Usually, there is nothing I like better than some built-in bookshelves. Usually. These I hate. I hate that they wrap around that tight, awkward corner. I hate that they go right up to the window casing. And I really, really hate all of those ridiculous little lamps hanging off every available space.
On the other hand, I quite like that chair.
Whereas I like the shelves, but loathe the TV set stuck in among them.
I don’t mind the shelves, even in the tight corner, but I agree with you about the lamps and Susan (above) about the TV. I’m also puzzled by the idea of leaning pictures up against things on the floor, rather than hanging them (granted there isn’t a wall to hang them on here) – I would always be stumbling over them & knocking them down, they’d get dust & cat fur on them (at least in my apartment), and I don’t think they can be properly appreciated at that level.
I agree! Is that a rolled carpet on the floor acting as a room divider? The room is “awkward” for my tastes; that chair is a classic. Looks like an Eames or an Eames look-a-like.
Way too cluttered. And get rid of that TV!
Agree – I like the chair! I hope the people who created these libraries never see our judgemental comments!
Hmmm, I’m seeing clever use of an awkward space. (My house has weird angles in some of the rooms as well, so pinchy corners that can be attractively used for book storage – I say “Do it!”)
Though those shelves should really go right up to the ceiling – did anyone notice the dust-catching potential of that gap between shelf top & ceiling? (Another thing I have had personal experience with, in a previous dwelling. I had kitchen cupboards like that, with about a six-inch gap between cupboard top & ceiling. I had a great big huge tabby cat – my long-since dearly departed Max – who eyed up that gap one day and envisioned cat heaven. He would jump from the floor to the gap in a long fluid sequence that involved touching the countertop for a microsecond before disappearing into the gap. He’d then turn around and lie there like cougar in a long, narrow cave, elegantly crossing his paws and resting his chin on them as he sequentially napped and surveyed his kingdom. I’ve always wished I had a photo, but that was in a no-camera gap in my life. The best bit was when someone would visit and not realize that Max was in his cavern. Always he would decide to get up close & personal, and he’d slither out and leap to the floor in one smooth jump, ending with a mighty thump – he weighed, at one point, 22 pounds, and not a bit of it was fat. Heart-stopping for the humans catching that with the corner of their eyes! 🙂 By the way, when we moved out, there was not one scratch on that set of cupboards anywhere from Max’s shenanigans. But there was sure a lot of dust & cat hair up in the pinch! Which I labouriously cleaned out, all good tenant-like.)
Digression over. 😉
They could lose the rug, and the lights are pretty ugly. I’d like a proper reading light behind the chair, and a small table to hold book-and-beverage-and-snack. I’m guessing the pictures on the floor are a room stylist’s idea, but if not, hang ’em or put ’em in storage.
I’m partial to a wingback airmchair & footstool, or a good old-fashioned recliner. I currently have a back-of-the-chair cat who would hate the ungenerous proportions and slick surface of that stylish duo.
Would be interesting to see the rest of that room layout. From the TV position, I’m assuming more seating over by the window.
Happy Saturday, Claire & everyone!
Sorry, hate the chair too!
Oh, boy, the pictures blocking the books and the TV stuck into the middle of them where it’ll get all the glare from the window. And the chair looks to me like something Hannibal Lector would use! I’m partial to molding and woodwork, though, so I like that.
The TV and the lamps were the first things I noticed that are just “wrong.” I’m with leavesandpages on the dust trap above. There’s just something “off” – it’s an oddly shaped room, but I wonder if the photo exaggerates the oddity? It almost looks like an image in a funhouse mirror — sort of distended…
Not a keeper! 🙂
I agree that the TV and the lamps are not quite right, but I like the shelves. And I like the three blue-ish pictures on the floor.
I kind of like the shelves. As others have said, it’s a good use of an awkward space. But I’m not crazy about the color, and I think I’d want the to go to the ceiling. The gap of white just looks weird. And I’m with Lisa about those pictures. I and my cat would keep them knocked over. Not wild about the lamps either–something to whack my head on.
Oddly enough, I don’t mind the TV, but it seems strange to me that all the seating is facing away from it. I like not having all the chairs facing the TV, but unless there’s another sofa that isn’t in the picture, I can’t figure out where one would sit to watch the TV. (And if there is a sofa we can’t see, it looks like it would have to be placed at an odd angle to to the sofa we can see if you were going to sit on it to watch TV.)
That room is definitely odd! The colors just don’t go. Are the walls some kind of grey? Grey + grey-green = gross, IMHO. It almost looks like they could have fit another (small) shelf at the bottom of the bookshelves. Waste of space! 😉
I have a room that shape in my house and when I saw this picture I thought “NOW I know what I can do with it!”. I have no problem with the shelves, the gap at the top (I’ve done it in another room so if I absolutely have to I can put yet another row of books up there) but like so many others do not like the TV or lamps. Get can lights in the ceiling to wash the shelves for night lighting! As for the chair, I would have liked it decades ago, bit since I’m nearly 70 all I see is ‘hard to get out of’.
I’ve just posted a “library lust” picture, crediting you with the idea, if you want to come see it: http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2013/02/library-lust-which-would-you-pick.html