🏡Inside My Cozy Home Library: Full Tour + Setup Ideas

I love my home library, but every time I share it, the reactions surprise me. Here's a cozy tour woven with Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and what it really means to create a personal space.

When I first saw a loft with two built-in bookshelves on the listing for our home in 2021, I was metaphorically sold.

Like so many others mid-pandemic, we started questioning whether our 1,200-square-foot Philly rowhouse was too small and inconvenient for our drastically changed lifestyle.

Then, once I knew for sure that I would be working from home for the foreseeable future, we decided to “just browse” listings in a suburb that interested us. Up popped a listing that matched our wish list, including my home library dreams, and within four days, we were under contract.

Now, four years later, as we read the books Rory Gilmore read for our Rory Gilmore reading challenge, I’m sharing my reading corner with you in the context of 1929’s A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, which Rory read on the bus in season one of Gilmore Girls, episode 5 (“Cinnamon’s Wake”).

Yes, I know that Woolf argued in this essay that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." But I think literary women deserve a room of their own to read, too. After all, men have their “caves.”

And reading offers not only an escape, but also strengthens critical thinking, empathy, cognition, memory, problem-solving, and communication skills. It can also help reduce stress and improve sleep.

So Woolf’s point that a woman must have both financial and intellectual freedom in a society that lacks such a structure extends to reading rooms, if you ask me.

Without further ado, I share mine with you.

Welcome to My Cozy Home Library!

This loft above our primary bedroom served as a home office for the prior owner.

The big changes we made to the space upon moving in were new paint, hardwood floors, and lighting.

Other than that, I brought only a book cart with a few dozen books that fit in it—the only book storage I had in my modest prior home. Two things I definitely didn’t bring: a big budget or a designer. So, this space has both grown and evolved over the years.

Here’s what it looks like right now:

My personal aesthetic is clean, simple, cozy, and feminine. I chose a lot of neutrals because I want the colors of the books to stand out—not compete for attention. I’m also partial to feminine and quirky reading accessories and art.

My book collection has grown substantially, thanks mostly to the cheap used books I buy at library sales.

If any furniture or accessories in my home library spark joy for you, too, you can find my selections (or similar items) here:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links through which I earn commissions on purchases made through my links at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

• Chaise

• Book blanket

• Read pillow

• Similar sweater rug (Yes, that was the name! So Rory!)

• Similar task floor lamp

• Round metal accent table

• Vintage reading woman art (purchased digital, then had it printed)

• Wireless picture light

• Custom pet portraits (our three cats, Minnie, Lilly, and Romeo)

• Woven rope storage basket (with a blanket and toys for the cats)

• Book vase

• Cat eyeglass holder

• Rattan storage containers

• Card catalog organizer

• Scrabble bookshelf edition (lots of game options)

• Similar agate bookends

• Hand bookends

• Similar quotation mark bookends

• Vintage American Girl postcard art

• Similar faux succulent plant set

• Similar agate stone object

• Large metal jack

• Large metal glasses

• Similar square marble block

• Champagne and lemon art

• Gold reading woman sculpture

• Book cart

• Similar brushed gold frame with invisible bookshelf

• Similar framed Pride & Prejudice book cover

• Similar potted faux fiddle leaf fig tree

• Similar folded book art (countless custom options)

• Bookstands (for displaying pretty covers and faves)

Anthropologie also has really cute home accessories, like this bookshop doormat and this reading mug, and is running a secret 20% off sale on $100+ purchases with a code they messaged me: ANTHRO20.

How I Organize My Home Library

I’m not one to keep books I read unless I have a specific reason. I’m also not one to keep books I no longer plan on reading. Here’s how things currently shake out:

• Book Cart: beach reads and lighter fiction

• Floating bookshelf: pretty editions of classics

• Left shelf, top to bottom:

  • Signed books and beloved classics I want to keep

  • What remains of my childhood books

  • Literary fiction

  • Books about famous people and books about books

  • School and personal yearbooks and Oprah’s Book Club books

• Middle: Compact Oxford English Dictionary (inspired by Rory Gilmore)

• Right shelf, top to bottom:

  • Fourth Wing series and books from the Gilmore Girls book list I loved and want to keep

  • Miscellaneous classics on my list and the Harry Potter books, both original and MinaLima editions

  • Books I read and want to keep for some reason (favorites, travel books, etc.)

  • Gilmore Girls books still on my reading list (two shelves)

We do also have a few other book collections in other parts of our home. I have a Gilmore Girls bookshelf and a business bookshelf in my home office. I also have a kitchen cabinet filled with cookbooks. My husband has a small, folding bookshelf on the other side of our loft, mostly filled with biographies and business books. He also has a few collections in his “man cave”: F1, cocktails, James Bond, watches, movies, and other car books.

On Criticisms of My Reading Room

Each month, in the days before I sit down to write to you in a way that blends our featured book club book of the month and real life, I let the book marinate in my mind until there’s just one specific topic I can’t get out of my head.

This time, I kept coming back to the fact that I receive at least one piece of criticism each and every time I’ve shared my booknook over the years, from day one, when it housed nothing but a dirty old carpet and maybe 2-3 dozen books (hey, even Marie Kondo recommends this amount), to its ever-changing state today.

I don’t like to focus on the negative, and truly, these comments don’t bother me personally. I am not my reading room, and my reading room is not me. But what I do find interesting is the why behind these reactions.

Below the paywall for paid subscribers, I explore the reading room critiques I’ve commonly heard, the questions they’ve prompted, and my honest response.

In addition to exclusive content like this, paid subscribers also get a 15-page printable index of all 475+ books on Gilmore Girls by episode and full community access.

Your subscription helps you commit more deeply to this fun yet meaningful reading challenge and provides a safe virtual space to engage while supporting the human work and mission behind it.

I particularly love this series because it helps us think critically about the books we’re reading for book club and engage on a more personal level—both of which are lacking in other areas of life right now.