Izzie has now mastered turning her play space into a scene from 'toddler-book-apocalypse-now' in the space of time it takes me to put her porridge in a bowl and cover it with milk every morning… from clean and tidy to mountain of books in about 10 seconds flat. While I'm all for encouraging the love of reading - I'm not sure my enthusiasm extends to them being used as building blocks, steps, or rug alternative. All these fabulous books - admittedly many of which are bought because I have a mild addiction to beautiful paper objects - strewn across the floor, to say book storage is a bit of an issue is a bit of an understatement. She'll happily sit there poring through ten at a time but I've taken to hiding the really lovely ones until she's learnt to be a little less enthusiastic turning the pages. (Gusto is not a hand-tipped book's friend! - Madeline in Paris anyone?)
Obviously the question of where to put the growing library is never far away… so when I came across Korean DesignArtist Shawn Soh's work - especially her magical 'Tree-shelf' it was love at first sight. Inspired by a memory from her childhood of sticking letters between tree branches, Soh says it's "a tree-themed bookshelf which changes form dynamically as books are stacked up and removed from the tree branches. Books become flowers of the tree, and indeed part of the artwork itself in its day-to-day use." This ever-changing form of the tree as books are piled high, taken down and then replaced echoes the natural rhythm of a tree through the seasons. It's an absolutely stunning piece for a kid's bedroom that would grow with them (and their love of books hopefully) … until they're adult book addicts who hoard away pretty picture books from sticky fingers!
For more information have a look at Shawn's site here - http://www.designartist.co.kr
