Monday 11 June 2012

Multi-functional. Table setting.


Sunday morning
Sunday evening
Working table
Tea party table

The kitchen table is probably the most used area in the house; it acts as a place to eat, work, read, drink, talk, and more. The table is relatively new due to the fact that I burnt the previous one by leaving a candle burning away.

The chairs are a mix, some inherited, some new, and as mentioned in an earlier post, non-matching. This wasn’t a deliberate decision initially – in all other houses that we have lived in, we always had a pew on one side of the table and chairs on the other, so there has never been a case for buying four matching chairs. The pew looked wrong here as the proportions of the new table meant it couldn’t be placed against the wall; more chairs were gradually added, initially four, now six.


You can see the pew in the photograph above,  taken shortly after we moved in.

As a child, whenever we sat down as a family to eat, we all had ‘a place’ where we sat and this never changed. Mum was nearest to the kitchen, whilst I sat opposite my Dad and next to my brother. D and I have more chairs and less people to accommodate so we don’t follow any ‘regime’ in terms of where we sit – however, it is more practical for whoever is cooking to sit nearest the oven or hob, and I do have a preferred place to sit when I use the table to work at.


Tuesday 5 June 2012

A Bare Breast and No Mantelpiece.




The snug follows on from the studio and is a really nice room to relax in. There is a music system in the alcove on the left, in which sits an old valve amplifier. It lights up when switched on, and has a nostalgic glow. A pair of home-made speakers sit either side of the chimney breast. A small original G-Plan coffee table, and a foot stool are placed in front of the tongue and groove paneling, where the original fireplace would have been. The blue colour tiles are still there (see pic above), underneath the rug, and the brickwork is still there too, but alas no fireplace or mantelpiece. The chimney breast is bare - S was saying the other day about purchasing a mirror to go there, but I'm not sure about a mirror (always get caught out for a moment in shock when I see a reflection), and perhaps would prefer to put some artwork there instead. TBCt'd.
In a previous post ('Wooden Floor, Feet Pointing Snugward') you can see that we had some plates hung from a picture rail above the sofa. Now, a couple of weeks on, and they are in a shelf unit (rescued from the 'old' Art Shop at Bath Spa University) along with two Staffordshire dogs (with rather comical expressions) in the other alcove. The walls are very bare, but will get some additions soon - and you can see the inherited items (plate and deer ornament)on the shelf, just near the door to the hallway.

The room has changed rather a lot. Couldn't resist putting in some 'before' and 'during' photos to show you the room in Audrey's day, the 'hole in the wall' during our renovations, and also the blue colour wash, which was the original colour of the painted walls of the house when it was built in 1877.
Discovered under rather a lot of layers of wallpaper.

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