Studio library makeover

When my husband and I built our home ten years ago, a huge inspiration for us was my grandparent’s home in Germany.  My grandfather was an architect and when their home was bombed during World War II, he designed and rebuilt their home, a home my aunt and uncle still live in today.  I spent a lot of my childhood in that home and I loved everything about it: the creaky stairs lined with Persian rugs, the old-fashioned pull chain toilets, the secret rooms and hallways, and especially the enclosed library lined with leather bound books.  I spent many hours in my grandfather’s library, looking at books or taking a nap on the green daybed.  To this day, the smell of old books reminds me of his library and my childhood.  My husband and I both love books and have quite the collection. We spend many hours poring over books, especially for inspiration for our work.  When we built our home, it was really important for me to have a cozy library like my grandfathers to curl up in and read my books.  My grandfather’s library was all lined with wooden bookshelves so in my library I chose to do a more modern interpretation and went with white book shelves and white walls.

I have loved my white, light, airy library.  It has been a bright and cozy place to be inspired.  I have a tendency to like to change things around quite a bit and I was ready for a dramatic, moody change in my library.  I’m a big fan of the color blue, in fact, it’s my favorite color!  So, I decided to paint my library blue, but I wanted to use a more muted, vintage blue. I also wanted to paint EVERYTHING (molding, counter, drawers) in the color.  I also decided to add some shaker trim and knobs to the drawers.  Luckily I was able to find the perfect blue gray shade in the color Lone Wolf from Dutch Boy (E14-3) from Dutch Boy Paint.  It’s the perfect historic blue that I was looking for and it looks beautiful at different times of the day, in different lighting.

Here are the steps I took to convert my library from a white oasis to a blue sanctuary. It involved two steps: 1) a change in color and  2) adding trim to the doors for extra detail.