Library Build (2) – The Finish Line

Before we could check the room of the list, we needed to choose the paint for the walls and decide on window treatments.

Nate and José outdid themselves with the built-ins (see previous post). Nate added variable color LED lighting to the niche. The Ganesh statue was a birthday present from Nate and my mother, they acquired from a local international market. The coffee table was a Restore find.

After much discussion and some debate, we landed on a color from Benjamin Moore’s Colonial Williamsburg collection called Chiswell Blue (CW-660). The shade, described in the marketing materials as “moody” and “velvety”, is a blend of black and Prussian blue. Unknown to us then, but that particular blue would play a significant role in our color story.

We switched out the window treatments for an un-patterned sateen twill black out curtain in peacock blue. We painted the brown cornice gloss white. Added our library rug back in.

We’re still in the process of building out this photo wall. Five are my own images from around the French Quarter—shot mostly on my first trip in 2006. The center image in the upper row is a portrait of me shot by talented New Orleans photography Wallace Merritt represented by Cole Pratt Gallery. Merritt was first a neighbor in the Marigny and is now one here as well.

Everyone seeing this image, asks: “What is that piece of furniture?!” It’s a bookbinder’s press from the late 1700s. From what we know, it saw regular use until recently. Certainly two centuries of repairs and mends are evident. We added a glass top to make a library table.

That is the book-of-the-month-club hardcover of Spoonhandle atop that we found in the house. See our earlier post for more information on its author Ruth Moore. It was a happy accident that Chiswell blue matches the blue in the Shepard Fairey poster perfectly. The smaller image is a vintage lobby card for Tarnished (Republic Pictures, 1950) based on a novel by Eleanor Mayo, Ruth’s partner.

Upon reaching the finish line, dusting and re-shelving stacks of books, we realized we were several linear feet short of shelf space. So this is a kind of to-be-continued… post.