to seek out underutilised areas and create a
cocoon. “I had this funny little space halfway
up my stairs that didn’t have a purpose,” says
Catherine Lock, creative director of the New
Craftsmen. By a window seat in her southeast
London home she built a wall of bookshelves
and created “a box bed-like nook”. She says:
“It’s lined with plump cushions and when
I climb into it I escape from the everyday
realities.” The joinery displays her most
recherché volumes for visitors to admire.
“Beautifully produced books on subjects
such as ‘brick’ or the poetry of John Clare,
along with battered Ordnance Survey maps
and museum guides from global travels.”Above Joanna Simpson of Simpson
Studio created this nook in the hallway
of a family home. Right New York
designer Kati Curtis has decorated
reading areas for clients whose brief
was ‘no white walls’. Below Sarah Peake
used a favourite wallpaper, Chintamani
Trellis by Ottoline, for this cosy spotPut down that paperback and pay attention.
The Oscar-winning overachiever Reese
Witherspoon would like us to rethink our
reading arrangements. The Legally Blonde
bibliophile, whose @reesesbookclub Insta
account has more than two million followers,
is collaborating with the US online interior
design service Havenly to help bookworms
create their ultimate reading retreat at home.
“Shelf help” scheme or evidence of the rise of
the aspirational book nook?
The trend for carving out and cosying up in
pocket-sized reading spaces is flourishing on
both sides of the Atlantic. Over here, where
interiors are smaller and draughtier, we tendWelcome to
the book nook
Forget the private library and the #shelfie – the
perfect ‘book nook’ has become the latest
interiors status symbol, says Katrina Burroughs
102 • The Sunday Times Style