When I started looking for reading nook ideas, I did not entirely appreciate that what I was really doing was opening the door to a long-term, slightly unhinged book-buying-and-furniture-shuffling project disguised as home decor. What began as a simple writing setup has, in stages, turned into my dream reading nook, my writing space, and a generally delightful monument to my inability to leave well enough alone.

The thing is, I have always wanted a space that felt separate from everything else. Not necessarily an enormous Pinterest-perfect home library with rolling ladders and stained glass and the budget of a minor duchy, but something cosy, bookish, and mine. Somewhere I actually wanted to sit. Somewhere that made me want to write more, read more, and generally lean harder into my feral little book goblin tendencies.

It has very much evolved in phases.

Phase One: The Basic Reading & Writing Nook Setup (That Rapidly Spiralled)

Phase one was fairly simple. I started off with a basic setup of an IKEA desk and bookcase. Functional, unfussy, perfectly fine. It did the job. Then I painted the walls a nice blush pink, which immediately made the room feel softer and more intentional, and added a comfy green chair so there was somewhere to sit that wasn’t just my desk chair. It still wasn’t quite a full reading corner at that point, but it had the beginnings of one. The bones were there.

At some point I also got a giant garden suspended hanging egg chair from B&M Bargains and added that, which felt like exactly the kind of chaotic-but-fabulous decision I fully support in theory.

In practice, I have to say I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with that chair. On the one hand, it looks fun and makes the room feel more “ooh, she reads”. On the other hand, it is slightly less dreamy in everyday life than it is in my imagination. So the relationship is, at best, complicated.

I also got a cute desk standing tree-style bookshelf, which I mostly filled with my own books. That might sound slightly absurd to anyone who doesn’t write books, but I found it genuinely motivating having them sat there in front of me. There is something oddly grounding about physically seeing your own work in the room with you. It makes writing feel less theoretical somehow. Less like you’re just typing into the void and more like you are building something tangible, book by book.

That first version of the room was definitely modest, but it mattered because it shifted the space from being just a room with a desk in it to something that actually felt like mine. I think a lot of reading nook ideas and writing space ideas online skip past that stage a bit too quickly, as though you either have a fully realised aesthetic vision or you’ve failed. But for me, phase one was important precisely because it wasn’t perfect. It was the start of the thing.

And I read SO MUCH more in 2025 than I had for YEARS. I also BOUGHT a lot more than I had before, which, inevitably, led to…

Phase Two: More Books, More Shelves, More Chaos

Phase two came about because, unsurprisingly, one bookcase was not remotely enough.

The original bookcase rapidly filled, and then I bought a massive Black Friday haul that tipped it over completely. At New Year, I upgraded and added a new corner bookcase, which immediately gave me more room to play with and made the space feel much more like the bookish corner I had been trying to create. Around the same time, I papered one wall in a gorgeous sage green wallpaper that I am still obsessed with. I added matching sage green curtains. 

It added so much depth and warmth to the room and made the whole thing feel much cosier and…well, let’s be honest sage green is basically my whole personality at this point. 

I also covered the nasty carpet with two lush fluffy green rugs, which was one of the best decisions I made because they softened the room instantly and tied the whole colour palette together. You may wonder why I went with dark green and not sage. Honest answer is the same reason I bought a darker green desk chair – I liked it better. There weren’t any particularly NICE sage green coloured chairs, however there are a lot ore really nice darker green options. And it’s still my favourite colour (green!) so all good. 

Now the rugs, chair, wallpaper and curtains are all in place I actually love the fact I have the two shades and it’s not just all one overwhelming shade of green. 

Part of my Black Friday haul was a neon sign reading “just one more chapter”, which is exactly the sort of thing I should, on principle, have hanging proudly in a reading nook by now. I was planning on putting it on the wall, but I haven’t put it up yet because I was already planning phase three by that point and knew the layout was going to change. So for now it remains in that particularly irritating category of decor that I already own, absolutely love, and still haven’t actually installed.

Despite my best efforts, though, everything ended up looking quite chaotic. And not in the charming, curated, ‘eclectic bookshelf decor ideas’ kind of way either. In the “there are books everywhere and I clearly made several enthusiastic decisions without fully thinking through how they would all live together” kind of way. So I did a massive reorganisation.

That helped enormously.

Now the original bookcase is mostly for my sprayed edges and Thomas Nielsen Seasons special editions, which gives it a much cleaner identity and stops it looking as though I’ve just flung books onto shelves in the vague hope that an aesthetic might occur. I’m also trying to build little features in the corner spaces of each of the shelves on the corner bookcase, which has been one of my favourite parts of the whole process. It makes the shelves feel more intentional and gives each section a bit of personality rather than just being pure storage.

At the moment, I have my Illumicrate Bridgerton set on one shelf, with coordinating flowers, natch. Another features my hardback copies of The War of Lost Hearts trilogy, which is currently my favourite romantasy series and yes, I am obsessed. Then there’s the ever-developing H.D. Carlton section.

And when I say ever-developing, I mean it has escalated at a frankly impressive pace.

Originally it was just a paperback of Haunting Adeline. Then I got Hunting Adeline, Satan’s Affair and Phantom. Then I realised the obsession with H.D. Carlton was not, in fact, going to be satiated by the world of the Cat and Mouse duet alone, so naturally I had to buy her other two books as well.

Then I saw the insanely adorable and inappropriately-sexy-for-an-inanimate-object Zade Meadows book nook insert and added that. 

Then I realised that for my favourite dark romance duology, having crappy paperbacks that didn’t even match in size (like, seriously, who does that???), was not going to cut it. So I do now have rebound special edition hardbacks on order from Etsy, though they won’t arrive for a while.

This is the stage where the room really started to feel like more than just a functional writing space. It became a reflection of my reading life too. Not just somewhere to sit and work, but somewhere where the books I love actually shape the atmosphere. That is probably the difference between generic reading corner ideas and creating a space that genuinely feels personal. The best spaces are not the most expensive ones or the most styled ones. 

They are the ones that actually tell on you a bit.

Mine absolutely does.

What I’ve learned from trying to create a reading nook that still works as a writing space

One of the trickiest parts of all this has been balancing aesthetics with practicality. I didn’t just want a pretty book nook. I wanted a room I would actually use, and use properly. A lot.

That means the desk still matters. The chair still matters. The layout matters. Storage matters even more than I would perhaps like to admit. And because I’m trying to create a space that works both as a reading nook and a writing room, every new addition has to earn its place a bit. It can’t just be decorative. Or rather, it can, but only if I can justify it to myself with the conviction of a woman standing in the middle of her own house saying, no, obviously this sexy little biker boy Nico reading a book shelf insert is essential.

The entire process has definitely confirms for me that I am NOT a ‘minimalist’. The book nook started out basic enough but the ideas to improve it just keep coming. Like what if I add flowers than hang from the ceiling, and wouldn’t some floating shelves fit nicely in that space.

I love the fact my bookshelves have little moments built into them and aren’t purely books. I love writing in a cosy space surrounded by books that inspire me, with comfy chairs to sit on while I’m doomscrolling … I mean, ahem, processing my writer’s block?

A great reading nook needs to look and feel a little chaotic, even when you’re obsessed with coordinating everything into the perfect shades of green and pink. Blankets everywhere, half read books. A TBR trolley overflowing in the corner. The type of space you actually read or write in quite happily for hours. Where you occasionally have to sit on the floor and stare at the shelves and all the special editions while reconsidering their life choices.

One of my favourite things to do now is trawl Pinterest for home library ideas and bookshelf decor ideas for inspiration. And I’m totally fine with that. It’s a valuable use of my time, I’m quite certain I write better now I have such a good space to work in! 

I certainly READ a lot more.

Phase Three: The New Plan

Phase three is where it starts looking more like the version I’ve had in my head all along.

I’m now eyeing up a big comfy corner cuddle chair to go where my desk currently is. It’s got a footstool with storage, which is how I’m justifying it, because obviously that makes it sensible. And it will be considerably less dodgy to relax in than the current egg chair.

The plan is to move the desk to the side of the corner bookcase. The egg chair will be moved out completely, which feels both practical and faintly dramatic, and then I’ll have a lovely self-contained little corner with the desk, the big bookcase, the cuddle chair and table, and another bookcase.

That’s the point where I think it will all finally come together.

The cuddle chair will give me a proper reading spot rather than one I bought because BookTok and Bookstagram convinced me a suspended egg chair was the height of the aesthetic dream. 

And, to be fair, it does look awesome. 

The problem is that there is absolutely nothing relaxing about sitting in a suspended chair you’re half convinced is going to snap and drop you on the floor at any second. I also run a faceless account, which means getting shots of me actually in the damn thing without showing my face is surprisingly difficult. 

And it is huge. 

Honestly massive.

It’s a two-person garden chair and it takes up about half the space. So, yeah. It’s got to go.

Moving the desk to the side of the corner bookcase should make the layout feel neater and free up the space enough for the room to breathe a bit. Once the chair is in place, I’ll finally get the neon sign up. That’s been waiting far too long already. But I’m also planning to add some floating shelves above the chair, and suspend books beneath them because, firstly, that looks really cool, and secondly, I am already running out of shelf space again.

That second point is, regrettably, not a joke.

This feels like the stage where the reading nook and writing space side of things finally come together properly. Up until now, the room has grown in bits, with each change helping but not quite fixing the full layout. This version feels much closer to what I actually want. Or at least as close as any book lover ever gets before the next special edition, the next shelf obsession, or the next completely necessary furniture purchase appears.

If You’re Planning A Dream Reading Nook, Design It For Reading (Or Writing!)

If there’s one thing this whole process has taught me, it’s that the prettiest setup is not always the one that works best. When you’re looking at reading nook ideas online, it is very easy to get distracted by what photographs well and forget to ask whether you will actually enjoy using it day to day.

That has definitely been part of my learning curve. Some things have worked brilliantly, while others have made far more sense in theory than in practice. And that, I think, is the bit a lot of dream reading nook content skips over. It’s very focused on how a space looks, and much less on whether it actually functions well once you start living in it properly.

So if you’re planning your own reading nook, my biggest tip would be to think beyond the aesthetic. Consider how much space you really have, what kind of seating you’ll genuinely want to use, how much storage your book collection actually needs, and whether your layout makes the room easier to enjoy or just more crowded.

A good reading corner should look lovely, obviously. But it should also work for the way you read, write, relax, and live. That is what turns a nice-looking setup into a space you genuinely want to spend time in.