In our homes today, especially in cities, space is often at a premium. This is when we find that books move into spaces beyond the usual or expected, such as the kitchen or the dining room. Bringing books into these other spaces might feel unusual, yet wherever a book enters the scene, a sense of warmth, coziness, and conversation is sure to follow.
With few exceptions, books tend to make a space more inviting and grounded—more like home. Books help your guests settle within your own four walls even if they can’t pinpoint exactly why they feel so at ease. It’s the books! They serve as signs declaring, “This is a lived in space.”
Go into a number of restaurants and it is immediately evident that it’s hip to have books as part of the decor. When the NoMad Hotel opened in 2012, the developer (Sydell Group) and the operators of the restaurant—Will Guidara and Daniel Humm—had a vision to populate the shelves of the bar with hand-selected books.
Credit: Christine Han.
They didn’t want to just carelessly fill the shelves like many other hotel lobbies and restaurants had done before; they wanted to curate subjects that made sense and felt relevant to their clientele.
Guidara and Humm worked with Thatcher and Juniper Books to create a plan for the library around several themes including books about food and drink, New York, France, and living the good life.
The result of these approximately 1,400 curated selections is that the books are additive to the decor, soothing, and feel like they belong. It is evident that someone paid attention to the books. Each one has a place, rather than the books chosen in bulk as “filler,” which would ultimately detract from the restaurateurs’ intention.
Soon after opening, the library was always full and the hotel had to expand into the property next door to accommodate hotel guests and everyone who wanted to hang out in the library. While the design, food, and service contributed the most to its popularity, we’d like to believe that the books also played a part. When you are in a space where someone has paid attention to the details and everything feels like it belongs, you feel like you belong there too.
The books we choose to bring into these rooms should add to the experience, rather than distract and take you out of your own experience with the food or the company. In the NoMad library, a guest could browse the shelves and feasibly find a title of interest to them, as if that book was chosen with them specifically in mind.
If there is intent in the selection of books, it instantly puts guests at ease—whether in a home, a hotel, or restaurant. Placing books in unexpected places, such as the kitchen or the dining room, can be a perfect conversation starter. When Elizabeth is at someone’s house and at a loss for words she often turns to their bookshelves, finding a question to ask within the stacks. This tactic can be an introvert’s savior!
In a dining room, bringing a few books about food, wine, and drink out of the kitchen and into this space makes perfect sense. It is also a great place to feature fashion, art, and photography books as shown in the Los Angeles dining room pictured here. The books in the dining room don’t have to have any connection to food if you don’t want them to, they can be conversation starters or just an extension of your library in another room.
Credit: Nicki Sebastian.