Our 1913 House: Living Room Remodel - The Big Reveal

I forgot I was posting pictures of the remodel project on this blog. :) Just updated Facebook. Anyway, yesterday our cabinet maker, John Pitts, in a final burst of energy, completed installing all the beautiful woodwork and then last night I moved our furniture back in and the living room is complete (except for some paint touch-ups and Barry is finishing restoring some of the old trim on the far side of the room). Here are photos from last night, of the main part of the room with the new woodwork.

The room is all I had hoped it would be: Warm, inviting, comfy, beautiful. The wood is quarter-sawn oak. All the boards are local from our area forests. The wood panels are not local, but are furniture-grade quartersawn oak plywood. John did a masterful job of designing the room, with great suggestions from period photos and drawings of Arts & Crafts living spaces, and executing his ideas beautifully. John said he has spent so much time in this house in the past few weeks that we should probably have him in our Christmas pictures. :)

You'll note there's no TV in this room. That was an edict I made when we moved into this house in October of 2002: No TV in the living room ever again. The living room is a place for conversation, for reading, for doing a puzzle, for sipping something delicious while enjoying the faces of those you care about. There are other places for staring at an electronic screen.