I know a lot of people, me included, don’t particularly like white shelves, as they can look a bit too clinical or reek of cheap MDF. But they can also provide a lovely neutral backdrop for your home library or living room, and go well with any decoration scheme.
In addition to ladders, all good home libraries require a comfy window-seat for reading and gazing aimlessly outside, preferably at an inspiring landscape.
Back in the days when I didn’t have children and lived on my own, I was very keen on a minimalist, clean-cut type of house. I still find them immensely restful, and couldn’t really cope with something very flowery, fussy and maximalist. But the pictures below are more aspirational than realistic for my current lifestyle. Perhaps the Bauhaus aesthetic is more appealing on the outside than the inside?
As per my favourite colour and my favourite singer… a combination of books and blue shelves and/or decorative accents is irresistible. I may finally succumb to this palette in my next house (where I have no one else to please than myself!).
It has been quite a week, so I think I deserve to just sit and enjoy the spring weather (hopefully), and read a little bit, of course.
I was recently looking through some mid-twentieth-century libraries and thought how perfect they would be for my needs, but then I decided to go a little further back in time… and yes, I like all of them.
The holiday fun is over, but as long as my appliances don’t fall apart all at once, I am in a studious mood once more and happy to sit quietly among my shelves. Or rather, those shelves below.
I finished off my trip to France last week with a very brief (one evening and one morning) stay in Marseille. I had never visited this city before, although I felt I knew it from the pages of Jean-Claude Izzo’s books. Undoubtedly, it is a tough city to live in: while I was there, a couple of buildings collapsed and burnt just two streets away from my hotel. I saw smashed shop windows, armed police in busy areas, heard the wail of police cars everywhere and was repeatedly warned to watch out for pickpockets. For all that, it is also a beautiful town, especially at sunset, bathed in a golden glow. It is also a very hilly town, so it’s an excellent work-out to wander through its streets, with an ice-cream reward at the end.
Not sure if I should have waited to post these as part of my Friday Fun series, but I certainly won’t be posting anything else this week, as I am too busy writing, translating and chatting to my friends in this paradise that they call Luberon.
findingtimetowrite 