My First Ever Book Nook,

Before jumping in to this new hobby with both feet, I needed to know if I could even make a decent book nook.

Turns out, I could.

I really, really wanted to be good at making book nooks. So I did what any librarian does -- I researched the heck out of it. But book nooks are a relatively new type of diorama, so there wasn't too much out there. Low and behold, the crafty people's number one app had what I was looking for: Pinterest.

Choosing an idea

If you go on Pinterest and search for "book nooks" or "bookshelf inserts" a bunch of pins pop up. Mostly they can be divided into two groups: Harry Potter or miniature libraries.

Now, don't get me wrong, those are great choices. But their are a few book nooks out there that are really, truly incredible (at least to me). Let's take a look at this 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea inspired one:

Source: https://pin.it/6DNkWvD

Wow, right? Or this, a "Wednesday" inspired one for Spooky Season:

Source: https://pin.it/1w14rPW

These a both really great examples. They are also very advanced and use a lot of techniques I still haven't learned. I had a while until my skill was on par with these, so I decided to start simple.

My Chosen Theme

398.2. Do you know what that number stands for? It is the Dewey Decimal number for fairy tales. Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved fairy tales and folklore. So I decided a pretty simple and fun first book nook would be an enchanted forest. Not only did it leave room for error, but it also used a lot of elements I could find right outside in my yard. Here is the Pinterest image that inspired me the most:

Source: https://pin.it/7A9KAxj

Before investing in the materials I couldn't find outside, I needed to make a prototype. If the prototype seemed pretty good, I would move on to making the real deal. Here is how the prototype looked:

The prototype for the nook

I had gathered up sticks and pea gravel from the yard, and borrowed my daughter's fairy lights. I could definitely tell what it was, so I went ahead and kept going. I bought fake moss and a few decorative elements from the store (as well as some fairy lights after I returned my daughter's to her) and my vision slowly became a reality.

"Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don't lose the passion and the love for what you do." – Nadia Comaneci

Beginner's Luck?

I don't know how, but the Enchanted Forest book nook came together really well. I think it was because I didn't think too hard about making it super great since it was my first try. I didn't put pressure on myself to be perfect right off the bat. That led me to experiment more while I was going along, redo things if they didn't feel right, and just have fun creating.

The completed inside of the nook

Take Aways From My First Book Nook

I learned a lot from this first nook, but I think the main things were what materials I wanted to use in the future and a list of problems I ran into that needed more exploring. For example, I used hardboard for the outside instead of cardboard, and that turned out to be a great decision because it would last a lot longer. The con was that you needed to use a table saw to cut the hardboard to size, and I found out I'm not the best at cutting things square. Thankfully, piling moss in the gaps solved that issue. Also, I needed a different type of glue to stick the background to the hardboard without it discoloring, and though the fairy lights looked magical I knew they wouldn't be a good light source for every book nook design.

On a positive note, I didn't think adding a border to the outside front of the nook was that important, but once I did it made me love it even more. Overall, I learned a lot, had fun, and was able to be creative. Those were my main goals heading into this project anyway. Mission accomplished!

First One...in the Books

In the end, this nook cemented the fact that I wanted to dive deeper into this as a real hobby. Other than reading, I didn't have any other hobbies. I don't know if you know this, but once you have babies your own hobbies can fall to the wayside. Raising babies and toddlers is no joke. But now that I'm out of that stage of parenting, I get to explore what I really enjoy and find new hobbies to match my passions and interests. Book nooks are definitely on that list.

The completed "Enchanted Forest" book nook