5 In DIY/ Interiors

How to Create a Library Wall

Add the illusion of built-in bookshelves with floor to ceiling floating shelves! Read on for logistics for creating your own library wall …

Cover photo library wall, white paint, full wall of shelving, blanket ladder,

My goal for this corner of the family room was to create the illusion of a built-in bookshelf–a place to store books and display collected pieces, but without having to actually foot the bill and/or build an actual custom bookcase.

Scroll down a few images to see this room right after our tenant moved out. Rather than doing a freestanding bookcase in this bare corner, I went for floating shelves that are painted the same color as the wall and ceiling to further the built-in feel.

family room, white paint, black coffee table, sisal ottomans, persian rug, ochre womb chair, white sofa, blanket ladder, dark wood door, linen drapery, archway

floating shelves, white shelves, white wall paint, blanket ladder, books, persian rug,

empty large room, natural oak floors, taupe walls, dark wood trim, small child sitting on floor

The Inspiration

leather tufted sofa, white painted walls, black frame art above sofa, red and blue persian rug, gold metal coffee table with chess game, white built-ins, library ladder, white french doors

Above, this family room’s built-in bookcase with leaning ladder, designed by Cait Sourpas, was my inspiration.

The Details

white walls, family room, dark wood trim, radiator, small diamond rug, ceiling medallion, small black lamp

I wanted the shelves to span as much of this wall as possible, in order to ground the shelves, and create more of an architectural addition. Short of ordering or building custom shelves, 60″ long white floating shelves were impossible to find, so we ended up purchasing these floating shelves from Home Depot and painting them white. We spray painted them, but you could make an argument for roller painting them as well.

Here’s the spacing visual for the floating shelves. You can also download the PDF drawing here as well. Initially, we planned to do 5 shelves, but as we started marking them out on the wall, my gut said let’s do 6. 5 shelves just left too much space in between. There’s an 11″ clearance between the shelves. If you’re hoping to store design books (often 12″ tall) you may want to space the shelves further apart.

Installation

The shelves come with instructions, so I won’t go into too much detail with installation, but essentially, you’ll want to locate your wall studs and screw the rod bracket to the wall with a cordless drill. The shelves do come with anchors (in lieu of attaching them to studs), but in order to support the weight of the books and accessories we have planned here, we decided to go big with studs.

As you can see below, we’re using a large level to mark the bracket screw locations prior to attaching the brackets.

man drawing line on wall with large yellow level, white painted wall, dark wood trim and door

white painted wall, dark floating wall shelves, natural oak wood floors, dark wood trim and door, nickel wall sconce

Once the brackets were up, we did a dry fit with the shelves to make sure all looked good. Then we took them out back and spray painted the shelves and screws white.

hand holding white spray paint can, green grass in background

screws stuck cardboard and spray painted white, green grass in background

floating shelves spray painted white, sitting on crate in green grass yard

tall wooden apple picking ladder laying in green grass,

The previous owner left this old apple picking ladder in the garage. It’s really tall and the top is quite narrow. I was excited to pull it out of the garage and bring it inside where we could enjoy it. Needless to say, we cut it down to fit in the room and coated it with poly.

At this point, it just leans on the shelves, so technically it’s a blanket ladder chic-ly styled on the library wall. Someday it’ll be fun to install a rail near the ceiling and make it a legit Beauty and the Beast sliding ladder, but for now, blanket ladder it is!

library wall of white floating shelves, white painted walls, wooden blanket ladder leaning on shelves, dark wood trim and door, natural oak flooring, accordion le klint sconce, blue persian rug, white rolled arm sofa, bauhaus book,

So that’s the skinny on the library wall. I hope I’ve covered all your questions. If not, drop them in comments, and we’ll rendezvous there! Thank you, as always, for stopping by!