How to Create a Cozy Home Office Library

If you’re looking for ideas to create a cozy and functional home office library, you’ve come to the right place!

For the past 8 weeks, we’ve been transforming an empty basement room into a cozy, dark and moody office.

It’s week 8 of the Fall 2022 One Room Challenge and it’s reveal day!

We’re so excited to share our home office library with you.

You’re sure to also find ideas that you can incorporate into your home.

In this post, we’ll share some tips and tricks for designing the perfect home office library that is both practical and beautiful.

From choosing the right furnishings to styling your space on a budget and ideas for artwork and decor.

Clearly this challenge has pushed us to learn new skills and expand our creativity.

Despite a few setbacks, we rallied and are so thrilled with the results of our dark and moody home office.

As a reminder you can easily navigate through each week of this dark and mood home office library project.

If you’re new here, WELCOME! You can learn more about us here.

Be sure to subscribe to our FREE newsletter so you don’t miss any of our DIY projects and ideas for your home.

In addition, you’ll want to follow us on Instagram for behind the scenes progress and updates!

And for more ideas to add value to your home, take a look at 10 Sensational Home Improvement Ideas on a Budget.

Also on the One Room Challenge website, you’ll find lots of ideas for updating any space in your home.

Our Sponsors

Before we share the reveal of our home office library we’d like to thank our One Room Challenge sponsors.

They gifted us products to help complete this challenge.

A special thanks to Amerock for the cabinet and desk hardware, Ornamental Decorative Millwork for our baseboards, casings, headers and picture frame moulding and Kichler Lighting for the wall sconces.

Kichler Lighting products can be found at Build.com.

In this post . . .

Home Office Library Design Plan

Room before turning it into a home office library

Let’s begin with what this room looked like just 8 weeks ago.

It was just a blank slate, ready for some function and style.

To choose the right layout for your home office library, it’s important to consider both function and aesthetics.

This might mean choosing a layout that is conducive to working, such as having ample desk space or plenty of storage for books and other supplies.

At the same time, you’ll also want to consider how you want your home office library to look.

This involves selecting certain types of furnishings or artwork that help create the right mood and ambiance for your space.

Overall, it’s important to think about how you want to use your office space and design it accordingly, while also keeping function and style in mind.

Sketch up plan of the built-in bookshelves with window seat.

In week 1 of the One Room Challenge we shared our design plan for our dark and moody home office library.

The design plan included desk placement as well as designing our built-in bookshelves and window seat.

In addition, we selected our fabrics, finishes and wall paint.

Then we were able to create our mood board for our home office.

Rendering of moody office with deep peacock blue walls with box moulding, gold wall sconces, mid-century modern desk with a leather office chair. Built-in bookcases in the same peacock blue with a window seat.

And as you can see, our rendering really had the feel of what we actually achieved in our cozy home office library.

Home office library, with a mid-century modern desk with black stain, drawers have cane fronts with natural oak trim. On top of the desk dist a tray with accessories, a monitor and a laptop. Above the desk is another piece of photography artwork with 2 brushed brass wall sconces with white shades. Wall is painted blue with picture frame moulding.

Home office library with blue painted bookshelves with a windowseat, brown herringbone cushion, kilim pillows, walls are also painted blue with picture frame moulding.

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Home Office Library Storage

If you’re looking for home office library storage ideas, there are many different options to consider.

When choosing home office library storage, it’s important to think about the size and layout of your space as well as what types of items you will be storing.

With these considerations in mind, you can create the perfect home office library that is well-organized and functional.

Built-in blue painted bookcases with open and closed storage with brushed gold hardware, windowseat bench seating with a brown herringbone pattern cushion and kilim pillows, window has a bamboo roman shade, windowseat has 2 drawers for storage. Natural white oak floor with a cow print rug. Leather clug chair with a faux fur pillow and a black faux fur throw blanket, brushed brass floor lamp.

While purchasing bookshelves is always an option, we wanted to make custom built-ins for our home office library.

I believe that built-ins not only make a room feel larger, but they also add architectural details to the room.

It was also important to me that we include closed storage with our built-in bookshelves with a window seat.

And creating a window seat not only adds extra seating, but the drawers also provide more storage.

For the final detail to our built-in cabinets, we added the beautiful Destine pulls from Amerock.

Built-in bookshelves, with brushed gold cabinet pulls, filled with books, blue wall with picture frame moulding, windowseat with brown herrinbone cushion with kilim pillows, window has a bamboo roman shade.

Another element we added to our built-ins was an electrical outlet.

We placed an electrical outlet in each cabinet in the bookcase.

This will allow us to add a printer or other office machines we made need and keep them out of sight.

Workspace

When creating your home office library space, one of the most important decisions you will need to make is choosing a desk and workspace.

There are many different factors to consider when making this decision, including size, style, and function.

For example, if you plan on spending a lot of time working or studying in your home office library, you may want to choose a larger and more spacious desk that can accommodate all of your various home office supplies.

Additionally, you will also need to think about the style of your home office library and select a desk and workspace that complements this aesthetic.

With these considerations in mind, you can create the perfect home office library space that is both functional and beautiful.

Cozy home office library with dark blue walls with picture frame moulding, landscape photography art, and brushed brass wall sconces. Against the wall is a mid-century modern black stained desk wiht cane and oak trim drawer fronts and a camel leather office chair.

For our home office I had my heart set on Pottery Barn’s Dolores cane desk, but not the price.

So, that’s just an opportunity to get our creative juices flowing and upcycle a discarded desk.

And I think this desk makeover looks amazing!

It has the look and feel of Pottery Barn’s desk and we only spent about $100.

Create a Cozy Feel with Paint and Moulding

When creating a cozy home office library space, it’s important to consider the overall aesthetic and feel of the room.

One key element to achieve this feel is choosing a dark and moody paint color for the walls, which can help create a cozy vibe that is perfect for working or studying.

Additionally, you may also want to incorporate other home decor elements, such as box moulding or other decorative trim work.

Dark blue paneled walls, black stained mid-century modern desk with a camel leather office chair, black and white cow rug with a camel leather club chair with a black faux fur throw blanket.

Adding picture frame moulding to the walls in our office not only adds interest but it’s also a great way to elevate your space and add a touch of class to your walls.

These home decor elements can help add visual interest to your home office library space and help you create a warm and inviting environment that is perfect for getting in the right mindset for working or studying.

With these tips in mind, you can create the perfect home office library that is both functional and beautiful.

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Home Office Library Decor & Styling Tips

When decorating and styling your home office library, there are a few key elements to keep in mind.

I believe one of the most important is choosing home decor pieces that help create a cozy and comfortable atmosphere.

Blue painted wall with picture frame moulding, with 2 framed photography art pieces in a brushed gold frame with white mats. White oak flooring with a black and white cow rug, bronze round accent table, home office library with built-in bookshelves with closed storage, filled with books and a few momentos, windowseat with 2 drawers with brushed gold hardware, brown herringbone cushion, and kilim pillows.

This include things like plush rugs or soft throw blankets, accent pillows, as well as decor items that are meaningful to you.

Windowseat with 2 drawers, with brushed gold drawer pulls, brown herringbone cushion, kilim pillows, window is covered with a bamboo roma shade.

I have always loved the look of Kilim pillow covers, but have found them to be very expensive.

So I was ecstatic when I stumbled upon an Etsy shop that was selling Kilim pillow covers and they are so affordable.

These pillow covers are made and shipped directly from Turkey.

When I say affordable I spent less than $50 and purchased 5 pillow covers and one pillow form, with free shipping.

If you love this look, check out there store.

Bronze round accent table on a black and white cow rug with a camel leather club chair, wall is painted dark blue with picture frame moulding.

A small side table next to the leather club chair not only adds a place for a little decor, but it’s also a great place to set a drink.

And let’s talk about this leather chair…

The leather is so soft and supple, and the chair is super comfortable.

It’s the perfect reading chair for this library.

Built-in bookshelves with books, bronze bunny book ends, and a vintage band director hat.

One of the pieces I added to the bookshelves was my hubby’s grandfather’s director hat.

He was a band teacher at the local high school and was an amazing musician.

I really love to incorporate unexpected items like these when I style a room.

Home office library, blue picture frame mould wall with landscape photography art in a matte gold frame, small round bronze accent table, modern camel leather chair with built in bookcases along back wall.

In addition, when adding artwork to your space, include pieces that are meaningful to you.

For our dark and moody office, I chose photography that my son took from our vacations.

And I love the way they pop off of the dark walls!

Finally, it’s important to think about how you will be using your home office library and what types of home decor elements will best support this purpose.

With these tips in mind, you can create the perfect home office library that is both functional and beautiful.

Lighting

In any room, lighting is key.

But when creating a dark and moody home office library, it is important to consider how you will light the space.

This includes things like task lighting for focused work or ambient lighting for creating a relaxing environment.

Blue wall with picture frame moulding with a brush brass wall sconce with a white shade and landscape photography artwork.

In our room we added the beautiful brushed brass wall sconces, which are like a beautiful piece of jewelry to the space.

We also added library lights on the bookshelves, they not only add to the ambiance, but add lighting to the shelves.

And a floor lamp is placed next to the club chair for task lighting.

Finally for overall lighting in the space we used can lights, which provide ample lighting for the workspace.

In general, you will want to choose home office lighting that provides sufficient lighting while also helping to create a cozy and comfortable vibe.

With these tips in mind, you can create the perfect home office that is both functional and beautiful.

Plants

In my opinion, no room is complete without plants.

They clearly add coziness to any room.

My original plan for this room was a DIY faux tree that would fill the space on the right side of the desk.

And while I loved the way this tree turned out, I forgot about the wall sconces!

Once we installed the wall sconces I realized the tree was too big and wouldn’t work!

So for now it’s waiting for a new home and I brought in a few artificial plants to cozy up the office.

Shop Home Office Library

So, are you inspired to create your very own home office library?

Did you find some inspiration here today?

Drop us a comment and let us know what you think of this project.

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share your thoughts and questions with us.

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Pinterest image, home office library with cozy leather seating and dark blue built-in shelves

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This Post Has 2 Comments

SawsHub November 18, 2022 Reply

That is such a lovely office, I’ve always wanted to have a book nook in the home office too, but renovation has to wait for some time
1. Michelle Dickson November 18, 2022 Reply
  
  Thank you, it’s such a great room to work and relax.