I saved a couple of the best room tours in our Mandy Moore house project for last… one is the library nook that we carved out of an un-used hallway by creating the built-in sofa to cozy up in and shelves to house Taylor’s book collection. As you will see in some of the before photos below, there was already some traditional wood bookshelves along one wall, but we scrapped those and re-worked the layout completely. I wanted to delineate the space more into its’ own room and by adding shelves in some areas and taking away shelves in others, we did exactly that. We also added swing sconces over the sofa and swapped out the peaked “mall skylight”, as architect Emily Farnham coined it, for a more streamlined option. The end result is a quiet moment in the house that makes a huge impact.
I still dream of that color velvet. We went back and forth on the fabric for this sofa for months. At first it was going to be a green cotton canvas and we must have looked at a couple dozen shades of green, however there was already a lot of green in the house. We then looked at some shades of blue and almost landed on a chambray but then there was taupe and a puddy/lavender and maybe a warm grey?… but every swatch we went back and forth on there was always one person that wasn’t 100% on board between Mandy, Taylor, Emily and myself. It wasn’t until I found the ochre colored velvet(or “whiskey” to be exact) that brought on a very quick unanimous hell yes! And now I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Now let’s peek back at the before…
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
See all of the progress and tours of our Mandy Moore Residential project here.
Shop the Look: Custom Built-in Sofa in Fabricut Velvet // Arm Sconces From PhotonicStudio // Teak Stool From Grandin Road // Rug – Vintage // Ceramic Bowl From Spartan Shop // Planter From Spartan Shop // Ivory Vase From CB2 // Ceramic Boat Tray From Etsy // White Spike Planter From Jayson Home // Artwork by Claire Oswalt
Interior Architecture by Emily Farnham
Interior Design by Sarah Sherman Samuel
Photography by Tessa Neustadt
Built by Bronstruction
Branding and Initial Web Design
Nature
Web Design Production
Jane Reaction
Site Development
Alchemy + Aim
Now only if all hallways / reading nooks could look like this. Love this space (heck! I love all the spaces of this house!).
Yaaay! I’m so glad you did a post on this. When I saw this room on the cover of AD, I died. The color of the velvet against Mandy’s pretty floral dross in that shot is so stunning. It’s really interesting to read about how many times the fabric changed during design, because I can’t imagine anything more perfect than this. Thanks for sharing the process. You’re making an ochre convert out of me, Sarah! (Which is very weird since I’m usually a navy blue and blush pink kinda gal.) This room makes me want to push myself out of my comfort zone a little and start playing with a new color pallet. Thanks for the inspiration!
Do you have a link or more info for the “whiskey”, “ochre” upholstery on the custom couch? It’s gorgeous! Thank you!
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It’s beautiful! Would love that whiskey upholstery as well – do you have a link to it? Would SO appreciate it!
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Love the velvet. But it is mostly a hallway, not a library. I have more books sitting on my nightstand!
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