Easy and Elegant Life

The Search for Everyday Elegance and the Art of Living Well.

Re-Design For Living

(With apologies to Noel Coward)

A new dining room table has come our way. It will comfortably seat eight to twelve, which the old one did not. Mrs. E. and I are thrilled and planning the first dinner party now. The issue of what to do with the old table was solved when we moved it, temporarily (we thought), into the library where it sat for a week whilst we lay about on the beach.

I love the idea of library tables. My father-in-law, ex-UDT frogman and Linguistics professor that he is, has a beautiful specimen. It must be eight feet long, fashioned from a plank of a ship I believe. He is of the pre-digital generation and so still looks things up in Atlases and the OED. That long table is perfect for opening an unabridged dictionary and bottle of single malt or two whilst still having room left over for the day’s papers and a week’s worth of mail.

We didn’t have room for that sort of thing on the deco game table that served as my desk (seen in the photo above, pre-strié orange walls). Until the dining room table arrived and the lacquered burled wood Empire redux number found its way in here.

It took me four hours to figure out how to arrange it to best advantage. Yet another reason to hire professional decorators. I’m pleased with the result though and the change of view has made it somewhat easier to approach the blank digital page for this, my 831st post. Now it’s a question of finding room for the game table and moving another… .

How about you? Have you changed your perspective lately? What’s your re-design for living?

4 thoughts on “Re-Design For Living

  1. Oh, the library table. I already have mine designed. Tressle table out of mahogany, nine feet by four feet. I’ve collected most of the mahogany, as well. Now, I just need to get out there an build it. And, get my seven year old to college, as his room is going to be my library. Patience is a virtue.

    Otherwise, we’re re-arranging the backyard. That’s where we seem to do most of our entertaining, even during the day in winter. Thankfully, California weather allows for that type of thing.

    Lastly, I definitely like the redesign. I always find it more comfortable to work at desks/tables that face into the room, rather then a wall or window. Looking at that picture, I’ll need a ladder, too. Yikes.

  2. It is looking good. The orange walls in the library give it so much warmth and positive energy. Congratulations on the new dining table and 831 posts. Pictures?

  3. Congrats on your 831st, looking forward to 831 more
    aesthetic and sartorial posts! Love the wooden blinds. Your library/office looks great and it’s good see some books casually (not styled) stacked
    on the mantle.
    BarbaraG

  4. When we first decided our house would have a library, I had hoped for a long, substantial table where one could spread books and maps, but I had trouble getting my husband to visualize it. Currently, our library looks boringly symmetrical, and to my mind not intimate enough for a library at all, but this post has suggested to me that simply rearranging things to make better use of the space might shake them up a bit. I do have a small work table that is currently shoved against the wall…I might put it in the corner, between two tall windows, so that it gets the light.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.