Reading Room

I had an idea a few months ago to change our front room into a reading room. The more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to do it. Our front room wasn't used all that often except for the computer, so it felt like a waste of space. Paul was on board for the change, so I called some companies out to do a bid for building custom built-in bookshelves. I chose one that I felt was really going to make what I was picturing in my head. Their price was far lower than the other bids too, so I was thrilled to get going. I had so much fun shopping for furniture and all the decorations for the shelves. I had very specific ideas of what I wanted, and I felt the thrill of the hunt when I would find just what I wanted. We moved our furniture out, sold or shared what we didn't need anymore, and were ready for the installation. When they came, they discovered they had the wrong measurements for everything though, and so I had to make some adjustments to the design in order to get it finished "much faster." Things didn't end up going "much faster," as one thing after another went wrong when they came back to install the new design. What was supposed to be a 1-day installation ended up being 5 days of me being stuck home either waiting for them to come, or just being here so they could work. The desktop was scratched and dented, so they have ordered a new one, but that will still be another week before it arrives. They took an almost-matching piece from someone else's order to hold us over until our piece comes. They had sick crew members, so that slowed them down considerably. The main guy walked into the sharp corner of a metal piece in their warehouse and ended up having surgery to save his vision in that eye. And once the guy who had been sick came back to work, it turns out he is a former student of Paul's, who hid his face all day so that Paul wouldn't recognize him because he caused a whole lot of trouble while at Timpanogos. It was such a relief when they finished (for now) and I had a day without them being in our house. We pushed all the furniture into our kitchen while they were working, and it sure feels good to have that out of our kitchen now. This is how the kids would do their homework for that week. :)

Now that the built-ins are installed and the workers are out of my house, I am so so so happy with the result!! I love the lighting throughout it, the colors, and all that space for books!

Here's a before and after of the room:

I think it's beautiful! The hassle was worth it, because it is just what I wanted in the end. I loved coming downstairs this morning and seeing Tessa there reading. :)