Library Book Desk

I stumbled across a photo of this desk made of library books while I was… at the library! My local library’s kids’ discovery room had an activity where kids could use bricks of library books stacked together to make their own desk inspired by this one, at the Delft University of Technology library in the Netherlands. The photo was captured by Ellen Forsyth, who likes to photograph libraries for fun.

A closer look at the book desk. Looks like it has a wooden base, and I can’t tell if there are any other structural supports on the desk. although there are places in the book groupings that look like they are fairly uniform in flatness. The whole thing is topped off with a Plexiglass (or is it glass?) desktop.

This general idea is intriguing for several different furniture applications; end tables made of old books seems achievable. Just hit up your library next time the Friends of the Library have their yearly sale.

And before you complain about using books for construction, I just want to point out that all those $200 textbooks you used in college went sadly obsolete the year after you used them (I used to work at a college bookstore!), and there are MANY unloved books floating out in the world. And, depending on the construction of the desk, these books could conceivably be used again if the desk was dismantled.

This post is primarily about the book desk, but TU Delft bibliotheek is quite an impressive building, so let me just share a few snaps from the rest of the library. All photos were taken by Ellen Forsyth.

I love the library “study spiral.”

The library has many different study areas, each with their own character. I like the groupings of boxy red and green couches. The strings hanging from the tufting buttons add an element of organic movement, as well as the feel that something is “undone.” (I’ll talk about that concept another time!)

A grouping of purple chairs in a different study area.



These oversized chairs look comfy.

This view of the library stacks made me gasp when I first saw it.