Home Library Room Reveal | Spring 2021 ORC

Today is the day friends and I can’t believe we made it! We put so much hard work into this space for the last eight weeks and I’m beyond excited to share all the details of our home library. The transformation is dramatic but before I dive into all the details I want to give a huge thank you to Linda from Calling it Home for organizing the One Room Challenge and Better Homes and Gardens for being the media sponsor for each event. Because of this event, thousands of rooms have been transformed and four of them are in my house. I am a huge fan of the establishment and sincerely appreciate the community of friends I made.

If you want to know all the work we have put in each week you can find it here:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | You are here – Week 8!

Some of the products mentioned are sponsored but the opinions are 100% my own.

FORMAL LIVING ROOM BEFORE

Let’s take a look where we started from BEFORE we made any updates.

As I mentioned in Week 1 this room was not a place the family gravitated to. We barely ever used it even though it’s the biggest room in the house. It largely became a storage place for extra rugs and furniture pieces which is what motivated me to renovate it. Another motivation factor was my dream of having a home library. I always thought home library rooms look so elegant and chic and are the perfect place to get away from all technology and bustle of every-day-life. Who doesn’t want to put away the phone and grab a book in a library room?

LIBRARY ROOM AFTER

Are you ready for this reveal?

Wait for it…

Ta-DA!!!!

I put my heart and soul into this design.

This dramatic chic library is bold, fun and our family’s new happy place. For this project I had two goals, to go bold with color and to mix patterns .

Ok, let’s break down all the details of how we went to boring to fun and chic in eight weeks.

PAINT COLOR

Built-ins paint color

I usually would not dedicate a whole section of my reveal to a paint color but in this case I think it’s important because it really set the tone for the whole project. I know I told you guys that I found the perfect saturated navy paint color in Week 3 but I quickly realized after writing that blog post that I really was not after a navy color. I still believe the navy color I chose is perfect but I never fell in love with it because in my heart I wanted something brighter, bolder, and happier. So right before we began spray painting the built-ins with the Graco Paint Sprayer, I went with my gut and switched the color to Blueberry by Benjamin Moore.

It turned out the be the best decision I made in this project. As Uros was covering the built-ins with the paint sprayer (which by the way is fantastic and you can read all about it here) I immediately felt like we chose the right color. Even though the room is south facing, and gets warm sunlight most of the time, a lot of the navy colors would look black in the afternoon light and I wanted a color that would remain a true blue even during our Chicago gloomy days. This color definitely does that and why I feel this room is our happy place. No matter what the weather is like outside, this library room is never gloomy.

I still can’t believe WE BUILT THESE! More detail and how-to videos are saved on my Instagram stories labeled Library I and Library II. My husband Uros is the true star of making these built-ins a reality. None of this would have been possible without him. He truly makes my visions a reality.

Ceiling Paint Color

I have been itching to paint my ceiling color any color other than white. I was so happy when I was able to talk Uros into allowing me to paint the ceiling a soft peach color. I thought a white ceiling is too stark of a contrast for the built-ins and I wanted to play off the coral/peach curtains and chairs so I added Alabaster by Benjamin Moore to the ceiling. It really adds a touch of warmth that is extremely difficult to capture in photos but you can feel it when you are in the room.

I think the above image is the only image that captures it nicely.

LIBRARY ROOM WALLPAPER

Before I even know what color I was going to paint the whole room (I chose paint color last), I had picked out this Brewster Ruhlmann Cream Fan wallpaper for its geometric black and white print. I felt that a black and white pattern would be the thread that would tie this room to all the other rooms in the house because we had used some form of black and white in the other rooms. I also always loved the scallop pattern and was dying to add it somewhere and this room turned out to be the perfect opportunity.

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We installed wainscotting and crown molding which framed the wallpaper nicely and added that touch of bold color.

I’m always amazing at the impact wallpaper has on a space.

MIXING PATTERNS

I did not want the wallpaper to be the only source of pattern which is why I chose the Jacyln Smith Whimbrel in Coral Reef. It provides a beautiful warm complimentary color the Benjamin Moore Blueberry. The coral peach color really pops and provides that contrasting hue.

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Calico has lot of options to choose from and their staff was really helpful when I had any questions.

Every One Room Challenge I learn a new skill. I’m happy to report that in the image below, two of the pillows in the image are made by me.

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Ok, so maybe this is not a hard guess as there are two pillows that have the same fabric but I’m extremely proud as I always thought using a sewing machine would be difficult. Turns out, it isn’t and YouTube has a ton of videos on every aspect of sewing and I had the best teachers to show me, two grandmas. The fabric I used is called Vento Ribbon by Robert Allen. The other pillow pattern is called Deco Waves by Kravet.

I really love this angle of the library because it I was able to add five patterns in one little corner! Can you spot them all?

Hint: The biggest one is on the floor and was a fun way to add a floral pattern against all the geometric patterns in the room. The black/grey and white rug colors nicely tie the light fixtures and wallpaper together.

LIBRARY ROOM LIGHTING

Chandelier

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To bring a sense of formality and lux to the room I chose this Arielle Crystal Chandelier by Crystorama. The crystals add that formal elegance and balance out the bold and playful color and patterns throughout the room. We added the ceiling medallion to embellish the area around the chandelier and I painted a slightly more saturated peach than the ceiling to highlight the intricate leaf pattern.

If you follow me on Instagram then you know how much I love unique-looking sconces. These Sloan sconces also from Crystorama fit the bill. In a land where a lot of sconces look similar, I found my unicorn sconce. The black and gold metal with the tapered arm effortlessly adds visual interest and is the perfect match with the wallpaper. Thank you Crystorama for partnering up with us and believing in our vision. The chandelier and sconces are truly the jewels of the room. Also, having multiple sources of lighting in library room is the key to creating a nice cozy environment and I think we were able to do that with these.

I love visiting the library at night or on a gloomy day. The sconce and lamp lighting make it incredibly warm and welcoming.

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MODERN ART

We had a lot of traditional big paintings in this room before we began this renovations and after we completed this project these paintings felt like too much. For this project, we installed a lot of decorative molding (wainscotting, crown molding and all the trim on the built-ins) to give the room that visual interesting but because we added these traditional pieces to balance it out, modern art was a better fit.

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I fell in love with the abstract piece from FY! for it’s bold color. Fy! has a huge selection of art that you can choose to have delivered framed and ready to hang.

I also was attracted to the green ribbon abstract piece. It reminds me of free flow, or when the wind moves an object like a flag which is a contrast to my wallpaper uniform scallops.

Fy! has given me a 22% discount code for any art in their store to share with you. Click here to activate discount code.

VINTAGE FINDS

Books

I couldn’t have completed this library without several thrift pieces. Each pieces has a story to tell giving the library a soul. Take the books for example. A week before the reveal I was stressing out because I did not have nearly enough books to make the room even look like a library. In comes Facebook marketplace to save the day. I found a woman who bought a restaurant that had a travel theme. One part of the restaurant was decorated with books that she wanted to get rid of and I happily bought all 350 from her.

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French Chairs

The peach french chairs were thrift find from a year ago what inspired the whole color palette for this room.

Console Table, Cane Back Chair, and Convex Mirror

All three are vintage finds that I have collected in the last couple of years.

Burl Wood Coffee Table

One of my favorite thrift finds is the burl wood coffee table because I absolutely love the warm saturated color of burl wood and the telltale ring pattern. The person I bought this from shared all his secrets to buying storages and I shared all the reasons why burl wood is amazing. He still sold me the table.

Thank you for following along our formal living room turned into a home library transformation. The fun does not have to stop here. I will be posting video tours on Instagram so stop by and let me know what you think of the transformation.

Don’t forget to check out other featured and guest designers here.

Huge thank you to my sponsors for believing in our vision. Without your generosity this transformation would not be possible.

Sponsors:

Calico Corners | Crystorama | Graco | Fy! |

Library Room Source

Below you’ll find some links, and some of them are affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase after you click on one of them, I may get a commission at absolutely no extra cost to you, of course.

1. Crystorama Arielle Crystal Chandelier
2. Robert Allen Vento Ribbon Fabric
3. Regency Eagle Convex Mirror
4. Scallop Wallpaper by Brewster
5. Green Ribbon Art (22% discount code)
6. Mid-Century Modern Burl Wood Coffee Table (similar)
7. Cystorama Sloan Sconces
8. Whimbrel Jacyln Smith fabric in Coral Reef
9. Sarah Richardson Kravet Fabric Pillow
10. Honeycomb Labrinth Rug
11. Marble side table
12. Chesterfield Sofa
13. Red Abstract Art (22% discount code)
14. Black Console Table (similar)
15. Greek Bust