The Parlor/Music Room
View from the hallway
During the Edwardian era, this room was the Parlor. If you were a visitor on business or an acquaintance, you were directed to the Parlor. If you were a family member or friend you were directed into the living room on the other side of the hallway.
South west corner and picture window.
The Parlor was also called the Music Room and often housed a piano. Youngsters would entertain their friends under the watchful eye of adults across the hall in the living room. This was the place for holiday and birthday gatherings with family and friends singing around the piano. Many a youngster would take their piano lessons here and do their daily practice.
Restoration of this room, again included removal of seven painted layers of wallpaper. There was a doorway in the far left corner of this room to the Smoking Room/Den. The doorway was removed and the wall rebuilt to flush into a solid wall.
There was a window where the antique tapestry over the couch is mounted. The window had been the original exterior window. When the addition was built on the west side of the house, the window had been walled over on the addition side of the room but the window remained exposed in this room. It was discovered when the mirror that covered it was moved into the hallway. The window was removed and the wall rebuilt.
When the wall-to-wall carpeting was removed, the floors required complete restoration. They turned out beautiful!
This room went through several phases in its restoration. The room�s ceiling were plastered, frescoed and painted with clouds and a mural painted on the wall with falling Grecian columns and a garden scene. As George worked on this home, some of his ideas didn�t always work out quite right. This was one of them. He wasn�t happy with the first scene that was painted on the wall and ceiling so it was painted over and another mural painted. Again he wasn�t happy with it.
Then he found the perfect ceiling light fixture for this room. Down came the fresco (a major job with hammer and chisel), the ceiling center exposed to find the electrical connection, all the wiring replaced, the walls and ceiling plastered and painted (again) and the large 36" diameter fixture mounted.
Parlor ceiling fixture
An antique tapestry now holds the focus point in the room over the couch and the ceiling fixture spreads a soft glow through its crystal prisms across the curved ceiling.
You will see that window treatments are almost non-existent throughout the main level of the house. This allows the rich mahogany around the windows to be exposed and invites the landscape and the park across the street to be incorporated into the rooms.
Tiarabella's Living Room
Ladies, come sit by the fireside and lets work on our needlepoint!