My Love Affair with Window Seats...

"The Cozy Window Seat... One of the most cozy and comfortable additions to the furnishings of a room is a window seat. Every woman in particular delights in these little nooks..." (The New York Times, January 7, 1894)

My love affair with window seats began in 1959 with the very window seat you see pictured above. As a little girl, I used to sit sit there and watch the world go by.

About 3 years ago, while bringing one of my girls back to college, my sister and I drove by our childhood home for old time's sake, and as luck would have it, there was a FOR RENT sign out front! The owner graciously allowed us to go into the empty apartment and reminisce.

Remember the scene in You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan has closed her bookshop, and as she turns to look at the empty room one last time she sees a childhood memory of her mom twirling her around? That's exactly how I felt. When I looked around at those empty rooms I could see my mom sponging Christmas stencils on the back door with glass wax... me playing "hide and seek" in the kitchen with Pete, our parakeet... and the dining room set that my mom loved was once again sitting in the center of this very room... It was such a gift, being allowed to relive those memories 46 years later. To my sister's dismay, the old clawfoot tub was gone, but everything else appeared as though time had stood still for all those years.

Fast forward to the home I live in now and the family room addition we put on when our girls were little. The very first thing I insisted it have was a window seat (well.. the very first thing I insisted on was having the laundry area moved up from the basement, but the second thing was that it have a window seat! (second photo)... And although the decor has changed over the years, the cozy feeling has not... I guess I relate to those women of 1894 in that I, too, "delight in these little nooks."

Donna