Building a 17/18th century library/study - advice please!

Question

I'm building a new room in my home that will be our study/library. It has built-in bookshelves on 3 of the 5 walls (it has a "cut off" corner). I want this room to feel like it has been there for 2 hundred years. If anyone knows anything about that time period - I'd love their input.

Also, we wanted hardwood floors but can't really find exactly what we're looking for - can you make your own simply buy laying down plank of wood and then finishing them?

Thanks!

Answer 1

A 17th/18th century room would be 300 to 400 hundred years.  200 years ago would be the Regency era in England.

Also Mount Vernon would fall into the right era.  You can take a virtual tour of George Washington's home for some ideas.

But it seems there is quite a bit of dark wood, panelling, and gilt-frame oils on the walls.  Windows were covered with damask and silk draperies.  

Good luck and have fun decorating.

Answer 2

its a shame that you think we are all mindreaders and know where you live ..like what country !   however ..if you had lived in the uk at that time you would have had elaborately plastered ceilings with heavy coving and the walls would have been panelled...the floors would be oak ..same as walls ..oil or gas lights ...oak door ...window in oak with leaded glass ...in expensive houses the wall panneling would have gone to ceiling ...in less ..about half way up ..with flock wallpaper to top  

Answer 3

For many years I worked doing restoration of 18c. and early 19c. houses in New England, as well as working on historic preservation issues. I can tell you that you need to do a little homework and start gathering ideas in the form of photos and sketches.

Are you asking how your library should be constructed? as it sounds as though you've got a fully built room? If it hasn't been built yet and if this is within your budget, you should consider doing some wall paneling, and by paneling I mean raised panel paneling and not the cheap stuff that comes by the sheet in a home center.

You need to do some homework to find some existing, historic examples of what is along the lines of what you'd like. There are many good books out there. The Library of Congress is the repository for all of the HABS surveys, which include detailed measured drawings and photographs of significant historic houses, including interior details, and you can practically use these for your project. Also, and these get republished from time to time, there was a collection of drawings done during the depression, as a WPA project to keep out of work architects busy, and that were mostly printed under The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs. They must have fallen into the public domain as I see them collected and printed in like, 20 volume sets. They are nothing short of wonderful! The original editors sought out to document what were considered more significant structures in the USA and since The White Pine Bureau was sponsoring this project, many of the homes of course were built of white pine. If you can find the set, or even some of these, you'll find enough photos and measured drawings of beautiful 18c libraries to build a hundreds of houses. I see that google has put some of the White Pine Series online on their google books project, I heartily encourage you to check this out: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=8...

Also as an example, look at the drawings of Carter's Grove in Virginia, as documented by the HABS project, in the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?col...

Personally, I think the most significant features would be the paneling and bookcases all integrated. You'll also pay attention to how you furnish the room.