Some people dream of having a walk-in wardrobe. I, like so many of my fellow bibliophiles, have always dreamed of having my own library. Something on the par with Beast’s library from Beauty and the Beast would be nice, but I was happy to settle for smaller.

And now that small dream of mine has come true.

I moved into my house in a year and a half ago. The moment I decided I was going to buy it, I started planning how I was going to fit as many bookshelves in as possible.

I’m proud of the shelf-restraint I’ve shown! Only two out of the four walls in the living room are covered in shelves. To be honest, I didn’t cover the others because one of them is taken up by a sliding window and the other I would like to keep free for artwork.

But that’s just the living room. At the moment I have one shelf in the office, which I am going to sell and then get another shelf or two installed, depending on how many Billies I can fit into the small space behind the door!

And I haven’t installed any anywhere else. I have an electric clothes dryer in my bedroom that produces a lot of steam, so I don’t want to keep any books in there (steam + books = curling covers and wrinkled pages). I considered installing some in the spare room, but I think I’ll wait until the situation in the living room becomes dire.

At the moment, it’s looking like I’ve got a fair few years until I run out of space:

I used Billy bookcases along the right wall (I think every home library I’ve seen on Instagram uses Billy bookcases!) – 4 x 80cm wide and 1 x 40cm wide. I built the Billies and then my dad fitted them to the wall. He had to cut down the 40cm shelf a little because the space between the walls was a perfect 360cm, but the space between the skirting boards was smaller. It was either cut the bookshelves down, or get rid of the skirting board. And, as much of a bibliophile I am, I spent hours painting and sanding those damn skirting boards and wasn’t going to get rid of them.

There was also the problem of them phone socket, which was set into that right hand wall, so Dad had to cut a hole in the back of one of the shelves so it could stick through. It’s nicely hidden by one of the armchairs.

The shelves on the left wall are IKEA Ekby bjärnum/Ekby järpen. Again, my reliable Dad fitted them to the wall for me. With a double layer of books on them, they do bend a little in the middle, but they seem pretty sturdy otherwise.

I’ve split the room into two. My manga on one side and my western novels on the other side. I know the manga side will fill up very quickly. With western novels, I tend to unhaul a load every year – normally on New Year’s Eve I’ll go through my shelves, pick out the books I didn’t enjoy, know I won’t want to read again, or don’t see the point in keeping as reference material, and I’ll donate them to a charity shop for someone else to enjoy. And to free space on my shelves for more books! With manga, you have to get rid of an entire series, and series stretch on for volumes and volumes. They take up so much space.

At some point I want to pimp my shelves a little. As much as I like minimalism (less things to move when you’re dusting!) I feel they could do with some colour. Perhaps some succulents? Hit me up with some ideas if you have any – otherwise you can find me scrolling through Pinterest for the rest of eternity.

What would your dream library look like? Comment down below. Let me know.