Book Shelves Inspiration Board – To Die For!

You may have noticed that I have a bit of a book obsession 🙂 I love everything there is to do with books and I’ve actually designed the interior layout and covers of 28 books to date and even have my own novel that I self published back in 2011! I’ve known it my entire life: as long as I have my head in a book in some way or another (whether as an editor, designer, writer or reader) I will be happy. So, as you might imagine, I’ve got a lot of books and even after I gave over two bins full to our local library (that was a hard day…) I was still bursting out of all of my book storage areas. So, when I started work on redesigning My Office I went straight to Pinterest and started collecting all of the gorgeous book shelves that I could find! So here is my book shelves inspiration board!

I LOVE this picture I saw at Cedar Hill Farm House! Everything about this from the rug to the old desk to the built in book cases behind is just stunning. Is it exactly our style? No, we’re a bit more clean lines and boring then the amazing filigree and trim they used here but I am drooling! This picture made me REALLY start thinking “library” for my office!

We’ve all been to Magnolia Market’s website right? Well, if you haven’t I most definitely recommend it! This shelf incorporates so many of the elements that I love: old wood, industrial, and (maybe most importantly) I could totally build it! It looks awesome doesn’t it?! The only difference for us would be that we would be using REAL barn wood from our 100 year old barn 🙂

What can I say about this gorgeous picture from Covet Garden except, “Please take me there!” Oh my gosh though! I’m not even sure as to whether this is inside or outside and I just don’t care. (I’m sure it is indoors actually.) It feels like a garden and library all rolled in together somehow! But, at the same time, it looks comfortable and easy, the kind of place anyone could feel welcome. All that’s missing is a cat and a dog or two enjoying the sun light and maybe a little coffee center for the perfect cup on a rainy afternoon.

I saw these early on in my search for my book shelves inspiration board from the Wood Grain Cottage and I’m so glad I did! I kept going back to them and thinking how much I loved that you really couldn’t see ANY of the hardware and the wood was just rustic enough to be interesting! Go check out their link, they give a complete tutorial of how they made these in their Dining room and the results are just stunning!

At Vintage Revivals I saw these book shelves and couldn’t believe how they turned normal shelf hardware literally on its head! I was enamored with these shelves for quite awhile! When you think about it, this type of shelf makes perfect sense for book shelves because the book ends are literally built right in! No more domino effect when all of your books go crashing off the end of the shelf 😉 I also love that because they’re showing off the hardware so completely that it looks like it belongs and adds a certain industrial feel to the entire wall. You gotta go check out this office they did with these shelves, the entire room is absolutely gorgeous. This picture was literally the first one I put on my book shelves inspiration board!

And here’s what we did here at Grandmas House DIY in my office for all of my books! The link will take you to the tutorial on how to make your own, they were SO easy. I think you can see all of the inspiration every time you walk in there now (check the whole office reveal out HERE), such gorgeous projects, gosh what did we EVER do before Pinterest? lol. All I’m missing are a couple of trees like they had in that gorgeous library reading room from Covet Garden in the second picture I posted. (Who am I kidding? I’m not very good at keeping plants alive…) Best of all you can see I now actually have more room then I need so that means I can buy more books!