Writing Prompt: A Favorite Room

Prompt: Visualize what's currently inside your favorite room. Why are those things in there? Who bought them? Why do you love the room? 

A Favorite Room

There are several rooms inside this 1906 home of mine that I enjoy immensely. I spend most of my time either in my kitchen or the TV room, but it’s the adjacent parlor room with working fireplace that I’d like to discuss today. 

My time spent in the parlor is limited primarily to the cold winter months, when my husband lights a fire for me and I curl up on the pine green leather sofa to watch the flames. Basset Lily will jump up on the couch with me and nestle in next to me. I bought this leather couch myself almost 25 years ago, back when I was single and wanted to splurge on a piece of furniture. I’m not exactly sure how much I spent on the couch but I think it was over $1,000. Nice couch.

The parlor room is filled with interesting, eclectic things purchased by both myself and my husband. Some lovely paintings hang on the walls, a landscape with trees, and three paintings purchased from a gallery specializing in American Realism. I also have a framed Toulouse Lautrec print of a red haired showgirl he loved to paint.

There’s a sampling of antiques in the parlor that we’ve gotten from our parents. I got us something called a dry sink, a large wooden piece with shelves below a top resembling a sink with no faucet or drain. Inside the dry sink I have some of my mother’s china, some nice bowls, and some formal place setting pieces. Next to the dry sink is a large antique pie safe, basically a wooden storage cabinet from years ago. My husband inherited it from his mom and uses it to store miscellaneous items, and I stashed my old portable CD player/radio in it that I used to play all the time. In the far corner of the room sits the antique secretary my husband also got from his mom. He keeps important mail and documents in there. I’m glad we’ve put the piece to use. 

There’s an antique hat and coat hanger on a portion of the wall to the left of the fireplace. Both my husband and I love to wear hats, and we’ve amassed quite a collection. There’s my husband’s Stetson hats, and my Russian furry hats in faux leopard and black mink. All the assorted ball caps from the different sports teams we support. And one of my favorite hats, an olive green fedora that makes quite a statement when I wear it out.

The focal point in the parlor room is the fireplace, and the wood mantelpiece over it with a mirror. We have an assortment of items on it, including “Harry” a stuffed squirrel; a large, silver vase in the shape of a fish stuffed with peacock feathers; a pair of bronzed baby shoes I found at an antique shop; a painting on a piece of tin of a red rooster with the lettering, “Warning: A Bipolar Rooster Lives Here”; and a small wooden frame around the following quote: “Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.”

So this has been a brief look at a room that has given me pleasure throughout the years. Soon winter will be upon us and I’ll be back in the parlor, gazing at a fire and all the eccentric items in the room. For now the room is quiet, just waiting for me. Soon I’ll be in there. Soon.