We designed our study around a picture in a magazine that I saw and fell in love with. I gave the picture to the carpenter working on the house, and said, thats what I want! Needless to say, it caused a great laugh and everytime I went near the site there was a great cheer of 'any magazines today, love?' and Mr.V was asked to keep me away from the magazines...
Wish I could remember the name of the actress in the article ( it was an 'at home interview' in In Style). But it was a gorgeous room. Along one wall were two bookcases at either end and in the middle a built in bench with piles of comfy cushions. They were actually painted cream ( i.e. the bookcases and bench) and a mirror hung on the space behind the bench. The room had high ceilings and on top of each bookcase was a simple mould, but it was lovely. You could imagine the two bookcases at either side of a large window too with a window seat in between. In the middle of the room were two comfy couches facing each other and a coffee table in between with a gorgeous rug and facing the bookcases was a writing desk.
In our study, we put shelving along two walls, but had no space for more. If we had had more room I might have gone for bookcases on three walls- we compromised and had doors on the bottom half of the cases, and shelving on the top. One of the remaining two walls is where I intend to hang loads of family photos in various types of frames when I get time. ( for good value in photo frames btw check out TK Maxx).
I envy you being at the design stage- may have to build another house at some stage...