Magical Book Nook Renovation

Our 100-year-old house has, surprisingly, a lot of closets. In our daughter’s room she has two separate good-sized closets, each one boasting a lovely mustard yellow shag carpet that isn’t found anywhere else in the house (thankfully). We decided as a maternity leave project to turn one into a book nook — and it became one of my favorite home renovations we’ve done so far!

Baby Walt was one week old when Ben started tearing out the carpet. Then we spent a long time discussing what we wanted the book nook to look like. We settled on a cozy, comfortable vibe with a place to sit or lay down, and plenty of storage for books and toys.

In the spirit of transparency and to remind you that HGTV makes all of this look really simple and carefree, our project hit a setback when demolition in the closet disrupted a small family of bats who were living in our attic. They did not appreciate the loud hammering sounds in the middle of the day (sleepy-time for them) and expressed their distaste by somehow entering our upstairs and scaring me half to death. Yes, we’re all safe from rabies and yes, the attic is now inspected and sealed from future bat visitors. My nerves may also recover…someday.

Anyways, back to work! Ben built a bench seat, with two large shelves underneath. We chose a neutral blue paint for the walls and stapled a fuzzy rug to the floor with a thick mat under it as if it was carpet, so it’s very soft and comfortable. The best items we added were several long strings of twinkle lights along the sloped ceiling, which creates a starry sky effect and truly makes the space feel magical.

Rosie loves her new closet, and spent most of the reveal day just spinning in circles, screaming “TWINKLE LIGHTS!”. Honestly, we felt the same. She especially loved sharing the room with her cousins — they had a crazed giggle fest in there and begged to have nap time all together inside. That seemed unlikely to be very restful, but sure to be a blast.