I’m all for personal spaces where you can enjoy your collections or hide your guilty pleasures – “man caves” full of trophies and sports “stuff,” “she sheds” for sipping tea or painting or whatever you have space to do in them…
Not everyone has a big enough area to express themselves. Yet, I know some women who have hidden little “dressing rooms” or vanity rooms that work quite well in closets and attics. The spaces are charming and fun and don’t cost a lot to create.
One friend I know had a back porch off her bedroom that was a total wasted space. She invited me over recently to show off her new “beauty room,” as her husband calls it. She couldn’t be more pleased.
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It was originally painted battleship gray, a fate of so many porches. But she worked with the gray and left it at eye level up to the rafters, and used a bright white for the rest of the room. Incorporating all white furniture – some antique, some utilitarian – worked well with the new white plantation shutters, too.
The tension between the rough porch boards and the delicate crystal chandelier is so perfect. And Etsy original artwork marries the two paint colors beautifully at eye level.
Resident jewel thief…
Now she has visible space for her vast jewelry collection, her makeup table, and a cabinet full of purses and girlie things.
The beautiful antique dresser seals the deal for all of her tee shirts, lingerie and vintage bottles and perfumes. What more could a girl ask for?
My realtor friend, on the other hand, has a big vintage house, but is light on closet space in her master bedroom. She chose to create her vanity space in an adjoining guest room, where she was free to steal some shelving AND design her wall of beauty.
But she didn’t stop there. She took me up another flight to her attic, which is magical in its tiny dormers and slanted walls. This is the niche we all crave to retire to and read and dream and pretend we’re one of the Little Women!
A day bed, a comfy chair, low lamps, big quilts, plenty of shelving and racks for last season’s clothes…it’s all there, including a most adorable Chihuahua mix who thinks he’s part of the collectibles…
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The last vanity room I explored was carved out of a utility closet near the master bedroom, by me…Crammed, and I mean crammed with my souvenirs, mementos and vintage artwork, it’s a cacophony of colors and moods that I love seeing every day.
Some of my family photos mingle with tennis trophies and my decorated compact collection. My vintage pin collection covers one whole wall, while a Chinese drug box holds my strands of pearls, watches and sparkly bracelets.
I admit that this room is mainly my stage for putting on perfume and checking my outfit one last time. (Although my husband uses the big round mirror as his last check, too!)
But how lucky am I to have a place to display my hand-painted fashion drawings from the old Lester Costume Company, my original Erte, or the antique perfume bottles I bought for many years? And to think I can even fit a small Victorian china cabinet in the small room to hold treasures that have value to me and me alone! That’s Luxury, and that’s Vanity.
I encourage everyone to carve out one small space to display and dust off and visit their precious mementos.
“That which we elect to surround ourselves with becomes the museum of our soul and the archive of our experiences.” – Thomas Jefferson
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