Imagine curling up with a good book in your tailor-made spot for reading. Bask in the idea of having a comfy place to kick back and put up your slippered feet. On the table beside you sits a cup of coffee or tea to begin your day, or a glass of wine to end it, as you turn to the colorful characters in a new novel or the fascinating facts of a nonfiction book.
But you don’t have to be an avid reader to enjoy an inviting perch. Such a dedicated spot serves as a private place for relaxing, decompressing and unplugging for a little while, providing a place for some “you” time. A reading nook can be anywhere; it can be simple in decor or highly designed.
Local experts say the reading nook has a handful of humble and common features: a comfortable chair; a foot rest; a side table or a ledge to hold a book, a coffee cup and perhaps even a tiny bud vase; and good lighting. A tasteful combination of these essential elements can create a nook anywhere in a home, even an outdoor patio or deck. Indoors, such a spot can be carved into the corner of any room, essentially stealing a pocket of space furnished with a couple of creature comforts.
Interior designer Suzanne Manlove hung a modest rope hammock in her secluded backyard. It’s a favorite season-specific reading-slash-napping space for both her and her husband.
“In the summertime, one of us might steal a few minutes in the hammock to read,” she says. “It’s really great because I’m out of the house, not thinking about what I have to do next.”
Sitting down with a good book is an opportunity to escape from our daily lives—for a little while, anyway, says interior designer Roxanne Lumme. Lumme has fashioned a couple of reading nooks in her own home both for her book-loving self and for her family.
Most often, reading nooks she devises for clients tend to be part of a master suite, where she might envision a pair of comfortable chairs as the basis of a nook. If a client loves to read, says Lumme, it’s not uncommon for her to say, “I really need to make sure I have a spot where I can do this.” Then there’s the book storage, which varies as much as the user.
For grown-ups, it’s nice to have built-ins with ample open shelving, but it’s important not to discount the convenience of a stack of books next to a reading chair or beneath a bedside table. That makes a space feel lived in, as long as the pile is orderly, Lumme says, and not “helter-skelter.”
In her daughter’s room, she added a funky chair she repurposed from her mother’s home, choosing an updated fabric that would grow with her daughter. “We didn’t want it to be too precious or too young,” she says.
Lumme also added a pouf to her daughter’s space because, like most people who like to kick back with a book, her daughter likes to put her feet up. After all, Lumme is a firm believer in comfort first. “You have to be able to slouch,” she says. “You need to be able to get sloppy.”
For a home in Washington, D.C., Andreas Charalambous created a modern take on the reading nook in a couple’s master bedroom. It’s nestled under the eaves, and natural light pours in through a dormer window. The wife, an avid reader, tried out a number of loungers before deciding on a Knoll Bertoia chaise. She knew she wanted to put her feet up, and she didn’t want an ottoman. She wanted a calm, Zen-like space where she could relax with a book. “That’s what she wanted, and that’s what she got,” says Charalambous. “She said, ‘I love it, and the rest is icing on the cake.’”
( November 2015 )