When we walked into our future home for the first time and saw the open loft with builtin wall-to-wall bookshelves, we were sold. Done-zo. Done dealio.

A quick 5 years later and we have finally decorated our beloved space. Bad Julie.

Obviously the books are the stars of the show here. I’ve written a few posts about the thousands of books we have read, the process of collection, some interesting stats on them, and the hilarious Part 1 and Part 2 of Rejected Books: So Bad, Yet So Good.

I painted the back of the bookshelves a dark slate blue and put an Ikea gold clip light over the overstuffed chair (which came from my late grandma’s house). One adult and all 3 kids can sit on it at the same time with one on each arm rest and one laying on the top of the backrest. Cara also likes to tilt the lamp so it shines behind the chair in a little dark corner so she can read back there.

I wanted a bright, fun pillow and had this fabric and decided it works with the colorful children’s books.

I bought fabric to sew drapes but decided they were too dark and heavy for the space. It gets a lot of natural light but I need to keep the blinds shut most of the time because of the glare on the computer screens. My sister bought these drapes for her house and changed her mind but they couldn’t be returned. I tried them and they look great.

This is the happiest hanging house plant I ever did see. I have always loved hanging plants. They help fill in corners and are out of the reach of pets and kids. You can even see it from our front door downstairs and makes the whole space look more homey.

We desperately needed a new office chair. Our old hand-me-down was broken and dirty and hurt my back so we threw it out and I used Rob’s drum throne for a couple of months. I finally decided I needed to stop being so cheap and go get a comfortable chair for me since I write here every day.

This one is wonderful. It makes me want to curl up in it and fall asleep (which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it). It’s this Serta chair from Office Depot and I recommend it. They have a higher back version as well.

The desk is huge and dark and not one that I would buy myself but it was my brother’s. When he bought it long ago I remember him being so proud of his new fancy office furniture. Then, not long after that, he sat at his new desk and planned his own funeral. Ahem. Sorry. So where were we? Okay. The desk is huge which works out because we can store all of our unsightly junk in it without needing extra shelves or filing cabinets so it’s actually nice in that way.

Rob wanted two monitors and after using them together for a couple of years now I can’t imagine ever going back to one. It’s so handy having so much work space!

I wanted as much desktop space as possible so I had Rob fashion a shelf on the side of the desk tucked away in the corner for the printer.

We have a lot of space underneath the desk so that’s where we hid the subwoofer. There is also the footstool I bought when Nate was potty training. I’m so short I don’t like having my feet dangle.

I decided to keep the negative space above the desk. I’m sure having nothing there would bug a lot of people but I embrace it.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the wall space around the desk. I had lots of more modern ideas but then I brought home this mirror from Ikea, just to see how I liked it, and decided to keep it.

We really needed a desk lamp but I didn’t want it sitting on top so I searched all over online and found about a hundred sconces that I loved but then I saw this one in the store on clearance and the price was unbeatable so I grabbed it.

The trash can is from Pakistan, I think, when Rob’s grandparents lived there long ago.

The drums are gorgeous and match the woodwork exactly so they stayed but Rob did downsize them a little for me. Such a gentleman.

Even though a mirror is so predictable, I felt like we needed something reflective on the wall to capture the window light and direct it into the room without it messing up my screen time. Now I can’t imagine the space without it. I feel like the wall would look dead and flat without that extra depth and window light reflection.

We’ve always loved hanging out in this room but now we love it even more. It’s so comfortable and feels very inviting.