I went to the library today. You know, one of those buildings ~ real, not virtual ~ where stack after stack of glorious books can be found. Real books, not ebooks. Truth is, I go to the library most every day. But the library I usually go to is my workplace. I love my job. I'm surrounded by amazing books, children and the staff and teachers of the best elementary school in the world! I am an elementary school librarian ~ my library is full of children's books. But, there are those days, when I long to go to the library just for me. And, today, I did just that.
Here's a picture of the great book I checked out today. After reading only two pages, I'm sure I'll be up late tonight scouring the pages looking for new ideas to give wonderfully old reclaimed materials new life!
Now that you know how much I love libraries, I have to tell you what one of my favorite rooms in my house is. It's my library, or course. As a Navy family, we move often. With each new house, comes a new library. In some houses it is its own special room, just like we have now. But in other houses, sometimes it consists of a special corner in a room that serves multiple purposes ~ or a combination of shelves in several rooms spread throughout the house. But, regardless of how we store our thousand + books, wherever they dwell is always one of my favorite spots in the house.
I took a picture tonight (as you can tell from the quality, I can't wait to get a new camera!) of one of our library walls. We have so many shelves and so many books. We're currently living in a rental so we're limited to white walls as backdrops for most of our favorite pieces. This makes me want to add as much character to all our pieces as I can. Most of the valuable real estate in this shelving unit is taken up by books, but you will be able to see I've chosen two sections to house some of our vintage family items. They have a prominent home and we see them every day.
The pictures above show those special things I mentioned. (I edited one in Picasa 3 giving it a vintage look, just for fun:) Under the dome I have placed small pocket bibles from my grandfathers and great-grandfathers. I also have sermon notes from my step-father's many beautiful sermons he delivered from his pulpit. There's also several old books of poetry from my great-grandfather and a pair of antique glasses. To add a bit of color to the shelves, I chose our hand blown glass vase from Australia. I love the unexpected bit of color. And, lastly, is the canvas transfer photo I made of my aunt's husband during WWII. He never made it back from the war, but I still feel like we've known him forever because of all the wonderful stories and pictures my aunt shares with us. You can read more about them in my blog post here.
I'd love to hear about your own libraries...or better yet, see pictures. Please let me know your storage secrets and design ideas for that special room in your house.
Have a great day,
~ Alison
