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School room: what you can't do without!
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Oh, and I just found this list of private libraries that I hadn’t seen before.
http://www.flavorwire.com/261320/20-beautiful-private-and-personal-libraries?all=1
crazy4boys,
For my extra boards, I just bought more of the same shelf supports that the bookcases already had. The hardward store has many varieties and sizes. Someday I plan to get around to staining the shelves to match, but when I was organizing I didn’t want to wait, so they are still raw. Sigh. My surrounding tend to be high on function, but lower on style. It’s something I want to work on. But with so many books to read, who has time?
Of course, I’m just an amateur compared to Bookworm! Maybe by the time my kids (still only 6, 4, and 2) start graduating, I’ll have 30+ bookcases, too! Most of the rest of the furniture would have to go, but one must have priorities, right?
Joanne
Crazy4boys,
I have books stacked normally, vertically, on my shelves. I take care of the “wasted space” problem by then stacking books horizontally ON TOP OF the vertically stacked books. Usually right up to the next shelf. THEN on the front of the shelf I can usually fit in ANOTHER SET of vertically or horizontally stacked books. I try to remember what is hidden behind. 🙂 Then on many of my shelves, there are books partway poked in to open spaces and hanging out of the shelves a little. If you try to squeeze between the shelves and the furniture you might knock a couple off. LOL We have books in every upstairs room in our house excepting the bathrooms (too damp, and I’ve seen silverfish in there.) I’ve considered completely lining our long, narrow hallway but dh might have to go through sideways and so he objects. We eat in our kitchen to make room for the 14 bookcases in the dining room. I go sit in there when I’m stressed as I find sitting in the midst of books very comforting.
I don’t think there’s a 12 step program, and anyway, who wants to stop??? What if we miss a book or something?
Hey, some of those other pictures are JUST what I need–I don’t need a bookROOM, I need a bookCATHEDRAL. LOL
Yup, I’m loving that Costa Rica library picture that Treasure House linked to. Bookworm, I think you need the Skywalker Ranch one. 🙂
Joanne, you really don’t need much furniture, we’ve found, other than one couch seat for everyone and one bed per person or couple. Those, of course, being what you need to READ. Everything else is disposable.
Simple home, I think you’re right, that’s exactly what I need. Now, where to find a dome lined with bookshelves and topped with stained glass windows? We’ll have to knock the garage down . . . LOL
Ok, besides the obvious, Built in bookshelves and a homeschooling room for just my homeschooling stuff + kids and crafts, My dream “must have” would be a laminator. My second “must have” would be a new printer with a self inking system and of course a newer computer, because mine has it’s days numbered. Then the kindle 3G, or maybe a binding machine. Not sure which one I want over the other. Or maybe I just want an Ipad. (Bad Me!) Tehe he….:)
Then while I am dreaming I might as well have DSL. Because I would like to spend less time waiting for things to upload on my dial-up. Oh, and the slow computer. 🙂 Having a wonderful dream that you might have to pinch me out of reality right now…. I would be content with just those things.. 🙂
until I dream again……….. 🙂
Oh , I also forgot… I double book my shelves like bookworm. 🙂 I also put shoeboxes in the kids rooms on their shelf. This way they can use the space in front of the books without all of the books falling over. 🙂 Is that clear or mud? Blessings
Jan Bloom, author of Who Shall We Then Read?, did a workshop for me once and one session was how to build strong, sturdy, functional and inexpensive shelves with no wasted space. They weren’t beauties, but we’re very functional. They could be pretty depending on the wood chosen and staining and such. Attendees got the plans. I’m not sure, but you might check her website for info. My favorite past was how shallow they were. Perfect for hallways especially.
@Bookworm – I keep our current school year books on shelves in the schoolroom. Each kid has a shelf, family a shelf and a couple of shelves are the up and comers. All other books are on bookshelves that are accessible to whomever. Hubby and I would not be able to live with double stacked books. We’d both go nuts. I would love, however to come borrow some sometime! 😉
Christie
ETA – my school style roll up map came from eBay brand new in a box for $99. I looked for years til I found a current one. They retail for something like $600, so I did a happy dance when I snagged it. I LOVE how it’s huge , but rolls out of the way.
Okay, I’m just now finding a moment to read this entire thread and respond. We school in our house (no separate room for school stuff) so things are in every room, with the main grouping being in the dining room. I have a very very big round table (seats 10 comfortably) right in the middle of that room with shelves, homemade whiteboards, and more shelves around the walls. Just through one archway is a small room with a ‘school desk’, the door to the downstairs bathroom, and three windows for birdwatching. Through an archway on the opposite side of the dining room is our living room with the big sectional couch for reading on.
Things I can’t live without right now:
My big table so all the kids can be sitting together and I can rotate around helping those who need me.
The dry erase boards.
The bathroom within 7 feet of the table – saves my life when I’m potty training someone or when a child has to use the bathroom right.now.or.they’ll.die. snort!
Comfortable places to snuggle up and read – the couch, beds, etc.
Our Kindles – love having a library at our fingertips!
Booster seats with seatbelts at the table for my younger ones who need the reminder to sit and play during table time – keeps them from tearing apart the house while I’m busy and gives them a great height for joining in the fun.
This is a fun thread! We have a very small home and budget. We do school mostly in the living room on a comfy couch, or games on the floor, crafts at the dining table…. There is one built in bookshelf by the couch, which we keep library books and pictures on and the current art study on an easel. Basket of our books and one more in the kids room (I rotate out about 15 books every couple months from our little stash). I have a globe which is nice to look at and doesn’t take up wall space. In the dining room, they have a shelf for art supplies and handicraft tool, and a little cubbie with cloth drawers for “rainy day” makeshift supplies and collectibles to tinker with. And under the island counter there is another cheap tiny bookshelf with plant lights (for seedlings in the srping) but the rest of the year is used for our nature shelf: guides, binoculars, treasures, artwork, nature notebooks. This seems to work for us well. Now to get it into the budget to start building our home library up! At least now and then.
this is HYSTERICAL!!! I must agree…more book shelves! more craft space, more baskets, nature space, another couch…
i plan to show this thread to my DH so he knows i’m not the only book addict out there. we’ve moved 3 times in the last two years. and on the last move, even after weeding out some books, I wound up with something like 37 boxes of books. the people who helped us move just kept saying: “ANOTHER box of books?”
Oh, I would love to make my own super sturdy space efficient bookshelves. I’ll have to start checking for plans. I am not crafty nor am I a builder but books will make me do crazy things.
On a design note, I would NOT build heat vents on the floor or baseboards. It is SO frustrating to try to put furniture of any sort against a wall with those dang things sticking out several inches and taking about a foot of wall space. ARGH!!!! You either end up blocking the heat or your bookcases are sort of stuck in limbo land and easily pushed over.
In looking over some of the pictures posted of private and public libraries, I’d never considered placing the furniture in the middle of the room with bookcases along all the walls. You’d need a bit of walk space between the bookcases and furniture so this would work best in a larger room….but it’s now on my “design” list for when (if) I get to build my dream home. And I might be able to make it work in a room or two around here now.
As far as seating, we have 2 couches in our living room instead of a couch and loveseat. We also have a HUGE circular couch/chair which seats me plus all 4 boys or various configurations of people. We needed lots of space for people to sit so went a little non-traditional. Most houses we’ve lived in would not fit a sectional but I sure drool over them!
What a fun thread!
* The Library is the thing I couldn’t do without.
* Dryerase pens and Sheet protectors to reuse the Kumon Book Worksheets. My son LOVES the mazes and could do them over and over. Sooo I took all our Kumon books to Kinkos to have the binding cut off and the pages 3-hole punched. Now I can easily store them in a binder and use them again and again!
* Foam Boards. We’re short on wall space for display, so I have those large foam boards (poster sized you can get at Target/Walmart). I hung two Command Hooks on my wall and put two binder clips on the top of my foam boards. The boards hang from the clips and I have double sided displays to use. I put our Calendar and Bible on one. Country Study and Art on an other. Easy to remove when we have company. Easy to store and change.
I have been laughing my butt off this morning – what a great thread!
Thank you mom2my2 – I use those foam boards too and never thought of using binder clips to hang them by (I hole punched them) or that I could use BOTH sides. AWESOME! You just made my day! Thank you!
I would love a house with a room that was just wall to ceiling shelves, with ladders to get to the top, and filled with all my books. A lot of my books are stored in bins because I don’t have room for them. I would also like a house next door to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, one of my favorite places in the world to research and study. I used it periodically when we had extra courses in history at the uni there. It is the most magnificent place, google images of it and you will see what I mean.
So my own library room in a house next door to the Bodleian Library would be heaven to me. Could never happen but a nice dream.
By the way if you are ever in England, visit Oxford it is a wonderful place.
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