One of our readers emailed us this week, asking us about reading nooks. She says:

My daughter’s 2.5, and I’m wanting to create a cosy reading nook in her room.  At the moment we read on her bed a lot but I’d like to differentiate between our massive-daily-reading-jags and reading-at-bedtime. I’m contemplating a kind of storage bench/toybox with covered cushions for the top; or a bean bag; or floor cushions; or armchair for that corner, but wondered if you might have any resources or suggestions about how to go about getting it all together?

Needless to say, we were inspired… Over the years, we’ve seen so many GORGEOUS book nooks out there. So here’s a collection of ideas we’ve seen…

Playrooms and bedrooms are obvious spots for book nooks, but hallways can also be a great way to make the most of otherwise blank walls. This book display with benchseat is in a hallway,in between children’s bedrooms. Found at the mecca of children’s interior design, Ohdeedoh.

This one also looks like a hallway space, eeked out between a doorway and a window. You can see more of the beautiful children’s spaces in this house on Ish and Chi.

As I collected my list I realised that there a couple of things that distinguish a really inviting book corner – making the most of the shape and space of the corner you are using, using colour to unite the elements, and having a way to display the books face out.

If you are lucky enough to have spacious wardrobes that you can spare, you could put your reading corner inside! These two gorgeous spaces have been made from a wardrobe closet space:

4-year-old Max’s bedroom closet has space for a reading bench and photoboard, more details in the feature on Ohdeedoh.

Little Lulu has this little space in her closet – you must read this post on Wondertime to find out how Lulu’s dream of running her own library has been made a reality by her mum – complete with old-fashioned index cards that can be stamped by Lulu as she checks out library loans! There are more images on Ohdeedoh.

Soulemama shows how you can create a reading space even when you don’t have a lot of space, and without new fittings or furniture. This book nook at the top of her stairs uses cushions, a throw, a quilt and a small wooden tub to create a unified space that’s very inviting to curl up in.

Similarly, this space is a borrowed corner of a living room, but has been made into its own distinct vignette’ through placement of wall art and the selected colour palette. For more photos, see Ohdeedoh.

Minigaga featured this creative corner from The Happy Home blog – so simple and effective – and best of all seems completely achievable – it’s inspired me to make some of these a purchase on my next visit to Ikea.

Finally, if money is no object, this concept makes the nook a part of the bookshelf. More background on the idea and the designer found in this article in the New York Times.

Have you seen any other book nooks you love? We’d love to hear about them!

Spring has really arrived in Melbourne today and Ned and I have had a lovely day. It makes me happy and so does reading lots of lovely blogs this week talking about children’s books.

Jennifer from Minor Details, one of my very favourite blogs has today posted about one of her latest projects which is a room for Cookie mag using inspiration from The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers – one of the bestest picture books EVER. I can’t wait to see what she has created.  

Also check out these other wonderful blogs talking about their love of Irishman (he was born in Western Australia though) Oliver Jeffers work; here, and here and check out the handsome man himself here. His website is also very special.

Jeffers has a new book called The Great Paper Caper due this November in Australia, that will be on the Christmas list. I love the funny lumber jack bear on the jacket.

I love illustration and was very excited to find a blog called Artista, Irisz is an illustrator from Hungary who’s art is just pure joy.

Found via the stylish Tutus and Turtles also this week was a fabulous Thing One and Thing Two themed baby shower for a mother having twins. See pictures at Stem and Hostess with the Mostess.

And finally swissmiss wrote about gorgeous new bookshelves from Dwell Studio - love them.

Last week Chelsea left a lovely comment about a photo of Ned and his bookshelves. She asked to see some long shots of the shelves which by the way are from Ikea (Expedit). We have one large one and a small one in Ned’s room and another large in our living room, all in white. Because we live in a unit we don’t have a lot of room but I have found these shelves really handy for ALL our books (although I still have boxes full in the garage) and also great because they are really deep so you can also display your trinkets.

Please excuse the photography, here are some shots from Ned’s room…

Charlie, sans Lola who is visiting a friend…

Horton Hears a Who…

So many books, so little time…

I like to display some favorite books standing so they are more like an artwork…

One of the other great things about these shelves is that there is plenty of room to display things on top…

Ned also has books on the shelves in our living room, it’s where we keep the up to the minute favorites and Ned loves sorting through them everyday. That’s when they end up like this…

Ned’s dad just commented tonight after he had shelved everything that Ned loves to look at them all neatly lined up and then he systematically chooses the ones he wants off again.

If you want to see a really cool use of the Expedit have a look at this post on Ohdeedoh and then you can follow the links to Super*Junk’s Flickr Stream.

Further to Katie’s post on the Moomin fabric which is divine, I have to share my favorite fabric which I bought off ebay when Ned was born. It is Little Prince fabric but the Japanese Little Prince not the French one! I didn’t even know there was a Japanese version until I saw this fabric and fell in love with it. I have stretched it over an artist’s canvas and it hangs over Ned’s cot.

I have searched for more but never found it. Maybe someone out there knows where to get more?

And here is a shot of Ned, the little bookworm, in his room perusing his bookshelf while his dad took photos of the fabric for the blog.

I guess of all the countries I’ve travelled, Japan would be one of the hardest I’ve experienced to access the local book culture. ‘Cos while there are plenty of bookshops, my lack of familiarity with the Japanese language made it very difficult for me to get a sense of the ‘vibe’ of publishing there.
Nevertheless, as part of my general impression about how well kids are looked after in public spaces in Japan, I got a sense of the high priority kids’ books are given. Several places we visited surprised me by including a library of kids’ books, often housed in funky bookshelves.

One day, for example, we found ourselves in a fairly ‘down-market’ (for Japan) suburban shopping centre. (We were looking for a cheap stroller…) On the top floor was a food court and a sort of games parlour, which had as part of it a preschooler play centre. It cost about 800 yen ($8) to get in, which gave your toddler about half an hour of free play and three rides. Anyway… as part of this fairly run-of-the-mill games-parlour/play-centre thing, there was a gorgeous set of shelves, packed full of beautiful, pristine picture books.

Who woulda thunk it? In the context of all that consumerism and hub-bub, it was so nice to think of a space where parents and kids could pick up a book and read together. Pretty jolly nice kids’ bookshelves too!

And Rowan? Yeah, he had a ball…

Kidzania, subject of my previous post, also had some great children’s bookshelves and other storage in their kindergarten.

But probably my favourite example of a place that gives kids’ books their rightful priority was the Kyoto International Manga Museum. This is a new museum, which is a major centre for the study and appreciation of manga (Japanese comics). The Kyoto International Manga Museum is housed in a converted elementary school, and retains a lot of the charm of the old building and grounds. Approximately 300,000 manga volumes are held in the museum, and can be freely read by visitors, which means the halls and grounds are scattered with people intently reading. (It also has manga drawing demonstrations and exhibition of the history and culture of manga creators. There was even a workshop where kids could learn how to animate a short story using 3D objects.)

And for younger visitors, there is a dedicated children’s library. At the door of the library, there is a sign which reads:
“Children younger than elementary school with their parents only.”
I just love the way this is phrased. How important does it make a child feel? And I don’t think I’ve ever felt more welcome and accepted for the sole reason of having a small child in my days as a mum!
The room opened to a welcoming space of clean design. Tall square-shaped bookshelves contained hundreds and hundreds of picture books, many of them favourites of ours at WeHeartBooks: Olivia, Hungry Caterpillar, Happy Lion, and lots more. Cleverly conceived surfaces – including a sloped reading pit, steps, couches and a large cubby house space – allowed a variety of inviting spaces for children to read. And lots of kids and their parents relaxing and enjoying books together. Just the way you want a kids’ library to be.

Thanks to the Kyoto International Manga Museum for the interior shot of the children’s library.

The April edition of Cookie Magazine have done a design feature on bookshelves, One For The Books, perfect shelving units for your child’s tomes and trinkets.

This one was my favorite. See the wallpaper behind, which is pages from the Olivia books by Ian Falconer. What a great idea, although it might be hard getting your head around pulling a book apart.

I wrote a post at Christmas time about Olivia. If you like the Eloise books you will love Olivia, the funkiest, feistiest pig in literature.

If you want something really special, have a look at Teatro Olivia, a play set in which you have six Olivia paper dolls to create your own ballets and theatre. Falconer, whose background is set design, has created a masterpiece with Teatro, stimulating creativity and passion for the arts in his audience.

Katie did a post recently about Eric Carle fabric and there is also Olivia fabric available, I found it here. It’s very gorgeous and it’s about time I bought some.

The very cute toy on the shelf in the picture from Cookie Magazine is made by Mizutamago, a great blog I read regularly.

Seen via Ohdeedoh (via Geekdad) this amazing igloo of bookshelves that incredibly contains a bed, I’m sure you would have sweet dreams sleeping in here. Created by Japanese architects Point . There are more fantastic photos on their website.