Step by step: music room

Apparently, my step-by-step blog post was appreciated, so I now continue with the next room, the music room, which is opposite from the reception room on the same floor.

When I was planning the house I knew that I would have a grand reception room and a ladies' drawing room, but I wasn't quite sure what I would do in this room. The reception room was new, the drawing room had some features from the old Victorian drawing room, but I also had a Chippendale sofa and armchair, and I wanted to build a room around them. Simply another reception room, to begin with.

I had absolutely no idea for decoration or flooring. But I happened to buy a fireplace front - just couldn't resist it, and to a certain degree it determined the rest of the room. I made dark wall panels (the blog post describes how I made them) and a proper chimney breast.

 

This picture is from mid-September 2014. The shell is not glued yet, and won't be for quite a while. At this stage I didn't use real wallpaper, but a low-resolution copy, just to test the effect. I wasn't at all sure that it was the right wallpaper, but I had it in my Georgian house where the sofa and the armchair were. I wasn't committed to it. The paper is white-tacked. The floor on the right is also a low-resolution printout.

I didn't make any progress on this room for a long time, mostly because I was working on the basement, but also because I could not decide on decoration. I browsed dozens of Victorian wallpapers, and nothing matched the fireplace and the dark panels. It wasn't until mid-January that I made a ceiling for this room, still not knowing what the walls will be like.

I worked as long as possible on flat surfaces, so when I finally chose the wallpaper I first decorated the side wall:

 

As you see, the windows are not properly inserted yet.

Then I decorated the opposite wall, and again, the door is not inserted. It wouldn't be inserted until all floors were done.

 

In mid-March 2015, I glued the shell, and here you can see the back wall of the room, with the chimney breast:

In April I got an incredible bargain at a flea market, including a piano and a doll that immediately went into the music room.

 

The window is still not inserted. The herringbone parquet had moved from the reception room to this room. I kept moving it around and frequently moved it into the room I happened to be working on, just to see the effect. The violin with case came with an ebay lot.

I added some furniture to this room, but it wasn't until next October I returned to it, to discover that I had left it totally unfinished. Apparently it looked okay, but in fact the wallpaper and the panels were not properly attached.

After some hard work the room looked like this:





There were some finishing touches left, for instance, curtains:





But on the whole, the room hasn't changed much. I have added a harp and some Chippendale furniture. There is a flickering fire in the fireplace, a tea light in the chandelier and display lights hidden behind mouldings. The coving on the right doesn't look neat (yet) because there is a wire switch in the corner.



I like this room. I may add more paintings and ornaments, but otherwise there isn't much I can do. It is as crammed as a Victorian room should be.