life {illustrated}: Reading Nook Reveal

Feb 21, 2013

Reading Nook Reveal

Two room reveals in one week- I'm feeling super productive! I've been dreaming of spring for a couple of weeks, and I realized that once it finally gets here, we probably won't make a whole lot of indoor progress. I thought I'd take advantage of being cooped up to finish off some of our smaller projects.

The reading nook is something that Marshall and I have both been really excited about. We enjoy reading and really wanted a place where we could go and not be distracted by phone calls, computers, housework, etc.

Our house has four bedrooms on the upper level, and we only use one. One of the bedrooms has a room off of it that is either meant to be a really huge closet or a small bedroom. Either way, it was the perfect space for our reading nook.

The room was pretty rough to start out.

The walls and ceiling were painted pale blue, but the ceiling had been patched up several times and not been repainted.

There were several wooden racks on the walls, but most of the hooks were broken off. Marshall removed all of the racks before we painted.

Before we started picking out colors and themes, we needed some furniture. We found the perfect chair and a bookshelf in the most unlikely of places for a whopping total of $17.

The chair smelled like smoke, and the cushions were in bad shape. After a little bit of work, though, it turned out nicely. And it's super comfy, too!

At first I thought I'd just recover the seat cushion and not bother with the skirt, but the chair really needed it to hide the rocker/swivel mechanism.

The bookshelf is the perfect size for the space. We had talked about painting it, but I really like the wood tones in the room. We can always change it later if we want to.

And what you've been waiting for...

We used up the rest of our Carriage Ride paint (leftover from the dining room, bedroom, and bathroom) on the walls and painted the ceiling white.

I love the color of the wood floors, but they were pretty beat up. We bought this rug for $20 at Aldi last year, and it fits the space well.

We couldn't forget about our nieces, nephews, and little friends!

I love this picture I picked up at Goodwill.

There is only one heating vent to the upstairs, and it's under our bedroom door. A cozy blanket is a must!

We're still looking for another chair to put in the reading nook. Maybe we'll find one that doesn't need any work...

This reveal wouldn't be complete without a side-by-side, so here you go: