China’s book cull

An unused nook transformed

Mikaela Bossley, 39, always dreamed of having her own little library. The government communications worker transformed an unused room in her home into a serene retreat with the help of a carpenter, a DIY paint-job, and some budget buys. She lives in Thorndon, Wellington with her two sons Alex, 14, and James, 11. As told to

Ilove where we are, in a funny little private road that feels like a country laneway. The cottage is a genuine part of Wellington’s history, and a part of mine. I was able to buy this house on my own with a deposit that was an inheritance from my grandmother, who had grown up just around the corner on Tinakori Rd.

Living here feels like a way to honour her memory.

The house is a quarry worker’s cottage, the original part was built in 1905, but it has had random bits added onto the back over the years.

I love being in the city. I can walk everywhere, and everything the kids might want is right on our doorstep.

They have the Thorndon pools in summer, the Botanic Gardens, the city library, but the location is also peaceful enough not to feel like we are right in the middle of town.

The room that became our home library was a small and odd second living room that I have to walk through to get to my bedroom. I wanted to give the space a functional use.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been a bookworm and have loved curling up somewhere cosy and losing myself in a book.

I wanted to instil that same love for reading in my boys. If there is somewhere really nice to be, dedicated to reading, it is more natural to do – especially when screens are so prevalent. Teenage boys always have their noses stuck in a phone or laptop.

The entire room cost me about $11,000

Almost all the cost was tied up in the shelving. That was the big splurge.

Carpenter Richard Dowsett worked so hard to get them right and re-designed a bunch of times. He usually makes cabinetry for super yachts, but I ended up getting in touch with him because tradies are so hard to come by at the moment.

I knew I wanted the built-in desk and shelves that wrapped around the two walls, and I wanted the blocks to be different sizes without looking like the cube shelving you can get at Kmart or The Warehouse.

The velvet armchairs came first. I picked those out and started playing around with different paint test pots to find colours that would tie in.

I initially wanted a darker shade, but asked a bunch of friends which of three finalist colours they preferred and the

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feedback was unanimous. The green feels quite soothing to me.

I worked on a boat when I was younger, and painting came back to me like muscle memory. The biggest challenge was having a 3-month-old kitten who kept jumping into the paint tray. I think I painted as much on the cat as I did on the walls.

We are in the library every day, it’s where the kids gravitate to when they come home from school. Sometimes I’m working away on my laptop near them, and sometimes I’m reading a book. It’s really lovely in the mornings when the sun comes streaming in, and it feels really good to put my own stamp on the house.

I’m a single mum, so my style is whatever I can afford

I didn’t follow any interior design advice, I just did what I thought would work for me. But I popped a before/after photo on Twitter and at last count, it had been seen by about 25 million people. I was completely unprepared for how much other people would like it.

I admit that having a library is a bit pretentious, but it was just something I wanted. For the first time in my life I had the means to do it, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Our book collection is always going to be a work in progress, and I’ll be the first to say it’s not very intellectual. The books in there are the last few things I’ve read, cookbooks, and children’s books. They aren’t organised in any particular way, I just chucked them in wherever they would fit.

What I’ve learned is you don’t have to throw lots of money at a makeover. I was fortunate to have a nest egg to spend on the shelves, but could have achieved something nearly as nice by learning to build. You can achieve a remarkable amount with some paint and a couple key pieces of furniture.