Today we continue our tour with a room that gets a surprising (to me) amount of use from a relatively small space: the library! I think it sounds cozier to call it "the library" than "the office"--don't you? This room is immediately to your left when you walk in my front door. The wood/laminate floors from the living room were thankfully continued into this room, so the only real changes we did were to paint and change out the light fixture. Take a look!
I love the double doors leading into the library. Unfortunately, they are closed most of the time to keep curious little hands out of places they shouldn't be. This also appears to be the only photo where you can catch a glimpse of the light fixture. There was a ceiling fan with a light kit in here, but the ceilings aren't all that tall and my husband didn't want a flat top, so I spray painted it and moved it to the master bedroom. In its place, we hung a flush mounted drum shade fixture with a pretty quatrefoil-type pattern on it.
Here is the computer setup (I know you've all been dying to know where I blog) and Chris's book case. These bookcases are sentimental to me because my grandfather built them for me when I was in grad school. (He said he wasn't going to move the pieces of crap that I had again, and would build me something sturdy enough to hold my many many textbooks.) They have been moved umpteen times, and are still kicking! Chris stained them a little darker when we rearranged our old apartment to make room for Abby Kate.
The other set of double doors open to a closet, so technically this is a four bedroom house. I'm not sure who would want to have the bedroom that is squarely in the middle of the "public" area of the house, but to each his own.
The white built-ins house more books, magazines, and photos (in the white boxes, labeled with my beloved label-maker). I think it really adds to the "library" ambiance I was hoping for in here. We added the chair a month or two after moving in. We discovered that we tend to gravitate to this room in the evenings after Abby Kate is in bed because it keeps the house a little quieter, and it's been great to have somewhere for the non-computering person to sit and read or hang out.
This angle shows you my bookcase and the one tiny window in the room. I don't mind the lack of windows so much since I don't spend a lot of daytime hours in here. It would probably get really hot in here with more, since this is a south facing room.
The rug clearly isn't the "prescribed" size for a room this size, but we ran into a few challenges with that. The entryway is on an angle, so anything much larger stuck out the door, and anything larger made an infuriating speed bump for the computer chair. So I like to think that the small rug sort of "designates" the library area from the computer area. ....Right....
And now, for my favorite part of this room...my craft closet! My dad helped me design and implement a way to add more storage in here without changing too much of the existing closet, just in case we decide to sell and the next owner isn't a crafter.
We added some pegboard to one side, making my sewing supplies easy to access, and shelving to the other side to hold scrapbook paper (organized by color, of course), yard, momentos, and sewing trims. I decided to paint the shelf backs and pegboard a nice aqua (my happy color).
The desk was assembled mostly from things I already had. I previously used these white organizers in the office in our apartments, but they have been stored away since we had Abby Kate. The plywood on top was already stained since we used it as a desk top in several places. We added the "scooters" on the bottom, applied a little silicone adhesive, and bam! A desk!
It holds my scrapbooking supplies, so everything is right at my fingertips. There isn't a light in the closet, so I just roll my desk out to work and roll it back in when I'm finished. I can stop mid-project and just tuck it all away if I need to tidy up suddenly! Usually I pull it out and turn it 90 degrees, so the closet is to my left when I'm working. My paper is easy to reach and I can watch Netflix on the computer while I work. Does life get better?
We have loved having this "grownup playroom" to keep our things safe from little hands, and to have a place where we can be creative, or read, or watch Netflix, or just visit in the evenings. It's a cozy little spot that I didn't know how much I would enjoy.
What's your favorite room in your house? Are you a crafter? Netflixaholic?
