Encourage Reading in Your Home with the Perfect Reading Nook

Writer, director and actress Lena Dunham made this delightful suggestion. Oh, if only we could! One whole day devoted entirely to reading? Yes please.

While we will continue to dream about such a likelihood, there are plenty of ways to encourage reading in the home now. We’d like to give you some inspiration for one: creating a truly enchanting reading nook. Here are five options to suit the different personalities and preferences of the humans living under your own roof. Choose what suits your own tribe, and see if they can’t resist curling up with a scrumptious read more often.

Imagine what it would feel like to curl up in the paw of a gigantic teddy bear. That’s the experience of sinking into our Maguire Chair. The circular armchair has boucle upholstery and swivels 360 degrees — a very handy feature when someone has just walked into the room and you’re a few paragraphs from the end of a chapter (and an excruciating plot twist!). Position your armchair beside a window or under an elegant lamp. A side table is a must for all the necessary accompaniments (bookmark, wine, chocolate...) This chair would also love being matched with a tall bookcase choc-full of reading matter for the family members who love a challenge.

“Books are a uniquely portable magic,” author Stephen King once said. So it makes sense that, for some bookworms, their reading chair needs to likewise be portable. Look no further than a squishy, moldable bean bag. Drag it from one room to another with ease. With a book and a bean bag, your nomadic reader can follow the sunshine around the house, or escape noise to another room. It’s also the perfect height to pull up to a child’s bedside as you read them to sleep. Our bean bags come in all kinds of divine, tactile materials, from velour to linen to luxurious fur. A word of warning though: reading in them may whisk you off to sleep, they’re just sooo comfy.

Close your eyes and think of the last time you sat on a swing and felt the forwards and backwards sway of your body sailing through the air. Doesn’t it make you feel peaceful? Relaxed? A little bit carefree? Perhaps it even transports you to your childhood. These are wonderful reasons for using a hammock chair to create your own special reading nook. Choose a quiet corner in your home that has an abundance of natural light. Add a few cushions, a throw rug and a table or ledge within arm’s reach (for the books, of course, and a cuppa) — and you’re away. You may need a roster for its use! From experience, these beautifully bohemian spaces are irresistible. And they look pretty special on a deck or verandah too.

Take a dose of vitamin D with your reading habit in a good old traditional hammock. Fresh air in the lungs, blue sky overhead, the sound of birds chirping, the smell of earth and grass and flowers. When the weather’s fine, what better place to read? Especially for the outdoorsy people in your household. Choose a leafy, secluded part of the garden to hang your hammock. Take it up a notch with a few cushions and a wood round to rest a glass of water and some snacks. Perhaps hold off mowing the lawn until later!

I’m sure you’ll agree that good reading habits are best established in childhood. And introducing children to the other worlds found in the pages of books can be as easy as sparking their imagination before they begin. To make a reading nook that kids won’t be able to resist, set up a tepee tent in their room or play space. Deck it out with cushions, a string of lights, some of their favourite soft toy friends, and a stack of books. Above all else, make it fun. Hold an opening ceremony and ordain them as king or queen of their reading kingdom!