More Planning: Living Room Edition

Current Living Room

I'd like to turn the living room into a library/reading room. We spend a lot of time in this room, just having morning coffee or relaxing in the afternoon. I thought that this would be the best place for all our books. Currently, the books are downstairs on the white shelves, however, we would like to get rid of those soon. So we need somewhere else for our books to go, not to mention, they are pretty well ignored down there. They would be put to much better use upstairs!

I made a little drawing of the living room wall, above, to show the changes I would like to make. Basically, change the whole fireplace mantel, add built in shelves on one side and a desk/work area on the other. The photo below shows the idea I am going for in terms of the fireplace and built in shelves. I'm hoping to start this project somewhat soon, as I'd like a place to put our books from downstairs. The result should look a lot more interesting and cosier than the current blank wall.