Now that most of the furniture is in place and the walls and floors are complete, I can finally think about accessories in the sunroom at The Shack. As a traditionalist, I personally like a layered look featuring antiques and vintage items that appear to be collected over time (and often are!). The theme in this room is a woodsy gentleman’s cigar room, so many of the accessories I’ve chosen fit into that genre.
The vintage wrought iron furniture we’re using actually came with a matching glass-topped coffee table and an ottoman with a loose cushion top. Ultimately, I decided there is plenty of the wrought iron and ornate curviness that goes along with it. So I decided to only use the sofa and chairs from the iron set and will find another home for the coffee table and ottoman.
Thus began my search for the perfect cocktail table. I wanted to choose something that rounded out the space, and where we’d be able to put our feet up. Of course it’s always nice to have a place for resting a book or glass from time to time and storage is always a plus. I won’t bore you with all the candidates I looked at…in the end it came down to size and simplicity. I really wanted something relatively solid and chunky to break up all the legginess going on. That meant a cube ottoman was the perfect thing!
The pair of cube storage ottomans visually anchor the space in front of the sofa. The spacing is just perfect, and they’re pretty wonderful for putting your feet up when lounging on the sofa and chairs!
You may remember we added a pair of small built in shelves which flank the doorway into the main living area of The Shack. They allow plenty of space for storing books and cute antique accessories.
Small built in shelves provide display space for books and accessories. We also opted to include a small television on the left side of the sunroom. It’s a nice little Alexa enabled smart TV. We’ve started using it all the time for watching Netflix in the evenings or even for listing to music while we’re out there reading.
I already had this beautiful set of green and brown antique books in my collection, so I just brought them up to The Shack and they are the perfect color match for the sunroom!
A cute majolica leaf plate adds some additional color and I’ve added several of these funny Victorian ‘cabinet card’ portraits throughout the room. They all feature Victorian gentlemen with significant facial hair!
This little handmade log cabin found a home in one corner. Someone a very long time ago spent a whole lot of time building this cute little house! A vintage oil painting of the forest and a little birds nest I found outside both speak to the outdoorsey part of the theme.
I added a little pedestal table here by the door. It’s a good spot for dropping keys and for a candle or potted plant, since the bookshelf top is taken up with the television.
I found a pair of dark oval Victorian frames at an antiques show. They were the perfect place to display a collection of antique cigar bands I purchased a while ago at the same antiques fair. I mounted the cigar bands on some dark brown card stock (the color of cigars), then arranged them on a textured linen background.
The cigar bands are each little works of art in themselves! Each one is different and so colorful. What a unique and wonderful addition to the vintage smoking room theme! I love accessories that tell a story.
On the opposite side I displayed my husband’s collection of fish bottle openers in a large antique picture frame which balances the size of the television in the opposite corner. There’s also an antique majolica umbrella stand in the foreground, which is the perfect place to store walking sticks and fly fishing rods, placed in the perfect spot to grab on your way out the door!
Here’s a detail of the bottle opener display that I created. Basically, I took some fabric and spray mounted it to a piece of thin plywood inserted into the beautiful Victorian antique frame. Then, with the frame laying flat, I arranged the layout of the fish in a pleasing way. I placed some ‘brads,’ or small nails, in the appropriate spots, and hung the openers from those. This way you can still grab and use the bottle openers whenever you want! Obviously, I also included some vintage smoking items here as well: a tobacco jar, some antique pipes and pipe holder, and an amazing brass squirrel-embossed ash tray I picked up last spring when visiting my niece in California.
Another visit to the antiques market yielded this very cool antique sign that was once part of an old Stage Coach. It had the perfect colors and I thought it looked great above the French doors in the sunroom at The Shack.
This is the view across the room from the sofa in the sunroom. The small shelves and artwork look great when you’re in the sitting area watching TV or hanging out. This room has turned into the perfect year round spot to relax!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that this is one of Silvia’s favorite spots at The Shack. We’ve placed a few bird houses and a feeder outside the windows and she has a grand old time watching/stalking the birds from the windowsills!
That about wraps things up! Here’s a final look at the finished sunroom at The Shack. We’re very happy with the final comfortable result.
Until next time, make sure to like Robinson Interiors on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, and DO stay tuned for future posts about my work, travels, and design inspirations, not to mention tips and ideas for updating your own home!
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Kristine Robinson's Interiors (and so much more...) 