What is your comfort level?

Obviously, from my last post, I'm into warmth and comfort this time year.  When I'm through with all the hustle and bustle of the day, I want respite.  Quiet repose.  A place to be that eases away the care and woe.  I'm not sure any room can do all that but I went looking for some to share with you.  I lost a bit of my determination when, although I searched for "cozy bedrooms" and "romantic bedrooms", the results were disappointing.

I settled for a list in House Beautiful titled "Beautiful Designer Bedrooms".  As I flipped the pages, I found more rooms that gave me little nags.  Like this one..

I could like this bedroom here in the mountains.  We do a lot of cottage decor.   I had a problem, though, with the birds. I find them a bit creepy!  The room would have been inviting without them and, well, that chair.  Who is going to try and sit in that gargoyle and read?  Let's see what else we can find...

Lovely.  Peaceful.  Soothing.  Comfortable.  I'm not sure about the wall treatment?  I can't see how it works with the room at all.  It should foretell something.  To me, it's like a start with no finish.  On we go...

I could sleep in this room but I'm not sure how to get into the bed.  Why is there a garden seat there?  And what is the motivation for that one little wall fixture?  Ah, me! 

I like this room.  The patterns work for me.  If I were going to stay awhile I would like a lamp a bit more accesible from the bed and maybe just a wee bit more in proportion to the rest of the room.  Can't help wondering about the X in the ceiling.  Is that fabric on the walls? 

The slide show had 101 bedrooms that were billed as "beautiful".  As the old adage goes, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".  This beholder found this gray room serene and welcoming. 

I think it is in Europe because the bed is not primmed. 

I can't say that I would ever do a room this gray, but I do find this room completely lovely from all aspects. 

As I move around the 'net reading and studying, I am seeing people in the design profession discussing a tendency toward turning out rooms that are more living friendly and less "decorated".  Maybe we should call ourselves something other than "decorators".  We decorate a Christmas tree, stand back, admire it and, from that point on, other than having made accomodations for babies, dogs, cats and wayward guests, that's it.  It stands in its glory until it gets dismantled.  Rooms are different.  They must be livable, functional and, to this beholder's eye, make sense.  I hope you see my point. 

I wish you a wonderful weekend and a bedroom that doesn't give you nags!!

Pull up a chair!

This time of  year I begin to think warm.  Not warm-ly which would seem to be grammatically correct in the sentence, but warm.  Warm, as in secure, comfortable and not cold.  The kind of warm that our forebears had in mind when they invented the wing chair.  I love 'em.  Perhaps proving, once again, that I am a traditionalist. 

Wing chairs, according to those who speculate on derivatives, were originally designed as fireside chairs.  One who sat enjoyed the warmth of the fire with back and sides protected from drafts in the unheated homes of the 17th century.  Those early ones did not have the comfort of upholstery and feathers that we appreciate today.  It is a principle of my design work that no wing chair gets anything but a feathered seat cushion. 

A settle.

The individual wing or wingback chair was created based on the design of the high backed settle which had the same principle but seated at least two people.  Settles and the first wing chairs were just wood since the design preceded upholstery.  I don't have a date on when upholstered furniture came to be but I've heard that it was about the time ladies began wearing fewer petticoats and demanded softer seats.  Historically, we know it existed in the 1700's because Betsy Ross was in the business.  She took over her husband's upholstery shop after his death.  Did you know that she was a Quaker and John Ross was an Episcopalian?  She was banished from Quakerhood.   A little more history tells that she probably did not make the first American flag.  Oh well.  She might have upholstered a wingback chair similar to this one since she was also known for her decorative needlework.

For many years it was en vogue to cover a wing chair in crewel work.   

It is amusing that the chair's side pieces were called by different names in different countries.  In England they were known as cheeks or lugs.  Hepplewhite called them saddle cheeks.  In France, they were known as ears.  Whatever one calls them, they are comfortable and warm if placed near the fire on a winter's day. 

I yearn to spend a late afternoon by the fire in this French beauty. 



Paint your own picture.  A fire, a book, a dog, a drink and perhaps a pleasant companion.  For myself, I might play a little Diana Krall.  I find her wonderfully soothing.  With or without.  Any or all.  What's your pleasure in your chair with wings?