Room of the Day: An Island Bed Makes Way for a Reading Niche

Noz Nozawa says it took a little time to get this room right. OK, a lot of time. “I think I tried 100 different layouts before I hit on this one,” she says. Like many breakthroughs, it happened when her life changed. “My boyfriend moved in with me, and he came with a lot of books,” she says. “I thought that maybe the books didn’t have to be in the living room, and once they were in the bedroom, it made sense to move the bed up to make room for shelves.” Now the bed is in the middle of the room, subtly dividing the space into sleeping and reading areas.

Photos by Colin Price Photography

Room at a Glance
Who lives here: Noz Nozawa, her boyfriend and Vivienne, her French bulldog
Location: San Francisco
Size: 143 square feet (13 square meters)
Tip: Don’t spend all your energy and funds decorating the public rooms in your home. Save some for the spaces you spend time in when company is not there.

With the bed moved to the center of the room, the (mostly) open bookshelves line the back wall. Seeing the other midcentury pieces here, you might assume that the shelving was around during the same era, but it’s actually an Ikea hack using three units from the Billy series that Nozawa found on Craigslist and bolted to the wall.

Bed: Jane, Modloft; paint: Old Navy, Benjamin Moore


Nozawa, of Noz As A Service, had the shelves set on wooden blocks, then installed a piece of plywood molding around the bottom to make the bookcase appear built in. “It cost less than $300 and took about a day’s work,” she says. “It fits with my philosophy of using what is already out there, if you can. By getting the pieces on Craigslist, I didn’t have to assemble them, and I didn’t have to deal with the packing material. All I had to do was rent a van and carry them up three flights of stairs.”

Nozawa added an original midcentury chair, but not before giving it her touch. When she discovered it on Craigslist for $100, it had a striped upholstery that didn’t fit her style. As can happen, after reupholstering the chair and refinishing the wood, she had spent $1,000 more. It’s the bane of many who love a good furniture find. Nozawa reasons it this way: “If you find something you love, and it has a junk price tag, you are more willing to add your touch to it or take risks with the piece.”

The long dresser that stretches along the back of the headboard is also a vintage piece. In addition to providing storage, it helps separate and define the spaces.

Dresser: Mid Century Mobler





Nozawa describes the room before the remodel as a plain box. To make it feel rich and cozy, she covered the walls with Benjamin Moore’s Old Navy blue. “I’ve always been attracted to deep colors,” she says. “I didn’t worry about it making the room too dark, because the trim, doors, ceiling and floor are light.”

The hot-pink triptych seen above is another character-building element. “ I have always loved Scalamandré’s Zebra wallpaper,” Nozawa says. “Using it in a project someday is on my decorating bucket list, but today is not the day.”

Instead she enlisted her friend, illustrator Emily Yao, to create a piece in the style of the iconic print. Together they painted the canvases a smile-inducing pink. Yao came up with the striped beings (a zebra unicorn and a tiger that resembles Vivienne, Nozawa’s French bulldog). As a finishing touch, Nozawa added arrows, but unlike in the Scalamandré print, these weapons fly every which way.

Nowaza felt that the bedding should be matte, so she chose simple linen pieces. “It keeps everything mellow,” she says. Vivienne appears to agree.

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