The Library : Plans

Since we’ve owned the house, we always referred to the Library as “The Room Without Books.”

 

Of all of the uses of a Second Parlor, a Library seemed the most useful for us. Plus, it hearkens back a little to the days where Mayor Bryant used to use this as his office and meeting place for the Indiana Democrats he would entertain. And since we know there was a fireplace in the corner in this era, we’re going to put one back.

This room is all doors and windows, but it has enough space for shelves. Especially since the room is so tall! The area to the left of the window will all be bookshelves, up to the ceiling.

You can see the bookshelves drawn into my floorplan here!

Here’s the fireplace wall.

Remember – an artist, I am not. I am hoping to put a recess for books above the fireplace, and sconces to the side.

On the Dining Room Wall, we’ll have the television (because, yes, we live in the house!) to the left of the doorway, and a small bar (Doug likes bourbon) to the right.

Idea one (which might be too cluttered) calls for books, a painting, storage, and the TV.

Idea two takes the books away (and you can see the bar on the right – I’m hoping to find JUST the right piece of vintage furniture.

The ceiling is going to go gold – and then have some woodwork and lighting built in, with a large ceiling medallion!

We stayed in the space for a bit to come up with a plan for electrical. Definitely going to add more outlets and switches to handle all the new lighting we’re going to add!

These two are super helpful in coming up with the electrical plan!

The floor is a mess. Like, really, a mess. That’s a whole separate blog post to deal with that madness and sadness – but yeah. It’s a mess.

We’ve got some “new” old hardware. There is enough hardware on the pocket doors to just do one side. So we’re going to use what we have to do the inside of the doors in the library. The outside of the doors that face the other rooms, will have the “new” hardware.

The color scheme is going to be wild. Maybe bold is a better choice? But it’s going to be bold and fun and interesting….. I think.

This is one of the chairs we re-did at upholstery class. I LOVE THIS FABRIC. So it’s the palette for the room.

I sent a picture of the fabric to my fabulous friend Jen, and she made this AH-MAZING painting for me. It’s the first time I’ve commissioned a piece of art, and I LOVE IT. It’s super modern, but the rest of the room is going to be SO traditional, that this will pop.

And then, the wallpaper samples arrived!

Wallpaper is JUST going to go over the current border, and to the ceiling. Mostly, it’ll be over the windows and doors. Where I have marked here is actually going to be bookshelves…. but it gives you and idea of where the wallpaper is going. It’ll be like a super wide border, and the current textured anaglypta is going to stay, and be painted.

So many choices!

Again, SUPER HELPFUL.

I taped my favorites on the wall, and looked at them over a few days.

My favorite. WINNER WINNER!!!

I LOVE the colors in this so much. I’m going to pull the deep red in this out for the walls.

Perfection. We also have a piece of stained glass that matches the purple in this, and I hope to use that in the window in this room.

My friend Lauren, who I teach with, said, “I have a giant ceiling medallion without a home. Do you want it?”

Ummmm…. yes PLEASE!

There are some smooth tiles in a square in the center of the ceiling. THIS is how perfectly the medallion she gifted us is going to fit!!!! AHHHH!

This is a little intricate, but this picture shows a little of what I’m thinking for the wood on the ceiling – not deep beams, but definitely some texture.

I’ve been playing with designs (I made these before I got the ceiling medallion!), and haven’t chosen yet, but this is SO FUN to plan!

Doug gets to play with the math of it all – but whatever we come up with, I am so excited! I know this room is going to take a while, from both a time and money standpoint, but I am excited to get started!!!