If you’re ready to turn the page on lackluster reading nooks, why not draw upon your favorite authors for inspiration? When you consider the elaborate worlds most writers create, it’s clear that their bodies of work are effective decorating springboards. To get your literary (and design) juices flowing, we’ve assembled a collection of whimsical reading nook designs that conjure our favorite writers’ vivid worlds. From Jane Austen to James Baldwin, see how we think some of the age’s most illustrious writers might have designed their own private reading quarters!
Jane Austen
With novels like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in the canon, there’s no question that a reading nook inspired by Jane Austen is going to be prim, tailored, and a little tongue-in-cheek. Austen wrote during the early 19th century, which, decorating-wise, is considered to be the height of the Regency period. Select reading nook furniture that harks to the era, including reading chairs with ample, but graceful silhouettes. When it comes to Austen’s playful side, work in pattern. Plaids and toiles are indicative of the era but are also easy to take in a more prankish direction. Especially when partnered with reading nook décor like a brass fly (see the above), these prints become the equivalent of a sidelong wink.
Ernest Hemingway
It’s impossible to think of Ernest Hemingway’s work without traipsing into rum-soaked, palm-laced daydreams. To create a reading nook inspired by the Farewell to Arms novelist, invest in an oversized bamboo reading chair. (Doing so recalls Hemingway’s beloved Key West.) Paul Frankl designed numerous lightweight thrones that would fit the bill perfectly. Soften the hardwood frame with a chenille throw, if needed, and don’t forget a whimsical side table. An organic stump table harks to Hemingway’s more survivalist pastimes.
James Baldwin
Considering James Baldwin’s Harlem heritage, crafting a reading nook that nods to the historic district’s creative 1930s heyday feels apropos. Club chairs, a Jazz-era standby, feel in line with Baldwin’s authoritative storytelling, as do floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed with tomes. To give the space a bohemian undercurrent that speaks to Baldwin’s own globetrotting, consider mixing in a tapestry of textiles. Everything from classic stripes to kilims can be incorporated. Taking risks, just as Baldwin did, will be what truly brings a space inspired by this masterful storyteller to life.
Gabriel García Márquez
For a really whimsical reading nook, there’s no writer better to inspire you than Gabriel García Márquez. The undisputed godfather of magical realism may be best known for his tome 100 Years of Solitude, which takes place in a fictional Colombian village. Let Latin America be your guide when it comes to choosing furnishing finishes for your nook. Rustic woods that evoke the equatorial regions are ideal. For a touch of that magical realism, integrate surrealism. For instance, a table base formed by a tangle of animal horns plays with perceptions just as effectively as any Márquez passage will. Similarly, a butterfly chair — a seemingly unusual reading chair, until you remember its hammock-like embrace — also feels vaguely anamorphic.
Kurt Vonnegut
While a modern, minimalist reading nook may not appeal to everyone, it’s likely to endear itself to the same crowd as author Kurt Vonnegut’s musings. Dubbed the “counterculture’s novelist” by the New York Times, it seems only fitting to outfit a nook dedicated to Vonnegut in the furniture that bedecked the same era. A space-age-y lounger is a near necessity, as is an atomic-inspired reading lamp. Of course, Vonnegut wasn’t known to stick exclusively to one genre. So, when it comes to other whimsical reading nook décor, don’t hesitate to go a little off-plot. Rustic or hand-crafted finds can warm up the whole look and make things look more fit for hunkering down on a cold winter’s night with Cat’s Cradle.
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Design by CWB Interiors / Photo by Photography by Rachael Stollar
