Here’s something you may not know about me. I started out in the interior design program at the university I graduated from. Which is funny because at the time of going through those classes before changing my major, our home was completely beige! Literally, everything. We painted our walls beige, our furniture was all beige, our floor was beige carpet. Blah! That was over 11 years ago, and thankfully nothing is beige in our new home. π
I used to be scared of using color. I didn’t know how to use it “correctly”. Then I realized, who cares if I don’t use it the correct way! If I like something, and it brings joy and allows me to really enjoy the space I am in then that’s all that matters.Β I love decorating with my own style and sense of color. And thankfully I have a husband who is super laid back and gives me total creative freedom in our home. He’s always said, “you’re the one who is there the most, do whatever you want!”
Oh bless him.
And y’all. That is what our new library is all about. Color, color everywhere and JOY! I am so excited to share our sweet, bright, and, joyful library!
This set of books is where it all started. One day Snow and I are were at The Woodlands Mall and went into Barnes and Noble. These books stopped me in my tracks. They were in the front, and all the colors drew me in immediately. I snapped a picture and sent it to K. I said, “Is it bad that I want to buy these books just because of the colors, not because they’re books?!” He thought it sounded a bit right! π
This room was formerly our screened in back porch. It’s crazy to look back at pictures of what it was. It was dusty and dirty and not utilized because being in Texas it was far too hot for the majority of the year to spend any time in. But, then we had an idea.
What if we turned it into another room? Our sweet farmhouse has only 2 legit bedrooms, but also a sun room that could easily be a third bedroom. So we wanted another space that essentially was a playroom, but husband isn’t a fan of the word “playroom” so we settled on calling it a library. We also wanted reading to be big part of our family, and for our daughter to love to read so we knew we wanted lots of bookshelves to house lots of books.
Another fun fact. Neither Kason nor I had any former building experience in the sense of framing, installing windows, sheet rock, etc. We did update our old home with new wood flooring and tiling, but this was our first actual “building” project. It was so fun to work on this together as a family.
And we came up with a fun inside joke/tag line: “When in doubt, shim and trim!” Meaning if something isn’t quite right you can always shim and then cover it up with trim! π
He learned everything step by step off Youtube! What?! Then we worked together and he taught me as we worked on various projects! We worked on his days off, we worked after Snow’s bedtime, I painted while she was in rest time while Kason was at work. Then it finally came together, and it might be my favorite room in the house! It’s bright and colorful and full of joy!
It’s right off of our main living space, the clear glass door used to the back door that went to the screened back porch. And on the wall with Snow’s artwork there were two windows that our master bathroom and laundry room looked out onto the back porch from. So we repurposed those windows and the backdoor.
This room is such a fun space for us. It seriously makes me so happy to look into, walk into, lay on the daybed and read in, play with Snow in. All of it. On the opposite side of the room is the biggest bookshelf ever! When I told K that I wanted it to go from the wall to the door, I wasn’t expecting to actually be so huge! I just wanted to use all the space to have enough storage for all things “play” to be neatly tucked into the colorful bins. I’m used to the size now, but when we first put it up on the wall after we built it, I was like umm…
But it does hold lots of fun stuff!
So here she is! Our new library that we built together as a family. The inside of the walls have scriptures. Our blood, sweat, and laughter went into creating this space for our family to enjoy.
PS. See that Charlotte’s Web book in the background? That was Kason’s when he was a kid! We’re almost through reading it for the second time together. I like to jokingly tell Snow to be careful with is because it’s an “old” book! π
Until next time, Tamara
Your finished room is beautiful. I love the colors too.