring toys downstairs and want to play near us. I wanted to have a spot for them to do that that was still “connected” to where we would be, but not right in our faces for noise purposes. This is also a Lego spot for them to have all their Legos to build and play as they want. 

They have a main table (which is our old coffee table), then a little cabinet in the corner which holds books and school supplies (in the drawer), and a little shelf system which holds some more books. In between the two is where the Lego’s get stored in little plastic containers. The name signs are 3D printed from an Etsy shop called (linked HERE). I thought it would be a nice, personalized touch, as well as help with name recognition and spelling. They can also hang art projects if they like on the walls. 

So, that’s the home library and kids’ section of the downstairs of our house, AS WELL AS the first look into our New York home. I hope you enjoyed this first peak, and I look forward to sharing more with you! If you have any specific questions, please let me know in the comments below. 

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Welcome to Our House: Office and Library!

Good morning and Happy Monday!! I am really excited to be able to start sharing glimpses into our house. It’s a long time in the making as I’ve been wanting to make sure things are just perfect before I share them. Obviously things will come and go to an extent, but when I share these rooms with you they are pretty much settled and no further big changes will be happening to them. I’m not going to be sharing every room as some I would just like to keep private, but I am looking forward to sharing the more open spots in our home. For me, I want our home to warm, cozy, and inviting, without feeling cluttered I try to be very conscious of how a space comes together and how different items can compliment (or contrast) each other.

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The first space I am going to share with you is our Home Office and Library. I am going to be a bit of a disappointment and only share part of the room as I’ll be keeping my husbands portion of the room private. Rest assured, all your missing is one desk with his computer and such on it. When I think about what I wanted for my home office, natural light was an absolute must for me and I wanted to have minimal things on my actual desk. A couple bits here and there, but for the most part clear for me to clutter up while working.

I used to have a much much larger desk that would get cluttered up throughout the weeks getting cleared out only once in a while when it became unbearable (about once a month). My previous office was in the basement, wasn’t a spot that I really wanted it, and wasn’t set up the way I really wanted either. The piles made sense to me and I could easily access what I needed at any given time, but it quickly became kind of a source of frustration and it look horrible.

I knew that I wanted something a little bit different here, so when we moved, we split my big desk into two smaller desks and I chose to take the smaller of those two. This forces me to actively clear things away and sort what I have going on on a daily basis, rather than monthly.

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Now, I tend to pile books, paperwork, my planner, mugs of tea, and snacks all over my desk while I am actively working, BUT they are cleared out at the end of everyday and the entire look is much more simplistic (which I really love).

On my desk I’ve got my computer, a couple of pictures, a figurine, tea caddy, candle, display mug, and my planner (not pictured). My planner moves around with me throughout the day, but ultimately it makes it’s way back up here.

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I do have some low shelves next to my desk to just give a little extra space when I need it, and then I have an overflow tea shelving unit. I also have my memory boxes which contain all of our photos, photo albums, and other memory items. These are the only boxes left in my house and I do plan on finding a different, better way to store all of these items. It’s on my never ending list haha.

The desk is from IKEA, the planner notebook cover is from Chic Sparrow, the figurine is Willow Tree People, Display Mug is Churchill War Rooms, and the rest is various ETSY shops, Amazon or hand me downs. The pictures on my wall are my own photography from our travels.

So, swinging around, you have my little reading nook. This is the comfiest chair of them all and I like to come up here early in the morning, if I have time, or during naptime during Autumn/Winter and reading here. I use the little plushy almost like a pillow and the blanket is so warm and cozy. Colton will come up and read his books as well. I’ve got a little shelving table for the book that I am reading, a couple little books that are mostly for decoration (but I do read them), and my tea.

The chair is a baby glider from Baby’s R Us, the blanket is from Walmart many years ago, Plushy from Amazon, Books on the table from an Antique Store.

Finally, swing around again and you see what I like to call my piece de resistance, my pride, my joy, my wall of books. Haha…but no really, I am obsessed with this.

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I’ve always had a lot of books, I’m a big reader and it’s to be expected. I’ve also always wanted a home library. I grew up with one and it’s just something that I believe is a necessity in my own home. In our previous home all of my shelves and books ended up in our basement (which had it’s own wall of books, but no real natural light and no good reading set up) and I was so excited that I didn’t have to do that this time.

I’ve got quite the collection filling 4 bookcases full of books. I’ve got 3 bookcases of books that I’ve read or should be grouped together (such as classics) and one of books that I own and haven’t read. They are semi organized by bookcase and I could probably tell you the exact spot of any book in my collection in a second or two.

On top of the bookshelves I have a couple of décor items, and my Harry Potter collectibles. I decided this time around that I would continue with the “minimalist” look that I did on my desk and I am super pleased about it. I’ve found over the past couple of years that unnecessary clutter really stresses me out (any clutter really stresses me out), so to not have a lot of décor, and just letting the books speak for themselves really looks nice.

IMG_9343.jpgI do have a smaller little unit towards the end that has décor, a couple of toys for the kids, and a couple of overflow books (I have a problem) and then next to that is my box of notebooks (another problem I have). I’m hopeful to eliminate the overflow books by the end of this year, although I am probably going to need another bookcase in the very near future (husband is not too pleased about that…).

The bookshelves are from Target from a few years back, little shelving unit is from Amazon, décor is from various spots.

 

 

And that’s it for this first room in our home! I hope that you enjoyed this little peak and I look forward to sharing a couple other spots with you soon!

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