Decorating the "Library"

I don't normally write about home decorating, but today I'm feeling inspired. A few weeks ago I read a post by Peppermints and Pixie Dust where she talked about her desk at home and her desk at school and how the two environments had very different feels, and affected her state of mind differently too. It made me think of my home office and what kind of mood I'd like it to project.

The second bit of inspiration hit me during a visit to the Denver Art Museum. I walked by a large cupboard filled with globes, clocks, and other antiquities. It was placed outside the entrance to one of the floors, a mix between an art piece and museum decor. I wish I had taken a picture because I was so drawn to it, probably because I love travel, books, and antiques.

I mulled it over for the next week or two, and I decided I wanted my home office to have the feel of an old-fashioned library, but I wanted to update that with modern details, especially the wall hangings.

The third and final instigator was a trip to Pottery Barn. This globe immediately caught my eye, for the reasons I just mentioned. Even though I went in with the intention of buying a candle holder, I left with a candle holder and a globe.

I was also intrigued by these gold-colored office supplies. They are a little over-the-top, but they could also add a lot of panache to an otherwise ordinary room. I haven't bought them yet.

This is the part where you get to see how I'm clumsily putting it all together. We inherited this big gray file cabinet. It's not pretty, but it's very useful, and for lack of a better place, I put the globe right on top of it. Something must be working despite my clumsy efforts because I referred to the office as the "library" the other day.

I'd already bought a little gray couch from Ikea for the room and the navy blue curtains and black curtain rods from Target, as well as an oak desk to match the oak bookcases. Next on my list is to organize the books. My friend Kayla has done it by color, which I think looks really nice. I'll still keep fiction on the left and nonfiction on the right. I'm also thinking about leaving one shelf free of books and filling it up with my own little artifacts.

What design projects have you been working on? Do you have any suggestions for my file cabinet or book shelves, or any ideas for creating my library look?

The Battle of the Bookworms

The fine folks over at Good give us a visual account of this war.  Bess broke it down for us awhile back too (E-books or "Real" books?).  It feels like a battle good and evil, where evil is winning.  I'm going to buy a physical copy of our next selection from the Tattered Cover.

E-Books or "Real" Books?

I have a confession to make: I possess not one but two different electronic reading devices. And if I get an iPhone like I'm planning to, it'll jump up to three. I should qualify that by saying the Kindle I use belongs to my company. I work at a little publishing company, and as we were exploring the idea of creating e-books, we purchased a Kindle. Our enthusiasm waned when we learned what percentage of sales Amazon offered publishers (but that's another story), so now I'm the only one who uses it. Don't tell my boss, but it's been at my house for two months now.


I like the Kindle because it's as easy to read as a book, and it's lighter than most paperbacks. It's great for traveling because you only need to bring one device and you can have as many books at your disposal as you want. Plus no one has any idea what you're reading, and I like to dip into some really cheesy YA. I just wish I didn't need to have a whole device for only one thing. That doesn't make much sense when you think about all the physical books it can replace, so maybe I've gotten spoiled with multi-tasking electronics. Another downside: I want to be able to buy e-books from any vendor and view them on my device, so I hate that the Kindle will only allow you to read books from Amazon. Those damn corporate monsters!


My other e-reader is my iPad. I happened to be in the market for a netbook when Apple introduced the iPad. It had most of the items on my wish list: a word-processing system (in the form of a Pages app); lightweight; Internet connectivity; and e-reading capabilities. The items it didn't have, well, I decided I could live without them. If any technology gurus are reading this, I also wanted the ability to save my documents to some kind of hard drive and an e-reader that could switch from backlit to e-ink technology (which is easier on the eyes, literally). Plus I wanted a Web-cam, but of course the iPad2 has that. (Should've waited for version 2!) While I like my iPad, I also wish it was a little lighter, and again I hate reading on a backlit screen, especially after staring at the computer all day.


I should be happy with either the Kindle or the iPad, but as you can see, each has its pluses and minuses. So what about physical books? I still prefer them when the subject matter requires a lot of photos and illustrations, when the book is a little work of art in and of itself, and when it promises to be a favorite. Yes, I still want to feel like I own my favorite books.

In my world, there's room for books of all different varieties of books in my life?

What about you? Are you team real-book or team e-book?