Around the house: The living room

Continuing our tour around the house, today we're taking a look at the living room. This space really gets a lot of use. Abner loves to climb all over the couch and watch the goings of the neighbourhood. It's the perfect spot to sit and wave to TDSH as he bikes off to work each morning too. Sadly, even after six weeks in the house, we haven't put up any artwork in this room so we are still living with plain off-white walls. Sigh.

Even so, this room has some interesting features like these built-in book cases/room dividers which separate the living room from the entry and hallway. I love the retro feel they give the room and having the built-in shelf space means we've been spared having to replace the wall unit we got rid of in Burnaby.

Nestled in next to one of the bookcase is this fabulous vintage rocker we scored a couple of weeks ago up at the antique shop in Lumsden. The only thing wrong with it was a threadbare seat, so I used a vintage needlepoint pillowcase lined with batting as a little cushion, and voila, it's even cuter than before!

We've all taken a liking to this particular spot in the room. TDSH loves to sit and read, with a little music and a scotch in hand (as I knew he would). Abner likes to rock herself and was found curled up thumbing through Nelson Mandela's Long Walk To Freedom in there last night! [We actually got her the kids' version of that book a few months ago from the library, so at least she knows the gist of the story. This was during her Important Leaders in History phase which also included reading about Martin Luther King and Ghandi. Seriously.]

Another retro feature of the room...genuine wood panelling. Yes, yes, we are lucky indeed! Actually, I kind of like it. Real wood panelling is soooo much nicer than the fake stuff (which, don't you worry, we have plenty of in the basement!) I can't bring myself to drill into the panelling, so this wall will remain naked. For now, I've got my latest garage sale find set up in the living room to display my quilts and other projects.

The room divider screen came with dingy grey fabric (which I suspect may have been white at some point) stapled on. Once that was torn off, it's become the perfect rack for displaying quilts! If I'd tried to design a rack myself, I don't think I could have done a better job...and certainly not for the $7 I paid for the thing! I already have two quilts on the go, but now I want to sew up a few more just to fill it up a bit more. I figure it can hold up to 15 baby quilts!

That box on the floor is another garage sale find. It's made out of an old Gold Seal canned salmon crate and it's perfect for displaying the fabric boxes I've been working on. I used some remnant scrapbooking paper to line the insides since it was rather slivery (that's a word...right?). Actually, now that I look at this picture, I just remembered I still need to staple the paper down! Oh well, you get the idea.

In case you're wondering, I'm planning to use both display pieces if/when I ever sign up for a craft sale. For now, I am sewing like mad to build up a bit of stock. I am in sewing heaven!