My cottage reading corner

This little corner is quickly becoming my favorite spot in the house. Our 50's ranch isn't the best backdrop for the shabby/comfy/cottage style, but when we moved into the house in 2008 we quickly discovered that the master closet wasn't big enough for all our clothes. I gave that one over to my hubby and told him I would be happy to use the closet in the third bedroom, since that was also the room I hoped to use for my office & crafting space.

Over this past long winter, I began to put together a reading corner in that room. I at first thought that I needed an over-stuffed chair, but with everything else that's in the room (corner desk, printer stand, secretary desk, etc.), there really isn't room for a larger chair.

Then I remembered: I had rescued my old glider rocker, purchased when my daughter was born, when we cleaned out our old house after the flood in 2008. The chair was out in the storage shed. So one day I traipsed out through the foot-deep snow and carried it into the house, where I cleaned off the remaining "flood crud" and painted it white.

The cushions of the original chair had been ruined, so I bought a large chunk of thick dense foam to make a new seat. And, I had plenty of standard sized bed pillows that could be covered with a pretty sham for the back.

The chair isn't really functional with all those pillows on it, but I've learned something: if there is a soft flat surface available, the cat will lay on it. And of course, that means a coating of cat hair is left behind every time he lays there. So to make the chair "sittable" whenever I want without having to clean up cat hair, I decided to stack it with some pillows so he'll be discouraged from hopping up there. So far, so good - he seems content to lay on the hooked rug instead, and I'm happy to move the pillows when I want to sit in the chair.

The only things missing from the reading corner at this point are a floor lamp for over-the-shoulder lighting, and a footstool.

Here are a few pictures of the vintage treasures displayed with the chair, starting with the thrift-store finds: the blue-and-white pillow in front, and the eyelet sham, which was perfect to cover the pillow I'm using as a back cushion.

One of my favorite things to collect is vintage table linens. Here I've used one Ebay purchase to cover the seat cushion (it's a no-sew, "loosely pinned" project - LOL), and another Ebay find plus some eyelet trim to sew a homemade pillow.

This little homemade quilt has been in our family for many years. It was used in the baby crib by my older sister, myself, and my younger brother.

Here are two close-up pictures of the baby quilt. The little cat was always my favorite panel; the angry goat just makes me smile!

More soon!