Jul
21
2011
just call us Barnes and Noble.
We have lived in this house for 4 years and I have always wanted a spot for a children’s library. We have books. And I mean….we have A LOT of books. Books are one thing I don’t mind collecting around our house. Now that’s not to say we visit Barnes and Noble every week. And we do like to “borrow” books from the library as well (I just don’t love visiting the library once a week with 4 little people in tow). Sometimes we find good used books at Half Price Books or we scour garage sales. My Mom recently retired as a 4th grade teacher and has gifted us with LOADS of books.
The books have lived in various spots throughout our house. But I have ALWAYS wanted a spot where ALL the family books could reside.
Our basement is somewhat long, narrow, and L shaped. Which makes it fairly unusable as the “man cave” that is popular in our area. We also have an entire wall of large windows down there which floods the space with natural light and makes it so cheery! So the basement has always been our oversized playroom. And I intend to keep it that way. At the far corner of the “L” we have carved out a little family room area. A few weekends ago Mr. P and my Dad built these bookcases to house our growing collection.
This is where we will keep all of the “family books”. We have books in EVERY room of our house. The girls have an entire bookshelf full of all of their own chapter books in the attic playroom. Danny’s bookshelf houses all of the smaller board books, and Super Sam keeps all the larger board books (and anything Thomas the Train related) in his own room.
I knew I wanted them floor to ceiling and this little alcove seemed like the perfect spot. When we moved in it had a built in desk with cupboards above it. But it didn’t work as an office for our family. So we ripped out that unit and repurposed it in my craft room (after giving it a fresh coat of white paint of course!)
This is the same corner 4 years ago when I was using it as a sewing space. Off to the right you can also see a built in tv niche that we ripped out as well.
Much better use of space I think!
Right now we have a giant armoire against the wall in there as well. But my sister is coming this weekend to haul that off for use in their family room…which will give us more breathing room!
Directly across from the new shelving is our play room couch and a wall of windows. To the right is our piano and all of our violins hung on the wall (where we do our nightly practices!)
In front of the couch is the coffee table I painted out last year. This was a thrift store find that just needed some TLC.
Unfortunately, I am completely obsessed with this idea right now. So I’m on the hunt for a more sturdy coffee table that the kids can use to play games, etc. Wouldn’t this be fun for tic tac toe or for keeping the score during Wii tournaments?
We put our thrift store chairs on either side of the bookshelves so there is a landing spot for reading.
I still really love these chairs. They are insanely comfortable and ratty enough that I don’t worry about what the kids will do to them. I found the polka dot fabric at a local warehouse for $3 a yard (which was a GREAT deal as it was 108″ wide!) It only cost me $15 to make covers for 4 couch pillows and 2 GIANT floor pillows!
I filled up the top of the bookcases with my globe collection. In hindsight I would have MEASURED the globes before the shelving was built…could have used an extra couple of inches so they weren’t so squished in there…but I didn’t think about it before hand.
A lot of the book we have are what we call “soft books”….meaning they are paperbacks. Those are always harder to contain as they don’t look as pretty on open shelving and it is hard for the kids to flip through them to find the titles. I found these crates at Hobby Lobby and waited for their 50% sale (it is NEVER when you need it). They came stained and slightly beat up. I was worried that sliding them in and out of the shelves would ruin the paint job though. I first tried furniture pads on the bottoms but they were still scraping. Then Mr. P suggested hot gluing felt to the bottom (he’s the brains behind this operation) which worked perfectly. I was able to find a carmel colored felt at Hobby Lobby and just measured rectangles and glued them right down!
I knew I wanted to label the bins by category as well. I purchased little 4 packs of wood rectangles at Hobby Lobby for $1 per pack and sprayed them down with chalkboard paint. Then…yep…hot glued them down! In hindsight I could have just painted them black with existing spray paint and used a white paint pen to do the lettering. But that would have been more permanent and we may want to switch up our labels down the road as the kids’ interests change.
Hard back books are prettier in rainbow order. {definitely time to update the family picture…yikes!}
I used vintage soda crates to contain a lot of the smaller paper back books. These make it so convenient for the kids to flip through to find their favorites!
I got SO LUCKY. I went to a favorite antique store looking for crates expecting to only get 1 or 2 (as they usually retail for $15-20 a piece). One of the dealers in the back had an entire booth littered with them…for 5 BUCKS EACH! Oh, HAPPY DAY!
I think I am going to say goodbye to the green walls in the basement soon. We have loved them well. But it is time for something new. I’d love a rug to anchor the space a bit but I’m holding out for the perfect find. Would LOVE a CHEVRON RUG…but I’m thinking that might be too much with the crazy chairs??
Thanks for letting me share!
WHY am I not home schooling again?
Because then you wouldn’t have time to do any decorating or shopping whatsoever. Hello! Voice of reason, over here!
you are one organized woman…..you should rent yourself out (in your spare time that is) to organize other people’s houses…Looks Great!
I didn’t realize you homeschooled earlier! You’ve given me lots of ideas for organizing my homeschool book collection – our stuff is scattered everywhere….
zowwy, that is one lovely space!! I was such a bookworm-child, I would have nested in one of those chairs for the entire summer! LOL We have so many books too (I work for a children’s book catalog company!) and I’ve had to split my stock with my mom because we just don’t have the space for them.
You did a wonderful job organizing it all.
Such a great room!
That’s gorgeous! I dream of built-in bookshelves!
Love the new room! I just painted a table my dad made for me when I was a little girl with the chalkboard top, that is too funny. It is such a great idea. A friend of mine had done if for her little girl, who is now 3, and she uses it ALL the time! Happy hunting!
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