The Room That Never Was

Because the basement of my childhood home was unfinished, my parents came up with a plan based on a series of DIY projects for my father in his spare time. He made a diagram of what the finished product would look like by dividing the basement into quadrants, mapping out the details in terms of priorities. The laundry room and dark room (my dad’s hobby was photography) would be built first; then the second bedroom; next a workroom for my dad (to be shared with the furnace) and a general play area for us kids; and finally, the rec room and a walk-in pantry (for my mother’s preserves).

It turned out that my dad didn’t have a lot of spare time. But gradually, over the course of three years, the dark room, laundry room and my sister’s new bedroom (at last! a room of my own) was rendered fully functional. The project was progressing slowly, but on still on track, until plans for the rec room underwent a sea change.

I have no idea where they found them, but one Saturday, my parents brought home eight larger-than-life cutouts displaying an Arabian Nights theme. Three of the posters depicted fanciful interpretations of domed buildings with minarets and the other five showed characters from the collected fairy tales, including a brightly clad dancing girl, Ali Baba standing in a cave of glittering jewels and a kissing couple on a flying carpet.

My mom had this great idea—part of the rec room would be transformed into a fairy tale version of the exotic Middle East. The cutouts would be used to create a partition between the TV room and the party room; some of them would also decorate the walls in lieu of pictures. A home bar would be added, and in keeping with the posters, the decor would include large, colorful floor cushions, a low, curvy chaise lounge in a very bright shade and sections of gauzy, veil-like curtains to add ambiance. My mother had outlined this whimsical party room in such detail that she made me envision it too.

I could hardly wait! Forget the adults—it would be a great place to hang out with friends and have birthday parties. Finally, the basement was completed, including the rec room. My mother had arranged the space so that the home bar could still be added at a later date when time allowed. The rec room was great—I hung out with friends, watched TV with my sister and did homework at the communal desk.

But the magical, whimsical, fanciful exotic Middle East-themed party room never materialized. For awhile, the cardboard cutouts informally decorated the basement (translation, they were leaned against the walls and moved from place to place whenever they got in our way). Eventually, the colors faded, a couple of them simply disintegrated and were discarded, and the rest were dismantled and stored out of sight. Upstairs, just off the dining room, a large wood tea cart did double duty as a wine/drinks cart.

A very quick, very informal and very unscientific poll of unsuspecting volunteers in the Cymax lunch room and fax machine area revealed that a fair number of my co-workers do not store their wine and/or spirits in a piece of furniture specifically designed for that purpose. The kitchen cupboard was the hands-down winner at 21. The second most popular place to store any type of alcohol, at 10 votes, was the fridge. Five stated that they would bring a bottle of something home for a special occasion, but they didn’t make a habit of keeping any on hand. One person admitted to hiding a bottle of booze in his sock drawer—but I’m pretty sure he was joking.

Only 11of my co-workers polled for their opinion had some form of wine furniture in their homes. At 7 votes, the hands-down winner of that part of the survey was the all-purpose wine rack. (One person confessed to using said wine rack for “bubbly, fizzy, fruity non-alcoholic drinks,” to which I replied that it still counted.) Of the remaining 4, one owned a wine cooler and the other 3 had liquor cabinets.

I didn’t include myself in the above (very informal unscientific) survey, but I am the proud owner of a nine-bottle wine rack (in a warm wood finish). My Christmas cheer is stored in, you guessed it, the kitchen cupboard farthest from the stove. I enjoy entertaining, and in the last two years, the frequency I have friends over for meals appears to be increasing. More and more, I find myself using my buffet as a home bar, but I have to be careful, since the hutch won’t allow the placement of taller bottles or my really cute ice bucket.

I’ll have to give it some thought. For all those future holidays and the many opportunities life in general brings for celebrating with food, wine and friends, I really would like a more formal place to entertain. Since living in an apartment totally negates any possibility of recreating my mother’s exotic Middle East-themed party room, an elegant liquor cabinet (with hidden casters) or a wine server with a built-in glass rack might be the perfect solution.