Ever since we decided to buy the house, we also decided that the living room would become our library. And so it was — the old entertainment center and the three upright bookshelf towers from our former bedroom did the job … sort of. We just needed more space, even after putting up long shelves near the ceiling on two walls for antique editions.
I estimate we have between 1200 and 2000 books, of every imaginable subject. That amount is roughly half what Jefferson donated to start the Library of Congress, and about 1/8 the total number of books currently available at the Cazenovia Library nearby.
Anyway, the plan became a wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor shelving plan on one wall, with a possible addition between the windows. Well, phase 1 of the Parkview Private Library (our former dining room) is complete. It took learning some new carpentry skills and using wood glue extensively for the first time. The design and construction was entirely of my own brain, and the wood came from an exchange of services with a client who owns a mill-work. It’s painted white to match the existing house’s woodwork and shelving in the foyer, not to mention keeping the room from shrinking and being potentially gloomy.
The baseboard pattern is being recreated, and along with crown coving at the ceiling, will make it seem as if it was built with the house. Holes and spaces will allow any sort of wiring behind the books necessary for any purpose, such as lamps, an aquarium, or most likely light-up decorations and Merry’s Christmas Dingle People.
In the end, I hope to catalog all out books on LibraryThing.Com. Merry doesn’t care for the idea, but I like the idea of sharing what is available to friends and others who might want to come in for tea and read an obscure title not otherwise available.