Introducing the Dining Room to the Library

Let's make friends! The lonely dining room waits for guests to arrive and is ever hopeful that someone will just sit down for a few minutes at the spacious table, finding comfort and solace - wait - isn't that what a library does? How about joining the two spaces and breathing life into the dining room table by expanding function, and also bringing added richness to dining conversations while entertaining?

I have always needed, yes NEEDED flat surface space. There just isn't ever enough so I spread papers out where I can and eventually the floor becomes my table top. But when I discovered the joy of the dining room table my life changed. When we lived in a home where a separate dining area could allow for a table and chairs, and the accoutrements that go with feeding a large family, the expansive table was great but lonely when not hosting the mashed potatoes. I began to use it as a place to put my books and papers in between times of hot pads and place settings.

Enter the home library. It is often thought that shelving in a dining space must hold only elements that pertain to the culinary like plates, stemware, knives and forks. Squashing that rigid structure, books bring an expanded function to a room relegated to cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, and provide for interesting tidbits of conversation about Plato's cave as well as telling the tale of a first reading of a Narnia Chronicle.