The Reading Chair

I have been wanting a big reading chair for some time now. As long as I lived in that tiny apartment of yore, I had no room for one – and now that I am in a bigger apartment, with my glorious study full of books with room to spare – it had become imperative that I get SOME kind of reading chair. I can’t have just any chair. My ideal would be an overstuffed armchair, with the arms low enough so I can hook my legs over them and sit sideways (my favorite position)- and also with a seat wide enough so I can sit with my legs curled up under me.

My dad had a reading chair which had fallen into disrepair, and was sitting in an upstairs bedroom at my parents’ house. It was a battered blue and white upholstery, and truly falling apart, although structurally it was okay. It has a LONG seat. If you sit with your butt against the back of the chair, your legs stick straight out. Last year at some point, after moving into the new place, I wondered if I could maybe have that chair? It has great family connotations – it has ALWAYS been there. There was a matching ottoman that still sits in the living room at my parents’ house. I talked with my mother about the possibility of me having Dad’s chair. It wasn’t being used. Mum said that would be fine, and we then went out to a fabric store in Rhode Island to pick out fabric to have it re-covered. The upholstery, as I mentioned, was so worn down that the chair looked really really rough. Also, blue? Not a color I really enjoy, and it wouldn’t “go” at all in my study, which is all whites and browns. Mum and I had a really good time at the fabric store. I love places like that. Whole worlds can open up in your head as you look at each bolt of fabric. I had it in my head that I wanted the fabric to be dark – maybe a dark paisley print – similar to the dark brown curtains I have hanging in my bedroom (made for me by Mum). I like dark colors. So those were the fabrics I was drawn to. There were some really nice ones. I passed over the checks and tartans – too masculine-looking – and then suddenly Mum said, “Sheila, look at this.” And she was standing by a bolt of fabric that was truly elegant – it was a stripe: sort of a cool green, with white stripes, and a thin line of dark red. There was something about it that really called to me, although it wasn’t at all what I had been thinking. I really liked it. The green, the red, and the fact that the white stripe was thicker than the others – gave the fabric a strange comfy shimmer that I really liked. We moved on, taking note of that one as one we really liked, and I kept coming back to it.

Finally, I made the decision to go with that striped fabric. Forget the dark paisley (although there were some gorgeous prints we looked at). I loved, suddenly, the lightness of this particular fabric – not TOO light – but light enough. My study is a room with lots of light. I have flowing sheer white curtains. The bookshelves are white. Maybe a dark-fabricked chair would drag the whole thing down. I loved the green/white/red stripes and thought it would really look nice in my study.

We took note of it, and then moved on with our lives. Mum spoke with a local upholster-er, who had done work for Mum before, and it was all set up. The chair was removed from my parents’ house and brought to the woman’s place – and the fabric was supplied. It took a long time for her to get the work done. Not sure why, but it was a couple of months – and then we got a call that the chair was done – but I was just about to go out to Block Island, so we held off. The chair was delivered to Mum, and it sat in the living room for a month or so until we could figure out a way to have it transported down to me.

Pat and his friend strapped it into the trunk of Mum’s car – and when Jean and Mum came down a couple of weeks ago to go see Siobhan play at the Folk Art Museum here in New York – they brought the chair. The beautiful beautiful chair!!

My upstairs neighbor happened to be walking by as we were heaving the chair out of the trunk, and he helped us haul it upstairs. And there it was, in the corner of my study – with my grandmother’s reading lamp behind it – and I seriously think it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Uhm, I believe Hope loves it too. I sit in the chair, and she sprawls across the top of the back, so she basically becomes like a fur collar on my neck. Also, there’s enough room in the seat so that sometimes if I’m sitting there, she’ll crawl up and curl up right next to me. The seat has the perfect width and depth for me.

It is so comfortable.

The woman who did the re-covering also gave the chair a “skirt”, which changes its character a bit, makes it more girlie. Before, there were just four little legs – visible to the world – and the skirt softens it up, makes it look pretty.

I’ve waited a long time to have a room as pretty as my study. It is a calming place, totally ME, full of thousands of books, neatly organized, a pretty Oriental rug, my glorious television, my desk, flowing sheer curtains and now … my reading chair that was once my father’s.