The Sweet Serenity Of Nooks

I have to apologize to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The quotation actually reads "the love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books." It's from the poem Morituri Salutamus, and one of my favorite lines.

Nooks can be serene, too. Especially when your bed is in it:

It's been there for a few months, practically speaking to get it out of the way of the rest of the bedroom wall and floor work.

Aesthetically speaking, it's because having your bed in a nook is like sleeping in a tent.....if that tent happened to have temperature control, down comforters, lots of fluffy pillows, and a little lamp to read by.

It's sequestered. It's also serene. This is just what I need in a life that doesn't have much of either.

I started off with a pretty grubby space:

Which included some awesome but unsalvageable cowboy wallpaper:

With help from my sister and my son it gradually became a more finished space:

With a low-cost painted and stenciled plywood floor:

And just before Christmas I scored some great midcentury dressers: 

But now the time has come to start making progress on the area the bed vacated, and the rest of the room, mostly with drywall plastering.

In other words, playing with mud indoors. It sounds so much more fun when you say it that way, doesn't it? I also like how this photo looks like a before and after montage. Only it isn't. That is actually what the room looks like, right now. Serene Nook meets Plaster of Disaster. 

I'm not really close to done right now, but I am feeling like I could see it by the end of this year. In the meantime, it's nice to have the nook.