May 28, 2009

The Bedroom

Off the side of the living room is the bedroom. (See floor plan for the big picture.)

The bright light coming in the windows made it difficult to photograph the room, because the flash wouldn't go off. And speaking of windows, one thing I forgot to mention is all the venetian blinds...

These are the old-fashioned wood slat blinds, the type used before mini-blinds came into vogue. They were not only in every window in this room, but also the spare room and the sun room. Plus we found four more in the back (which probably would have been for the living and dining rooms, which were replaced with mini-blinds) . I took them all down because they were badly in need of a good cleaning. Plus several of them are in disrepair. Once we get settled in, I'm going to clean them up and see if I can't use at least some of them.

The front windows look out onto the porch. On the left is a built in book case.

Here's a better shot. The floor is hardwood. The walls and ceiling are beadboard. That door ....

... is a closet door. Like the other closets, it is shallow and long. This one is the shallowest, and at 17.5 inches, clothes hangers don't fit in it. It is also the only closet with shelves. The darker green interior, is the same color that the rest of the house was at one time.

The fireplace is back to back with the fireplace in the living room and they share the same chimney.

The second closet in this room is behind the bedroom door.

Notice how different the doors are in size!

This closet had the same type of shoe rack as that in the spare room closet, but I removed it. It was painted white underneath. Unlike the other two closets in this house, the door is centered rather than to one side. This make the closet a little more accessible.

All the doors in the bedroom have glass door knobs, as do quite a few other doors in the house.

I do have an idea for those long, narrow closets.....

I'm wondering if we couldn't cut out a larger opening and put in sliding doors instead. It might take away some of the charm, but it sure as heck would allow better use of the space!


8 comments:

Theresa said...

Nice room and beautiful floors. Pity the fireplace isn't working. I would not hesitate to put in sliders and make that one closet more functional. As to the other,
why not take it out completely and put in a lovely free standing wardrobe, or make it deeper by rebuilding the wall out a few more inches. Are you two sleeping there yet or still commuting? You must be so excited with all the possibilities and ideas you have for that
lovely old house and property. Have you met the neighbors yet?

Life Looms Large said...

I love the little but very tall bookcase, and the glass door knobs! I've actually put some glass knobs into my house because I love them so much! (When I say "I put them in", really I acquired them and Jim installed them!)

It does seem like a good idea to cut the opening to the closet to be bigger. They do sell some pretty nice sliding closet doors these days.

I'm trying to remember my grandmother's house. It was old, so closets were added later. Most of her closets were deep enough that once you opened the door (regular sized like your closet doors), the clothes rods were on either side of the closet running from front to back of the closet. There would be hooks behind the door and against the rear wall of the closets.

That said, I'd definitely have to weed out some of my less often worn clothes to fit them in the closets she had at her house! (And that might not be a bad thing!)

Aren't weavers always saying they use blind slats for winding warps on the loom - or something??? Now you have some!!!

Sue

bspinner said...

Were there hook on the closet walls? Way back when people used to hand their clothing on hooks instead of hangers so the width of the closet would matter to them.

I think you're right about green and pink being in style in the late 40's to early 50's. I remember seeing quite a few pink and green bathrooms from the time frame.

Too bad the fireplace doesn't work in the bedroom.

Pink carpeting in the dining room is interesting. One things for sure about older houses they are a loaded with surprises some not so good.

Benita said...

Rather than sliding doors, which would seem too modern to me, how about double doors that meet together in the middle? That way you can open them and see the entire closet at one time, rather than only being able to access one half at a time. Personally I hate my sliding doors and am replacing with with double opening doors - it's easier to get things in and out, too.

Leigh said...

Theresa, yes! We have officially moved. My blogging isn't keeping up with real time, but I'm plugging away at it. No, we haven't met the neighbors yet. :(

It's funny you should mention the free standing wardrobe, as my DH had the exact same idea.

Sue, I'm thinking that my grandmother's closets were similar, and her home had been built circa 1900. These are very odd closets indeed.

Also, good idea about some of those venetian blind slats! I'm hoping I can use some of them, but several are beyond repair.

Barb, as far as I can tell there haven't been hooks on the back wall of the closet. But there could have been originally. Besides the narrowness, there is no light in any of them, so the far corners are really dark!

Benita, I really like the idea of double doors. Now I'm wondering if we could find some that looked like old wardrobe doors. Hmmm. You've got me thinking.

MiniKat said...

I keep forgetting that I have to manually come to this blog, so I keep coming late to the posts.

The house is absolutely gorgeous with the hard wood floors. You did a miraculous job with them.

The floor plan is a bit odd, but I think it's charming.

I love the built in bookcases and corner shelves. And the French doors are wonderful.

I hope down the road you can use the fireplaces.

How much more needs to be moved over?

Leigh said...

Minikat, nothing! We're all moved in. I just need to get caught up on my blogging. :)

Anonymous said...

Neat Blinds!

Those closets are a bit of a mystery. It's like they couldn't bear to part with a few extra inches of space in the rooms, when they built the house.

I do think standard hangers might have been a little narrower in the old days, or else didn't have a standard size. I have a victorian wardrobe that is only 15 1/2 inches deep.

Just recently I *finally* found some hangers that are narrower without being the usual tiny child size ones. These are 14" wide. If you have the chain of discount stores called Tuesday Mornings back there, you might be able to get some, too--just so you can hang up some clothes until you rework the closets. The ones I'm talking about are called "Children's Velvet Hangers" from the "Karen Rhodes collection." Just flocked plastic, actually, but sturdy, and they sell 6 for $4.