As the weather turns colder and the evenings are darker
Creating a cosy area in your home for sharing stories can be magical
A seasonal book nook can be a sacred place for reading books together
Telling tales of old and exploring brave new worlds
It can be the first place you visit on a cold winters morning
Or the last place you snuggle on a damp autumn eve
Young children love to cuddle
They adore special time with parents and grandparents, siblings and friends
They love a particular place for them
Designed and created with them in mind
In our house we have a beautiful bay window in our front room
It is here that we have chosen to create our reading space
At the moment it is our Autumn Book Nook
As November becomes December it will become our Cosy Christmas Corner
Before January when it will be our Turning Over a New Leaf Reading Area
This is a space that will grow and change with our children and the seasons
And this is how it began
Our Autumn Book Nook
Supplies
A collection of seasonal books, fiction and non fiction
A collection of finger puppets that relate to the season and to your chosen books
Cuddly toys
Paper and Pencils
Small World figures
Cushions
A rug
Baskets, boxes and/or trays in a range of shapes and sizes
Magnetic art easel
Magnetic Letters and numbers
Chalkboard
Chalks
Creating Your Nook
Choose a space in your home where you would like your nook to be
We have a room in our house where we eat, craft, play board games and do homework. It has a lovely large bay window that lets in lots of natural light. It is an easy space to make comfortable and pretty for our small children.
Measure the space so that you can choose products that fit it well
Choose your theme and start a mood board or a Pinterest board for ideas
Collect together the things you already have that you want to use in the nook
I wanted a seasonal book nook starting with autumn. I started thinking about the colours of autumn as my starting point. I then collected together our autumn books. From the books I identified autumn themes such as going back to school or starting school and woodland animals. This encouraged me to collect together our puppets and cuddly toys that fitted the theme. My children are 4 and adore their cuddlies!
Make a list of the things you need or want to buy
I realised that to make my nook perfect for the autumn season I would need a rug, some cushions, an easel, chalkboards and chalk. I also wanted some different sized baskets to make the area look pretty and to try and keep it relatively tidy.
Collect everything together and start to create your reading nook
First I laid out the rug. I chose this beautiful rag rug from Wayfair. It was the perfect size for the space and is made with rich autumn colours. The rags look like leaf litter on a woodland floor which is exactly the feeling I was trying to create.
I then added the cushions using many that we already had at home and some lovely owl cushions from Wayfair. Esther and William love sitting on or relaxing into a pile of cushions and putting a blanket over their knees to enjoy a snack or storytime.
Next I sorted out all of our autumn books and put them into a large floor basket. This way they are easy to look through, Esther and William can browse the books and choose the ones they want to read. It is also easy to tidy away at the end of a reading session, putting all the books back into their basket.
I used a range of smaller baskets for storing and displaying puppets, cuddly toys, art and writing materials. All of these things are to extend and enrich our book sessions. We also have a storytelling drum which is great fun.
I also have a wicker tray in our book nook and this I use for arranging activities on for Esther and William. I create invitations to play or invitations to read.
The easel can also be used for writing messages on from me to the children or for activities linked to the books we are reading.
The chalks and chalkboards are used in much the same way and add a little extra something to our family space.
We adore our autumn book nook it is used every day for reading and play.
I am already very excited and collecting ideas for changing the nook into our Cosy Christmas Corner, the Wayfair way!
Follow Jennie’s board Wayfair Cosy Christmas Corner on Pinterest.
Regular readers will spot the Matilda Mae theme
We are loving our little book nook, please follow the blog to see how we use it
Wayfair provided me with £150 of products to make our Autumn book nook