Is it naff to colour-code your books? A home library is the new middle-class boast.
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Whether you prefer to arrange your books in a cheery rainbow order, in stacks of decreasing size, or favor the divisive ‘spine-in’ trend to present a minimalist canvas of crisp white pages, there’s no doubt that the ‘bookshelf’ is there. having his moment.
Social media is abuzz with snaps of proud bookworms sharing their aesthetically pleasing bookshelves or discussing their new literary favorites on TikTok’s popular ‘BookTok’ community.
And with book sales skyrocketing and the number of independent bookstores at a ten-year high, it seems like there’s never been a better time to embrace the latest interior must-have: a home library.
As an interior designer (simshilditch.com), I am witnessing firsthand the boom in demand for home libraries, and you can create one too.
When most people imagine a library, they envision row upon row of books arranged in columns from floor to ceiling. Yet today’s home libraries are elegant, quiet, organized, and intriguing.
Best of all, you don’t need a whole room to do it. A library can easily be incorporated into an existing space within your living room or dining room, a hallway, or that cluttered storage room.
At my home in Wiltshire, we installed a bespoke bookcase on a hanging wall that borders the open-plan living room and kitchen, filling what would otherwise have been a blank space with a striking feature.
For me, a home without books lacks warmth. So even if your collection only extends to one stack, take a moment to think about the best way to organize them. I promise you, they will give you much more enjoyment and satisfaction than the way you place your TV.
Here, five women open their charming libraries. . .
Not one, but three libraries!
With more than 15,000 books in her collection, Seni Glaister has not one, but three libraries in the converted outbuildings of her Sussex farmhouse.
“The main one is the ground floor of a barn that we pompously call The Library,” says Seni, 55, married with four children.
She is the founder and CEO of Litalist, an online community where members can recommend and discover books and keep track of everything they’ve read.
Seni Glaister has three libraries on her farm in Sussex. She is the CEO of Litalist, where members can keep track of everything they’ve read.
“I have been involved in books throughout my life: as a reader, a collector, a bookseller, and most recently as the author of three novels. I read Enid Blyton as a child and Jilly Cooper and Barbara Taylor Bradford in my teens—those were the authors who made me a devoted reader.
A second annex building is a library with 3,000 orange-and-white Penguin classics, while a third is dedicated to several thousand children’s books.
“I’m more rigorous about how I keep my books than anything else,” Seni says. ‘Everything is in alphabetical order; there is nothing remotely haphazard about it.
@litalistbooks
Snobs may scoff, but I love the rainbow look!
As the author of 22 best-selling novels, it’s perhaps no surprise that Adele Parks has a spacious library in her six-bedroom home.
“When we built the house 11 years ago, we each chose a room that we wanted to incorporate into the design,” says Adele, 53, who lives in Surrey with her husband Jim, 51, a web designer, and their son Conrad. , 22.
“Jim chose a movie theater, Conrad wanted a gym, and I chose a library.”
Adele Parks likes the look of rainbows on her bookshelves and relies on her husband’s photographic memory to help her find titles.
Measuring five meters by five metres, the library contains 1,500 books, has dark walls and large double-aspect windows.
“Filing books according to the color of their spines is considered cheesy by many, but it creates a beautiful rainbow effect,” says Adele.
“It doesn’t make any sense when I’m trying to find something specific, but luckily Jim has a photographic memory and can always pinpoint what I’m looking for.”
Library cabinets have taller shelves at the bottom for coffee table books and photo albums, while paperbacks sit higher up. Among my most treasured books are those that were gifted and signed by other authors, often when I appeared with them on a panel at a literary festival,” explains Adele, whose latest novel, One Last Secret, is out now.
“There are also many prints of Jane Austen’s Emma, my favorite classic.”
@adele_parques
My shelter with secret double doors
When former florist Maria Jones and her husband bought their country house in Felpham, West Sussex, three years ago, she used the old dining room as a library for her collection of “a thousand or more” books.
“I decided to create a proper library where I could enjoy my love of reading and have all my books in one place,” says the 52-year-old mother of three.
Maria Jones and her husband spent £10,000 on cabinets for their large collection, which are filed alphabetically.
“We invested £10,000 in bespoke cabinetry, including secret double doors that are part of the shelving but, to everyone’s delight, swing open to reveal the garden room.”
Maria, whose books are arranged alphabetically by section, including antiquity, fiction, and subjects like cooking and interior design, adds: “The Secret Doors are a nod to my love of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a child.”
@eleditordeinteriores
My £5,000 sanctuary
English teacher Marie Kimberley describes her home library as her “retirement.”
Located in an “oddly shaped corner” within the open-plan living room of her home, she says it could otherwise have been a small office or dead space.
For those without a dedicated room, an “oddly shaped nook” like the one used by Marie Kimberly can offer a retreat.
‘The library is the heart of our house and the children come and climb on the arms of my chair and ask me: ‘Mom, what are you reading?’ says Marie, who lives in Worcestershire with her children and her husband.
The £5,000 cabinets contain around 600 books, filed under categories such as education, psychology and classical literature.
@thefairytalebuild
3,000 books all arranged A-Z
I think my husband would have disowned me if I had organized my books by color! laughs Susan Roe, who came up with the idea to transform a cozy nook under a double arch in her Norfolk home into a library.
The couple eventually decided to archive their collection of 3,000 books in alphabetical order, paid £3,000 to a local retired boat fitter to build the solid wood cabinets Susan designed, and chose to paint them Farrow & Ball Smoke Green.
Susan Roe transformed her game room into a library and sitting room, complete with a traditional ladder to reach the highest shelves.
“We had it as a game room with a pool table when we first renovated the house,” says Susan, who has two daughters.
‘However, it didn’t see much use, so I decided to turn it into a living room with a library.
“I have everything from Dickens to Marian Keyes, plus books that belonged to my grandmother, my parents and in-laws, and my husband’s veterinary textbooks,” she adds.
‘Our granddaughter loves to hold my hand as she goes up the little staircase to look at all the books her mum read when she was little.
It’s my favorite room in the house, and the one that all my visitors seem to gravitate towards.
@edwardianhouse
500 books look great sorted by color
When Kelly Pike and her husband first saw their 18th-century country house near Bristol last spring, it was the existing 90-year-old library that was decisive. “Having worked in book publishing for 20 years, my dream has long been to have a library,” says Kelly, 41, who is married to Henry, 43, a lawyer. They have three children, Rafferty, nine, Liberty, seven, and Rufus, four.
“I had to stop buying books until then because we ran out of storage space, but now my eclectic collection of over 500 books has a lovely new home.”
Kelly’s first job was to renovate the library: fix the ‘wobbly’ wooden bookshelves, decorate and spend £2,500 on a plush sofa, placed in front of the fireplace.
It was an extravagance, but what’s a library without a sumptuous place to curl up and read? Kelly adds. “I love being able to run my fingers through the bookcases and choose something.
‘They’re arranged by colour, something purists look down on, but I think they look wonderful!’
@kellydpike