favorite room (my fireplace, windows, curtains, couch)

[grammy164]

What is your favorite room in your home? Has it changed over the years? How come it's your favorite?

[SpeedyAZ]

Definetly has to be my office.

Everything in there is hand-picked and customized. I had the regular door replaced with an etched glass door. It opens to a huge desk with mounds of paperwork on it. Also an overstuffed brown leather desk chair and matching couch. Then I have my humidor and wine cooler (when I need to forget about the mounds of paperwork). It's just a very masculine room where I can relax. Without a doubt my favorite room.

[Isabella]

My living room. I cuddle with my son and daughter to watch TV or read books.

[MoMark]

grammy, what's your favorite room? Tell us And you SpeedyAZ... I want that leather couch and leather chair!!! That's right up my alley! For me my favorite room is my dining room. I like formal dining rooms. Maybe it's because when I was growing up the adults I admired had them and they seemed to really have their acts together. My grandparent's dining room was awesome and I always felt when I owned my own home, I'd have it too. It's the room I've worked hardest on redecorating and making changes in. (...I know I go overboard in excessive detail!) It was really ugly when I moved into this house with a chandelier with a doubled-up chain (guess no one thought to shorten it and instead just folded it back on itself...) and it looked like an opaque smoky glass monstrosity with glass tubes that had partially melted in nuclear testing. Really ugly...ok...beyond ugly...hideous. The walls had dark roses wallpaper that ended at an undelineated border with tears in it, and the curtains were double lace and yellowed with age and cigarette smoke. IT WAS GROSS! I replaced the chandelier with a Lismore style Waterford crystal chandelier (it pays to search the internet for the best deal at the best dealer! I got the chandelier for $500 less than the going rate from a crystal lighting dealer in Washington state and free shipping. They didn't have it in stock, had to order it, so the chandelier came in a box sent to me directly from Ireland. Waterford charged $2500 for it at the time if ordered directly from them. Now they've raised it to $3000. I imagine it has to do with the decline of the U.S. dollar against the Euro. I don't know how the dealer I bought it from was able to afford to give me such a discount, but they did!). I had bought a Duncan & Pfyffe dining set with six chairs back in 1999 in a Consignment store... double pedestal splayed legs, lions feet, mahogany...beautiful- $999. And then I found a mahogany sideboard that matched in perfect condition from an Ebay seller near Kansas City. I saved the shipping costs and drove up there and picked it up from the man's barn. It cost me $300! ( I like Ebay and consignment shops...you save BIG money ! and get stuff you can't find anymore. Plus, when I buy furniture or something for my home, it has to hit me just right. If it's not exactly what my mind's eye envisions, I won't buy it, so I'm always sure when I finally do find the perfect fit). Anyway, I stripped the ugly wallpaper, put in a yellow/gold wheat pattern and topped it off with a bright high gloss white chair-rail border made from wooden molding. It came out really nice. I then was told by a friend that she knew an interior designer who could have custom drapes made for the windows which would take advantage of the height without blocking the upper window. So I called him, he came out and told me what he wanted to do. I said yes (regretted the $, but loved the result). Then I found an antique gilded mirror to hang on the wall opposite the window in another consignment shop for less than $50 that worked perfectly. The ones I'd seen in nice stores ran from $250 to $400 and didn't quite rock my world. Anyway, I don't have pics of the room before I changed it, but I have after and it is my favorite room:
Here's the finished room from outside the doorway:

This is a shot of the new drapes. They're cream Damask with a white/gold tassle edging and hang from solid brass finial things above the top window. The sheers were also custom made, but from a material with a unique weave with metallic flecks in it so it has a very subtle golden sheen over the folds in the light:

Shot of the consignment shop find mirror and better detail of the new wallpaper and chair-rail:

I realize it's not everyone's taste. This room is by far the most formal in the house, but it's where I hold dinner parties, etc. It's my favorite room

[CelticLady1]

Wow! That's a hard question. I don't know that I have a favorite. I like my kitchen, (especially in the winter), 'cause that's where I enjoy my baking, (and my cooking, 'though I'm not as good at that). I like my living room, because I finally have my leather furniture, (Yay!), and it's fun to watch movies on our big screen tv, (something my husband has wanted for years, bless his heart. He finally got one. ), and I enjoy my fireplace, in the winter. I like my computer room, 'cause that's where I play, research, and write, (a little, anyways). I like my spare room, 'cause that's where all my books are, and I love sitting in there, and going through them. So, I guess I don't actually qualify on this topic, huh?

[grammy164]

Originally Posted by MoMark

grammy, what's your favorite room?

I'm not sure which room I would call my favorite, MoMark, but if you asked anyone in my family they would tell you it's my office because I spend so much time in here. I guess I just feel comfortable in my whole home. It's much smaller than the house we lived in in Ohio, but plenty of room for my husband and me. I have it filled with family pictures and so no matter what room I go into, I'm content.

When I asked this question I started thinking about when I was a kid. No matter where we lived, I always loved my bedroom the most. It was my sanctuary. Do all kids feel like that when they're living at home?

SpeedyAZ--I agree with MoMark. Your office chair sounds like heaven. I've always just had a regular chair at my desk because when I sit down here I like to cross my legs "Indian style" and that position is most comfortable in this chair. I'm thinking though ... I could make it work in a chair like yours too!

[Isabella]

Momark, I can see why you love your dinning room. It is beautiful.

[jkmewright]

Do you all remember your parent's bedroom? I remember it as being the most cozy, safe, best smelling snuggly room in the house. Cuddle up on a Sunday morning w/the whole family. That's the best room! Wait! I think I have that room in my house too! You get one automatically when you have children

[grammy164]

Originally Posted by jkmewright

Do you all remember your parent's bedroom? I remember it as being the most cozy, safe, best smelling snuggly room in the house. Cuddle up on a Sunday morning w/the whole family. That's the best room! Wait! I think I have that room in my house too! You get one automatically when you have children

YES! They always had the most comfortable bed! I remember so many Sunday mornings when we (5 kids) would all pile in bed with them.
The weekend before my Mom passed away I became very sick with a ruptured eardrum. I was 16 at the time and when I woke up in the middle of the night with a 103 temp, I immediately went and crawled in bed next to my Mom. Even as a teenager, that's where I knew I would feel better.
I never asked my kids if they felt the same way about our bedroom. I hope they did!

[pixieshmoo]

Any room with books/bookcases. Right now it's just my living room (or bathroom, he, he, he) used to be our "office". I only have three demands when I buy or build my own house: 1. Front porch to put my rattan/wicker furniture on so I can have tea and read a book. 2. Back patio or deck to put furniture on so I can have tea and read a book (and yes, bbq & entertain) 3. My own room, whether it be a reading room alone or my office/reading room, that is where my bookcases will go with a chaise lounge for relaxed reading. That will be my own "realm" and no one is allowed without prior permission!!!!