Ignore the disarray, I’m in the process of taking everything out, consolidating from a couple other rooms, sorting by topic, and putting things back (recent widower trying to decide what to keep and what to let go).

When we bought our home 20ish years ago, the lower level was bare walls with the foundation about waist-high forming a ledge. The previous owner fancied himself a craftsman and made so horrible shelves out of trash wood on the ledge (to this day I’m still ripping his stupid projects out of the house). We hired a carpenter to create custom furniture-quality ledge-to-ceiling bookshelves wrapped around 3 windows with multiple lighting features. All the shelves can be repositioned and I have a couple spares available. Very solid materials, after 2 decades none of the shelves are sagging. There are multiple secret panels concealing hidden compartments. Matching hardwood floor. This was originally my home office with an ornate desk, but after 16 years working from home I returned to a corporate office building and we turned it into a reading room with comfy chairs. COVID happened and our son moved back in and this became his bedroom (for far too long). After he moved out, it became my wife’s hospice bedroom. And now … I’m figuring out what I want it to look like.

Honestly, the only reason I’m staying in the home is these bookshelves are as beautiful to me as the day my wife & I first saw the carpenter’s finished work. So the plan is to make this room as beautiful & cozy as possible, a perfect hobbit-hole 😉

My home library