The Reading Room

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I was nagged reminded by a few friends when I went back home to Airdrie for Christmas that I had been sadly remiss in writing about the progress of my reading room. I’ve posted quick pictures on Instagram that hint to what has gone on in the room for design and decor but never written THE POST about it.

Well, here is THE POST. You can all cease pestering reminding me now.

The name of the room came from the kids themselves because unlike a lot of households I forbid a TV on the main floor near my kitchen. The reason we chose the floor plan of our house was for entertaining, our last house has two clearly defined rooms, the kitchen/dining in one part and the main family room in the other. It drove me nuts when we had people over.  I wanted a house with an all open main floor, with extra seating everywhere possible but still open to the heart of the house, the kitchen itself.

Within wanting the house to be good for entertaining that meant that I didn’t want a TV anywhere. People congregate in the kitchen, no matter how many rooms you have in your house and I loathe TV’s as background noise. Even when it was just our family at home, I wanted everyone unplugged and interacting, not zoning on the TV.

Don’t get me wrong, I love TV. Oh, do I love TV. I love movies and I’m addicted to no less than 6 shows on TV (Bones, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Castle, Supernatural and Grimm, if you want to see inside my twisted head) and watch it all the time after the kids are in bed. I’m a movie fanatic and watch my favorites time and time again.

The kids are a different matter. They will go all week without watching TV, no word of a lie. There is simply no time. I have ironclad rules about no TV while eating, excepting movies and pizza on occasion and the time after school is spent reading, practicing voice or piano or finishing any homework. Then by the time Mike gets home, we have dinner together, then it’s time for the kids baths and bed.

I’m firm on my belief that a TV anywhere near where we eat, read or talk just becomes a distraction to quality family time and quality visiting time with guests.

However don’t think for a second that I haven’t been given a hard time about this! Especially since you can see that a TV would fit oh so lovely where the keyboard is!

But it’s my house and I’ll ban the TV if I want to 😉

The shelving is Ikea’s Hemnes line and by mixing and matching we managed to find a combination that fit the far wall to within 5/8 of an inch. There was a little bit of stress while building, worrying whether or not the measurements were bang on.

They were. These fit like a glove and I love that they look almost custom-made. It took Mike 4 days to get them installed and it was worth every minute that I watched him do it.

The couches I found at Leon’s, which I still can’t believe. I saw them and instantly fell in love with their retro lines and color.

Last weekend Mike and I spent a lot of time arguing  hanging my collection of artwork. Nothing is harder than hanging pictures that aren’t aligned exactly. Trying to get that carefree look to pictures is harder than hanging them in a line. One would think you could just throw them up there helter skelter, but no, that’s merely wishful thinking. It takes measuring, calculating and a lot of swearing to get the job done.

I was also asked about the artist whose work I collect and it’s Paulina Cassidy, a Canadian artist that paints ethereal fairies, mermaids and other enchanted beings. She now lives in the States with her husband but was an Ontario gal when I first started purchasing her original art.

I have adored all things mermaid since I was a little kid and it shows in the art I’ve bought from her. Five out of the 11 pieces of  her original art on my wall are mermaids. There is a sixth waiting to be framed.

In the past she has also accepted commissions, and since Mike and I adore Lord of the Rings, I asked her to create whatever she wanted that had to do with the books, with the resulting piece below.

Now remember that I come by the nickname Magpie honestly, it’s not just a catchy moniker for my website. I am an avid collector of carnival glass , especially the 1970’s Indiana Glass company’s ware.

Shiny.Sparkly. My Magpie nickname was definitely earned.

Some of the finishing touches include Ikea floor lamps that just came out the past few months in a gorgeous turquoise and the awesome retro seahorses that my sister bought me for Christmas.

How well my sister knows me. She had bought them to go in a bathroom, perhaps my master where I already have a retro mermaid hanging, but these matched this room so well that I knew they would get a place of honor.

Again, more retro. I found this mirror at an estate sale about 10 years ago and it’s hung on the wall everywhere I have resided since.

Mickey I bought our last trip to Disneyland because I loved how he was black and white. I knew he was going in the reading room once the shelving was up.

Believe it or not, all of my “tchotchkes”  have been chosen very, very carefully and most have meaning to them, not just random purchases. I adore knickknacks and you wouldn’t guess that all of them I agonised over and plan carefully.

The vase below is from Anthropologie and was a gift from Mike. I had pinned in on one of my house boards on Pinterest and he bought it for me. Good husband.

The glass fish was a house-warming gift from my mom and all the seashells inside have been collected from the ocean from our two trips to Huntington Beach, California by the kids and us. I won’t buy seashells, we have to collect them on our trips to add them to the fish. The kids love looking at them and reminiscing about the fun we had.

My inflatable terrarium footstools from the 1960’s are my pride and joy.

They are so tacky, so retro that I love them to no end. I have had people walk in and ask me in a startled voice if anything was living inside of them.

The rug that was the very first thing in the reading room, my lobster rug. I love it even more a year later.

I wasn’t kidding when I said it was the first thing in the reading room! Mike brought it back from Anthropologie in the States on a business trip since I couldn’t order it in Canada.

A real piano is on the shopping list for this winter and I should be able to find one that fits in that space perfectly. I have a few more pictures to  print and art to frame, but now, after a year, the reading room is pretty much done!

Now, on to the basement once it’s a beautiful bare finished space!

Love,

Slow But Steady Design Wins the Race Magpie