Library room box

I want to make a farewell gift for my department librarians when I retire, and the most natural thing is of course to make a library room box. I had planned to make a library for a long time, but I didn't have a clear idea about what to put into it, apart from the obvious, books.

As I was clearing out the house before the move, I found this:

 

And I thought: Wouldn't it be a great idea to have a library inside a book? I have seen various miniature projects inside books, and I always wince at books being mutilated. But in this case the book was definitely going to the garbage bin. Yes, I did ask a librarian. Nobody wants old dictionaries these days.

My first plan was to cut a square in the middle, but you probably need a special tool to cut a straight square through two thousand pages, so I gave up on that. Instead, I tore off the cover to build the box inside. As you see, the book had been well-used.

 

I found a box that fit the cover almost perfectly.

 

I still decided to use it rather than building a box myself - I would never be able to do it neatly. I wanted to keep the endpaper so I used the back one that was whole.

 

Next, I covered the "edges" of the book with pages. Of course, the real edges wouldn't look like this, but I wanted to keep something of the book, and anyway, I had to cover the box with something, so I actually think it looks nice. And you get the idea: the cover will be the closing front of the room.

 

I first thought that I would use book pages as wallpaper inside the room as well.

 

But it did not look natural. I had consulted a website called The World's Most Beautiful Libraries, and although I won't be able to make anything even remotely as grand, I still wanted it to be pretty. Therefore I decided to use one of the Adam papers I have left from Womble Hall. I have used this particular paper in the servant quarters, but I don't think it matters.

However, before starting on the walls, I had to add a back:

 

Still, it is always hard to hang wallpaper. I didn't have paste so used PVA glue, and it catches very quickly. You can say that the pattern is too large for walls, but imagine: it is huge marble panels.

 

Of course the ceiling will also be Adam:

 

Now I need to add cornices, and if you want to know how I do that you'll have a come back soon. This is as far as I got today.


To be continued.