A Bookworms Guide to Interior Design

After a long day filled with work, dealing with extroverts and people who don't know what they are talking about, an avid reader craves for a few moments of silence and peace. Traveling physically from one end of the journey to another can be tiring and exhausting at the same time, sometimes all a bookworm needs is traveling through time and space without actually moving even a centimeter. Reading as an activity, is an important part of a lot of things; from development of a stronger vocabulary, getting to know new things and enhancing your skills in a language to getting familiar with new ideas, enjoying an interface with various cultures or theoretical ideologies and meeting people who don't exist anymore, Reading is an experience for the mind and psyche alike. From the same silent nook of your room you can experience the solitude in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years Of Solitude, take a trip down jew camps in Germany with a through read of Mein Kampf (Hilter's biography), Experience the complexity of human nature in a twisted turn tale of Rabindranath Tagore's Chokher Bali, Look at the evolution of human race throughout the years in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari or just simply sit and talk to Mirza Ghalib in his collection of couplets in Deewan-ae-Ghalib. There are so many stories, so many journeys, so many conversations and such wonderful things to know when you're reading, thus it should be enjoyed in its right essence of luxury.  While many people believe that you can "read" a book anywhere in your house and call it a day, a true literate would beg to differ. The space you use for reading has to match the same synergy as you and should reflect the same chemistry that you have with each and every page of the piece at hand. Having a library or a somber collection of books is the dream of every reader but sometimes, you need a little more than that. Below listed are a few things that can come in handy when you're about to set up a study or a reading room in your home: 

• SOFAS AND OTTOMANS

When you sit down to read, you want to be in a comfortable position. While immersed in a story or a theory, you tend to switch positions and it can cause some problems with posture. Prolonged hours of sitting in one place can be the root cause of health hazards and thus, it becomes of paramount importance to sit in a comfortable seat to go on expeditions of the past, observations of the present and speculations of the future. A good piece of furniture can not only be helpful in setting for enhancing the aesthetic value of your reading room but also prove to be an important part of your reading experience. Sofas have been around for centuries and proven to be comfortable and luxurious, while ottomans are a new addition to luxury and style. Ottomans don't have a back support but they can be very useful to straighten your legs or curl up with a good book in a blanket on a rainy day and not be interrupted by the matters of daily monotony. 

• BOOKSHELVES AND SHOWCASES

A reader's greatest treasure is the collection of books and journals. Procurement of a book can be a task of great consideration and concentration depending on your specific reading habits based on your mood, taste in literature, personal preferences or the importance of a certain book in your library. Such an important part of your taste shall not go unnoticed and shunned away in a corner of your room. They must be displayed properly where they can be seen in their majestic opulence and a sense of conjecture-instigating self; and for this reason, you need to have a huge bookshelf and a set of showcases to display the items that you denote to a certain book and the feeling you get while reading it. Imagine this, after a busy day at work, you come home tired and burnt out and as soon as you enter your reading room/library you see a long array of all the pieces of literature you hold dear to yourself with showcases filled with memoir-resonating items, funko pops or just flowers. The aesthetic enhancement of the room will take away half of your tiredness and the rest half will disappear when you sit on a sofa, pick up a book, dim the lights, curl up on a sofa, put on some vintage jazz and pour yourself a glass of wine. 

• COFFEE TABLES 

Coffee tables are shorter than traditionally designed tables but they also provide for just the right size of height to play something on them while you're sitting comfortably on a sofa Ottoman. The glass of wine that you poured previously, needs to be placed somewhere right?! (You can't just keep it in your hands because IT WOULD BE A CATASTROPHE IF IT SPILLS ON YOUR BOOK. THAT'S A HATE CRIME!). This is where a need for a coffee table near your sofa and ottoman set up arises from and it needs to be in the same synergy with the two. Once you’ve picked out your coffee table, consider accessorizing it. For a reading room where you’re watching the character unfold in front of your eyes, you’ll probably want to leave plenty of space for propping up feet and placing drinks. A coffee table with a lower shelf, which works great in these spaces because you can place books and trays underneath, leaving plenty of room on top.

• DRAPES AND SOUND PROOFING 

In a reading room, you would imagine having bigger windows and a quieter place to sit back and relax. While treating yourself with luxury, you would want to have a feeling of seclusion and inclusion at the same time. This is where Drapes come in. Lighter shades of drapes not only allow fragmented portions of light to enter the room and lighten up the space, but also provide for a little bit of a character to the room. Somber shades such as gray, blue or calmer tones of green makes the room a little more distinguishable and quiet. While the drapes cover the light part of inclusion, Soundproofing the room provides the solution to the annoying noises from the streets. India is a tightly packed bundle of people and there can be obstacles which would annoy you as you try to delve deeper into a book. The loud cries of street hawkers, the rushing cars, honking trucks and battling aunties is the last thing that you want to hear while you ponder on the tragedies of Shakespeare or the view of Harari on humanitarian evolutions and issues. Soundproofing would cut off these noises and give you the silence to disassociate just to associate back into a bigger whole. 

• INDOOR PLANTS AND PAINTINGS

Art and literature have always gone hand in hand. Art can help to tell a story through your decor, add life to a space, bring bold elements into the room or just be the perfect piece for your rooms to have a focal point to create magic. With paintings and sculptures, you can also establish a statement without actually saying it. Despite being on a piece of stretched cloth, a painting can say louder things subtlety and not say anything at all at the same time. On the similar lines, indoor plants add more beauty to a space while also providing functional benefits, like promoting a positive mood, purifying the air, and making you feel connected to nature without having to step outside. So there is no reason to let a small space or lack of gardening experience stop you from flexing your eco-friendly approaches to life in your room of wonders and calm.