10 Charming Home Library Design Ideas

In this post you’ll find ten charming home library design ideas to inspire a beautiful place to store your favorite books! Whether your design style is more cozy, bright, dark academia, or a mix of many, you’ll find inspiration for your dream library.

Don’t worry if you feel you don’t have space for multiple bookshelves or furniture, anywhere you house books in your home can serve as a library.

1. Cozy, Aesthetic Library with Warm Tones

Looking for a soft, cozy vibe for your home library? The lighting is the most important part of curating a luxurious feel for your space.

Pair a dim, yellow light with soft-textured furniture such as this plush couch to create the perfect cozy library. 

Warm tones will create a rich and relaxing environment, so seek to find colors that go well together, as with the soft hues of yellow and brown in this example.

2. Gold and Wood Library Display Shelves

You can still create a small home library, even if you’re still building your collection of books! Display bookshelves such as these are great for books as well as other knickknacks that you may want available to admire. 

The mixture of the gold plated backing of these shelves and the clever placement of the side lights gives this library room a luxurious feel. 

Warm wood pairs well with dim lighting and gold tones to create an old-money, Ralph Lauren home library design that you can recreate in your own home!

3. Small Home Library Corner Bookshelf

No extra room in your home for a whole library? Create your own little library in a spare nook or cranny with a corner bookshelf as in this example.

A small bookshelf can be tucked away anywhere there’s a bit of space in your home. Books are perfect, function decorations as they are not only pleasant to look at.

Books serve as great conversation starters for guests, entertainment when the power goes out, and the original source of knowledge on many topics.

4. Built-in Wall Shelves 

To maximize vertical space in a small home library, consider a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf display. This example combines storage and display, creating a charming design that is ideal for homes with little space. 

Wrap shelves around a door in liminal spaces if possible, to truly maximize functionality. This built-in shelf is tailored to fit the odd space and serves as a transition piece between rooms. 

This practical way to create the vibe of a library without denoting an entire room to your books makes for an excellent home library design for a small house.

5. Moody Blue Tones Home Library

For a moody vibe in your home library, opt for a darker color scheme that incorporates multiple shades of a cool tone color like this faded, deep blue. Create a serene, dark academia feel for your space by adding in elements such as:

• Twinkle lights
• Soft yellow-lit lamps
• Cozy blankets 
• Plush pillows
• Plants (real or fake)
• Plush, patterned rugs

Focus on comfort with a cushioned armchair such as this one, or if you have multiple readers in the household, opt instead for a loveseat or sofa so you can share the joys of the library room with everyone.

6. Luxury Art Home Library Design

If you have the space for a luxury library, deck it out with a beautiful piece of art as the focal point of the room. This home library emphasizes deep, rich reds and browns that exude opulence and relaxation. 

For a cozy library, focus on the lighting. A fireplace provides the best source of cozy lighting, but if that is not possible for you, candles and yellow-light bulbs are another way to achieve that low-light look that adds to the overall ambiance of a library. 

Adding in multiple textures gives life to the room. Mix patterns and textures by varying artwork, rugs, and furniture colors.

Velvet couches and armchairs are perfect additions to a dream library set up, as they make the room comfortable and relaxing, as in this example.

7. Deep Green and Leather Library Design

If you favor a more dark academia kind of vibe, try color saturating with a deep green, as in this image, or a darker brown, black, or midnight blue. 

Leather is a luxurious natural fiber that goes well with any color and withstands use better than most fabrics, making it the ideal texture for a library couch!

Additionally, adding paneling to any room, but most especially an office or a home library, is an affordable way to make a room seem more expensive.

If your dream library maintains a lavish vibe, consider adding paneling to the walls or the shelves!

8. Bright, Light Home Library

Maybe you favor a brighter look for your home library. In that case, make use of natural light and open a space up with light oak wood bookshelves and a soft leather sofa. 

Whites, woods, and browns blend well in a window-lit library, so consider bringing these colors and textures into your dream home library!

If you enjoy a lighter color scheme, here are some colors and wood tone ideas you can search to find what you are looking for: 

• Maple wood
• Caramel 
• Honey
• Birch wood
• Sand
• Taupe
• Chesnut
• wheat
• Pine wood
• Ash wood
• ivory
• Oak or white oak wood
• Champagne
• Beech wood 
• Vanilla
• Poplar wood

9. Rich Red Home Library

Reds and maroons have a long history of evoking strong feelings and symbolizing passion, strength, love, and luxury. These tones are therefore excellent for a luxurious and cozy home library. 

Red leather is particularly attractive as it wears well with time and actually looks more charming as it becomes worn. 

Bring the room together by painting the walls a similarly deep red or maroon and take pride in your lavish home library.

10. Boho Plant Life Library

If you have a library filled with light, consider also populating it with plants! Bring the natural environment into your home by adding plants to your shelves and mixing in some patterned rugs and light wood tones.

To add to the boho theme, look for unique display pieces to break up the books on your shelves. Here are some decor items to mix in with your books:

• Statues
• Candles
• Match holders
• Fancy bookends
• Woven baskets
• Ceramic bowls
• Small lamps
• Paintings or other artworks
• Succulents

No matter how you decide to decorate your dream home library, as long as you have some books and excellent inspiration, it’s sure to be a wonderful space for you to enjoy!

Find other interior design ideas for your home in additional posts below.