A new library...

Stephen B
by Stephen B
Recently, my wife Andrea and I decided to shift around what we do with the rooms in our Georgian Colonial, two story home. Our china collection, which is huge, couldn't fit in the original 13' by 13' dining room. And, we didn't have a place for our equally huge book collection. So, we converted our 19' by 13' family room into the new dining room and moved all the china to the built-ins in there. That left us with an unused dining room. So, we are in the process of converting it to a library for all the books. Large built-ins will cover two opposite walls. We're done with one side now. The pictures show that we started with mid 80s flowery wall paper and now have a fully internally lit build in book shelf that holds 1100 books. We're just ecstatic about it!
We started with this - 80's flowered wall paper with chair rail and a lower blue paint color in the original dining room.
Our first phase just added paint over the wall paper. A darker tone that's a warm gray/brown tone depending on how the light catches it. a huge improvement over the flowers!
Library Shelves going in. We built 5 sets about 30 inches wide and 8 feet tall. We calculated they'd hold about 1100 books.
The shelves are done! It We painted them the same color as the house trim (BEHR sensible hue). Here, we're loading the library shelves. The in-built lighting really shines here.
Fully loaded. Andrea shows off her book collection.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 19 comments
  • Z Z on Jan 18, 2013
    @Stacey, that's how it works with my hubby and I. Only I do help in the building when he needs an extra hand.
  • Karn Karn on Apr 08, 2013
    Neat. My wall of books started out as 2 foot children's particle board bookcases and continued to grow as I added more cases.
Next