No More Monk’s Room

When we lived on Capitol Hill, I turned a large closet in to a monk’s room in the studio condo. The twin rollaway bed was just the right size to fit the length of the wall. The room had a large window and shelves, along with a hanging rack and enough space for a linen closet/chest. To make it seem larger and brighter, I put a wall of Ikea mirror tiles. Anyone who slept in the monk’s room loved it because it was so “cozy.” When we moved to northern Virginia seven months ago, our new condo has a den. I thought we would make another monk’s room out of it. So I put the rollaway there, along with a chair, and added another wall of IKEA mirror tiles. But it just didn’t seem the same - and I tried several configurations. It’s the first room off the foyer/entryway and needed to look more elegant. So we decided to make it more of a sitting area/den instead. Although it’s not done, the idea is to have a sofa bed instead. Since it doesn’t have a closet, we’ve had a coat rack that holds walking shoes and walking coats and jackets - it used to be in the entryway of our one bedroom apartment. It’s not the ideal set up, but I think esthetically it will look better overall. So we are waiting for the other half of our Ethan Allen furniture to arrive so we can put the sofa bed in the den where it belongs. Right now it’s in the living room until the real living room sofa arrives. Hopefully we will get this all organized soon. That’s what moving from one place to another does - some things work, but others don’t any more.