More Rooms
When Books Take Over
These book-filled rooms indulge a passion for the look, smell and touch of closed scrolls, articles and novels
For some people, Sundays are spent organising bookshelves by Dewey and author (though, please, never by colour). The more extreme enthusiast, a bibliophile, may assert books have personalities and histories of their own, if not from the stories that lie within, from the sheer physical presence they possess; something we should display, not hide!
When you renovate, however, books go into storage. You miss them in a way you might miss an old friend. And when you walk past them on their shelves, every book – every book – reminds you of a time, place, person or feeling, even when you can’t remember the plot particularly well. And, often you can never dispose of a book – even if you didn’t like it.
When you renovate, however, books go into storage. You miss them in a way you might miss an old friend. And when you walk past them on their shelves, every book – every book – reminds you of a time, place, person or feeling, even when you can’t remember the plot particularly well. And, often you can never dispose of a book – even if you didn’t like it.
True storeys. With the Book Tower house, Patrick Michell of Platform 5 Architects rearranged two floors of a London Arts and Crafts house in Hampstead around the family’s enormous collection of books. The library is the heart of the house, made by combining a ground-floor living room and a first-floor bedroom into a double-height space, linked by an elegant oak stair case.
At the top of the library – which is essentially one piece of joinery – a small desk looks over the books and into the garden. The shelves artfully step down the stairs, so the top shelf is always within reach.
Deceiving looks. This house in Marblehead had sat eerily empty on the beachfront for decades before its owners – along with architects Siemasko + Verbridge – rescued it from oblivion. Outside, it’s classic East Coast seaside (timber weatherboards, white-painted columns on a deep-covered porch), but inside the building is contemporary, and includes a two-level library linked by a spiral staircase.
The shelves here run floor-to-ceiling on both levels, which gives it an appealing density. A custom-built ladder provides access to the top levels – a must for easy browsing.
Here’s a detail of the timber bookshelves, which are strung from the ceiling on high-tensile wire. This gives the room a lightness.
Hino knows. The House in Hino, designed by Araki Architects, takes the idea of a house designed around books to a new – and very Japanese – level. Along with a cave-like study for its bibliophile owner, the shelves in this house spread throughout the two levels. There are exposed timber beams and simple floating shelves: the decoration comes from the vast collection of books.
The books stretch up the shelving through two storeys, accessed by a spiral staircase, at the top of which is a simple study table for contemplating the garden over a novel by Haruki Murakami, say. A metal gantry with exposed steel tread gives access to the books while allowing light to the level below.
In a sense, the whole house – seen here before there were any books in it – is a library, with token areas for the bathroom, dining area and kitchen. (Though there are shelves there, too.)
Turning the corner. The cardiologist owner of this house on Lake Champlain, New York, is a passionate book collector – as is his wife – but he’s also a gifted woodworker. The two passions are united in the library, designed by architect Don Welch. Welch converted a fourth bedroom into a bookish retreat, crafted from cherry and maple timber. The shelving carefully rises and follows the angle of the ceiling: an elegant wooden ladder, made by the owner, provides access.
On the other side of the room, Welch designed a built-in desk for craft projects – and reading – with built-in shelves at the end. The wave form seen on the bottom shelf here flows around the room in reference to the water a few hundred metres away.
The bookshelf was built in pieces, then carried up the stairs.
The bookshelf was built in pieces, then carried up the stairs.
Welch was determined that the room would not be overwhelming – the idea is to display the books in such a way that their full beauty is shown off. So he designed a careful pattern of square ‘bookends’, built into the corners of the shelving and double-height nooks for displaying art.
Bookend in Portland. Even the simplest of houses can do with a library space to anchor them. In this tiny house by Jessica Helgerson, on Sauvie Island near Portland, Oregon, a great room houses built-in furniture and a wall of books built from white-painted timber.
Above the library, accessed by a simple ladder, is this sleeping platform – within easy reach of novels and more.
Books and art. If you can’t spare a whole room for a library, then a whole wall will do nicely. Especially when that wall has a high stud and is flooded with light from the neighbouring floor-to-ceiling window – though the Antipodean in me worries about the effect of the light on their spines.
This particularly appealing project by BW Architects involved converting an existing industrial space into a live-work studio. Down one side, there’s a high-ceiling studio filled with diffuse light. And down the other – running out to a courtyard harden – is the living area, complete with a floor-to-ceiling library that anchors the space and defines the area as somewhere for retreat and contemplation.
Particularly intriguing is the use of pink Post-It notes on the edges of the shelves, which suggest a level of pleasing library ordering that may verge on the obsessive.
Design poetry. Meanwhile, in Venice, the poet-professor owner of this ground-floor apartment shows you don’t necessarily need lots of custom cabinetry to show off the books you love – not to mention other paraphernalia including hats, mannequins and a collection of teapots.
TELL US
What do you think of these libraries? Tell us in the Comments.
MORE
Why Real Books Will Never Die
Stickybeak of the Week: A Colour-Coordinated Library Sets the Tone
11 Book Lovers and Where They Like to Read
TELL US
What do you think of these libraries? Tell us in the Comments.
MORE
Why Real Books Will Never Die
Stickybeak of the Week: A Colour-Coordinated Library Sets the Tone
11 Book Lovers and Where They Like to Read
The following book obsessives, though, have taken things further. These rooms celebrate and display books as the alluring objects they are. More than that, they provide their owners with daily contact with their books, and a place to reflect, work … and read.