Some of my favorite rooms are those spaces that provide a good spot to tuck into. Where our nirvana is filled to the brim. Paradise, heaven, tranquility. Planned spaces that define our sanctuary. Let's get back to designing our homes around that. Where tradition is bucked and self authenticity is at the forefront.
In this post I'm calling all my fellow bibliophile because I know you aren't the shy type and will fully understand our great love for books isn't something we hide. Don't confuse this for ignoring the delight of hiding away while we are swept into the lives of our next book's characters. I'm writing about the thrill we get when sharing our latest book with our fellow lovers of literature. So what better way to share than in a library dining room.
Heightening the experience of book club is a planned library dining room. Where the best real characters in our real lives are gathered over good food to converse about books we have read and books we added to our collections. Books with our handwritten notes, dogeared pages, an autograph from the author. Books that express our journeys and how we found ourselves or lost ourselves.
I have talked in the past about our libraries being wherever our stack of books finds their home; by our favorite chair or on our bedside table. Then we run out of space for those stacks of books and we get creative and they find their home tucked under a bench or ottoman and perhaps even in a dining room's china/hutch - the dishes moved aside to make room for one of the very definitions of ourselves - the books we read.
And then my mind goes to the joy of experiencing a book-themed dinner in the library dining room or the book author's favorite drink or cigar. Creating the feeling that the author is actually in our company, dining with us at our table in our library. Can you imagine dining with Herman Melville or Frances Mayes or Ernest Hemingway? What if Henry David Thoreau or Mark Twain or Bonnie Garmus or Brene Brown were invited to your next dinner party?
As in any design plan, what you surround yourself with becomes an element to your happiness in your home. Your retreat, port in a storm, shelter. If you are a lover of books plan that library dining room, it is both your escape and capture. Escaping from contentment to be captured by intrigue.
Don't get stuck on the formality that the design of a library can conjure up. Just like any other space in your home, the library dining room should reflect you. Just like the books on the shelves in this space.
The library dining room is a hideaway where some of your most valued treasures reside. Yet it is also a necessary functional space as well. Approaching a multi-functional space design plan can be a challenge, but a fun one. It is important to consider all the elements you need in this space just as if they were two separate rooms and then formulate a plan that marries those elements together well.
Just as I encourage the use of our formal dining areas to not be limited to special holidays, I would encourage a library dining room to not just be used for book club. We need to design our spaces so that every space welcomes a cup of coffee to start our day or a glass of wine to collect our thoughts at the end of our day. There are no reserved tables.
Be inspired!
Sources: Architectural Digest, 1st Dibs, Tumblr, Art of Doing Stuff, Vogue, The Nordroom, Markova Design, Laurel Bern Interiors, View Along The Way, Pinterest, Est Living
