Studying my Historic Library.

Saturday My Style - Today I am going to share some bits of my library.  First of all I have to tell you that I had always wanted a library with floor to ceiling book cases full of, well, what else, the books I had been collecting since childhood.

When we bought our historic red sandstone house in 1997, it had everything I wanted in an old house, save this one feature.  It took a couple of years to make it happen, but it has become my favorite room in the house.

Besides my collection of thousands of books, it also houses my brown and white transferware collection.  I am not loving the wallpaper anymore and the room is slated for a makeover,  but otherwise it is a cosy place to snuggle before the fireplace with a book on a chilly day. (or a nice summer day for that matter.)

One kind of cool thing about the room itself is that it is the only room in the house that still has its original false graining, shown above.  In Utah, where I live, the hardest native wood in Fir.  The red oak the house boasts (it was built by the Mayor) was shipped from the east including a fireplace in the parlor, an amazing spandral between parlors, and the staircase.  The rest of the woodwork in the house was false grained to match.  Virtually all of the house's false graining was stripped over a period of 30 years by the energetic previous owner, Edna Hill.  It isn't really her fault though, as when she bought the home it had been a home for wayward boys for ten years, and I am sure the wood work had suffered.  Yet the unremarkable pine found under the faux finish is not my favorite feature and I have painted a lot of it (I am sure Edna is spinning in her grave.)  This room, however, was used as a storage room by the Hills and thus the wood work was never 'improved'.  Hoorah!

 Another favorite feature is the portrait of my husband that hangs over the fireplace.  I commissioned it to be done in period clothing and set to the time the house was built in the 1800's.

 Of course the library also houses all kinds of sets of favorite books.  The 'Big Books' to the right are a whimsical collection of Antique and Vintage art, as well as prose and poetry on their title subjects.  I find them charming.

Of course I also have sets of antique books, and sets of favorite authors, such as Dickens, Stevenson, Eliot, Austen and Alcott.

I even have close to 30 copies of the first and second volumes of my mother's book. She was a wonderful example as a reader, reading as many as 3 books a week when I was growing up.  I am sure she has everything to do with my eclectic reading taste.  I love reading and am so grateful to have been raised by parents who valued all the wonderful things that come from books.  They have certainly enriched my life, and that of my children to whom the tradition, for the most part, has passed.  Maybe I should get a plaque for the door in honor of my parents ... 'The Larsen Reading Room' perhaps?

Sharing My Hand Painted Antique Angel Desk

Friday Favorites

 Since I took a picture of my crown treasure chest yesterday, and had a couple of comments about the desk behind it, I thought that the 'Friday Favorites' was the perfect category for telling you about it, since it IS my most treasured piece of furniture.   My sister Julie found this amazing bit of folk art when she was approaching a junk store in Maryland where she lived and found the proprietor on the front porch with paint brush and paint stripper in hand.

The hard varnish finish on the 19th century combination desk had darkened and bubbled on top of the decorative painting, which dates back to the Victorian Era. (This picture shows the condition of the finish of the whole piece at that time as the sides have not had the varnish removed.)

 You can see by the tiny scraped area in the photo to the left, that the desk is solid oak.  The antique dealer had scraped it to be sure of the wood before he decided that it would be worth more stripped.  Ouch!!  My sister has amazing taste and a love of all things folky and funky.  She told him she wanted it as-is, and was willing to pay almost as much as the stripped desk would bring ....

She took it home and lovingly scraped off the darkened varnish with a shard of glass from an old bottle.  It was painstaking and a real labor of love.  It was also her favorite piece of furniture.  Where I got lucky is that when she decided to move from her lovely historic two story farm house in a college town in Maryland to a simplified existence in the hills of West Virginia she sold off most of her antiques. 

 She originally could not part with the desk, but later when she needed to be driven to California, after having cared for our mother in Utah, to move furniture she owned there, she used the desk as a bribe, a very effective bribe.  I would have found a way to drive her to the moon if that is what she wanted.  I spent a lovely week meeting her friends in Northern California.  Definitely the best

deal I have ever struck, and came home with the best souvenir ever!! At least my sister

knows it is just as beloved as it was when she was housing it.  I have made a few changes, such as taking out the mirrors that once lined the book shelf section, and painting out the hot pink inside the desk cubbie area.  Otherwise I feel like  its caretaker, and smile every time I see it.  It is definitely the crowing jewel of the parlor it inhabits.

It currently does a fine job of housing my children's bust collection.  I hope you enjoyed the story of this great bit of folk art.  I sometimes wonder about the loving care of the artist who created it.  It is also a great bond between me and my sister who lives 2,000 miles away.  Love you Sis!

Thrifty Thursday Royal Upcycled Chest.

Today I am going to show you how the prince rescued the shabby little chest and made her into a true royal. (OK, I admit he had some help.)

When I bought this chest at the local second hand store  she was not only homely she was broken as well. Fortunately I noticed her great bones right away.

She was white and had those poorly done hand painted flowers in the medallions, which were honestly tacky.  She also had a badly broken lid that needed a real prince of a man to repair it.

 Luckily for me there just happens to be a real prince of a man that lives at my house, and he did some sturdy repairs.  Of course he did use his signature Phillips head screws, but since the chest is not an antique, I was good with that.  A little paint and a great crown found on Graphics Fairy, which was applied with the reverse Modpodge method, and the sweet little royal box is ready to stow anything.

Not a bad transformation for a $3.00 dated charmer, eh?