The Captain’s Room

March 30, 2022 The Captain’s Room is at the top of the stairs above the guest bedroom, and below our favorite tower room with windows. Bob has named it thus because on a ship the Captain’s quarters are always directly under the Bridge (in our case the Tower Room). The walls are quite tall, it is 12′ square, only has one small square window and it’s just a plain room with an under-stairs “nook” – no closet, no bathroom. (We think the reason for its existence is merely to make the tower another 10 feet taller!)

Our plan is to make it into a cozy yet slightly dark & moody (in a good way) hang out room/reading room with a daybed stacked with pillows & quilts under the stairs, a built-in bookcase, reading lamps and maybe our roll top desk. Very early on we decided not to drywall the tower rooms, but use wood paneling – shiplap or V-groove, or something like that, with the thought it would be more durable and unlikely to develop cracks if there was any flex or movement in the tower itself. Some time ago, we looked at samples and had to decide; horizontal or vertical, 4″ or 6″, nickel gap, modern groove, beaded…. yikes. We settled on a pre-primed MDF product from Nantucket Beadboard Co., in a 6″ V-groove style to replicate classic tongue and groove, with the ceiling done in a classic beadboard. Coming in sheets, it was more economical to purchase and install, yet of very nice quality with a smooth paintable surface. We decided to lean into the “big & tall” tower theme and went with vertical and 6″ wide to accentuate the height and keep in scale. Of course it took literally months to come in, which seemed even more ridiculous since it is made in Rochester, NH (about 15 miles away) yet had to be shipped to the distributer in SC or someplace, then shipped back to us. (Yes, we tried to just go get it at the factory, but no dice.)

Jason and Todd did a lot stair climbing, what with having to cut the panels in the main room then hike them up 3 flights of stairs. But it was going up quickly! Bob was checking out all the sample materials we had gathered up, for the fireplace, the ceiling and so on. Seeing everything in person is a LOT better than in photos or on FaceTime!

The last photo is a favorite of mine – I love the composition of angles and lines. It is taken from the under-stair nook which also has a beadboard ceiling. Bob and I are loving it so far. A good day.