Front Bedroom After

Our front bedroom came together nicely, once the painting was done. Much of the furniture in this room was mine and I was pleasantly surprised to see how well everything went with the gray walls. I also knew that my furniture, being from the same era as the house, would also fit better than any modern pieces would.

This is a $5 chair I found at a garage sale and my folks had it recovered as a gift. The ginkgo pillow was embroidered by my mother, as was the Arts & Crafts pillow on the bed below. The framed picture is actually a length of Bradbury & Bradbury wallpaper my parents gave me one Christmas. Originally intended as a frieze for an ultimate bungalow along the lines of Greene & Greene, I think it looks amazing as a piece of framed art.

My mom found this Morris-style bedspread one season at either Land’s End or L.L. Bean. It’s reversible, with a winter side and a spring side (the spring side is showing now). I’ve looked for years to find anything similar with absolutely no luck.

This is a library table my folks found and refinished for me. It came apart during the move and Jonathan very carefully pulled it apart and glued it all back together. I had always thought of it as a desk until I read an article about how this traditional piece of furniture is often mistaken for a very uncomfortable desk. It’s actually a table and intended to be stacked with books, including the horizontal support shelf located just about where your shins would hit if you tried to sit at it. Given our lack of bookshelves in this house, I immediately starting filling the shelves with my old favorites, including the full set of Oz books my father gave me.

Looking over this room, it’s clear it would never have come about without my parents—my mother’s love of textiles, my father’s love for swap meets and estate sales, and their combined effort when it comes to repairing and refinishing furniture. Soon, they’ll come out to visit and we’ll put them up in this room. I have a feeling they’ll feel right at home.