Blessed with eight guests (all treasured members of our urban family) last weekend, one wondered what they would make of our home/building site. What will most interest, fascinate, concern, inspire and intrigue is always the question on our lips when we show others our space?
The size of the garden brought “Aahs!”, the verandah generated “Oooohs!”, the cellars elicited “Ummhs” and “Oh dears!”, but the library was universally acclaimed. The library, one of the most labour intensive rooms in the house in terms of time spent decorating, is also one of our favourite destinations.
Thanks again to inspiration gleaned from the wonderful Jocasta Innes, the library is actually a first floor cloakroom! The ceiling is tented and completed by a capiz shell lightshade, gives the impression of an exotic retreat. The walls are a collage of pages of books, with complete copies of the books displayed on a shelf in a nook. Informative and enlightening, pages are from texts including a thesaurus, Sidney Poitier’s autobiography, crossword puzzles, a health and food encyclopaedia, gardening journals and wordsearches. All have been carefully applied to the walls and finished with several coats of clear matt varnish.
Originally, the intention was that the walls would be interactive, complete with whiteboard markers for global participation. However, three torturous days of punishing labour later and the walls assumed a value far in excess of any carefully placed antique! Interaction has been reduced to completion of puzzles etc… in books from the nook and avid reading and discussion of new vocabulary and information gleaned.
The library is the culmination of several points on my “things to do before I die” list. I was thrilled to cross them all off – particularly, when they rendered such positive results.
So, do you have one of those lists and are you working your way down it? Or, do you think that you are immortal?!
