The living room comes together

The living roomFinally, we got our futon. Whew. We also picked up a gorgeous bookcase from the early 1900s. The folks that sold us the futon said, “Need anything else?” And we said, “Bookcases?”

Behold, for reasons that are unclear to me, they wanted to get rid of this glassfront bookcase which had belonged to the husband’s grandparents. It’s beautiful! I am baffled but was very, very happy to buy it from them. Naturally, it was not a dimension that we had planned on having in the apartment, but so pretty that we went into make-it-fit mode. Actually, I think this will be better all around. So, what we are doing is using it as a divider in the living room and giving Rob a micro-office there.

Clearly, painting is still happening, but I hated the color I put up on the wall behind the lamp. It’s a purple that does not play well with anything else in the room. It is not at all the color that the photo makes it appear.

The apartment floorplanI am taking over the entire room that we had set aside as an office. Though my workbench was supposed to be temporary, it’s becoming pretty clear that I will always need something like it. I made this floorplan when we were moving out, to figure out what furniture would fit. It’s been very handy so far. Like when we were trying to decide if we could, in fact, make the bookcase fit. So far, we only have one piece that we don’t have a good home for. It’s a Japanese kimono rack, which is normally a lovely piece, but the right spot hasn’t presented itself yet.

I need to reorganize the office, which we are already starting to call the “workshop” but that will probably wait until Coraline is finished.

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10 thoughts on “The living room comes together”

  1. And here I thought I was the only one who drew up floor plans when moving house!

    We also have bookcases doubling as room dividers, in both the living room and my bedroom. In the latter case, I have them arranged around a wheeled clothing rack to make the world’s most ghetto walk-in closet.

  2. I’m glad to see the floor plan. I was hoping for a much larger drawing when I clicked on it though. Still, it makes the pictures you have posted in the past make sense.

  3. Rose: Your ghetto walk-in closet is a brilliant idea that I may steal.

    -d-: Ah yes, that’s one of my few complaints with this plug-in. If you click on the photo, it takes you to the photo album. While there, if you click on it again, it will give you the original full-size image. A pain, but relatively minor.

  4. I concur with -d-, the floor plan is most helpful in envisioning how all the parts fit together as a whole, thank you. The micro office is a lovely solution. A proper office is nice, but really one just needs to screen the clutter on the desk from view. (not that Rob would ever have a cluttered desk)

    Looking at the plan, the kimono rack would seem to fit most comfortably in the bedroom, either facing the door as you enter, or wrapped into the corner partially behind the tonsu.

    p.s. I see what you mean about the purple.

  5. p.p.s. the bookcase looks wonderful, and it is extraordinary how well the Japanese shades fit in those windows!

  6. -e- Ah… yes, the kimono rack would fit in either of those two spots if they were not occupied by a dresser (behind the door) and our bicycles (as you enter the room), which I forgot to render on the floorplan.

  7. -e- is so observant. Those sudare do look wonderful on the windows! Thanks for posting all the arrangement details. Perhaps a few tall plants atop that newly purchased beautiful book case would be useful for further secluding Rob’s sanctuary office.

  8. The apartment continues to look fantastic, Mary! Hey, I started painting at last on Sunday (goodbye ex-rental beige, hello Signal Red!) so I may have upgrade photos of my own soon.

  9. momk: There are actually typewriters up there, but we did that after I took the photo. Rob is completely secluded back there and we don’t want to stop light coming in from the window.

    Chris: Ooo! You know I love red rooms. I’ll keep an eye out for those photos.

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