Events in the Boys' Room

Alviero and Maurizio (on crutches!)

I'm fairly convinced that Enrico would rather do anything than sand doors. Can't say I blame him, but given that it's his profession, it sure would be nice if he'd get a move on with our interior doors. To date, we have our bedroom doors up, and the kids' bathroom door, plus the powder room and guest bath doors. Our bathroom door, however, is noticeably absent, as are the rest of the interior doors.

Anyway, one of his constructive procrastination opportunities was in the boys' room. Maurizio, another carpenter working in the house, has broken his foot (yes, working on our things), so Enrico has leapt in to help. Maurizio was working on a loft, and was unable to perform the installation.

All done!

We had suggested basically a dorm room type construction...lightweight, cheap, relatively industrial and, well, admittedly ugly. I bandied about terms like "multistrata" (plywood) and "economico" and I think Maurizio had different ideas. What arrived is a glorious structure (that looks remarkably like the rabbit hutch, but in a good way, of course!) with tongue-and-groove flooring, an antique staircase, and creates a separate room in what is already a HUGE space. The boys' room has 3.6 meter ceilings (11'9" ceilings), so there was plenty of height to spare.


The other big event was the arrival of the wardrobe. Originally intended for the master bedroom, it was just too large look the same do not actually have the same dimensions and must go where they were originally.

All the pieces and elements are hand carved/drilled

Pegs by Alviero

for the space. It's a "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" size wardrobe, so into the largest room it was to go! Only problem was that it had woodworm, a common issue here as windows and doors stay open much of the year. First stop was dismantling, then to the kilns for cooking, then restoration by Alviero (and probably Enrico so that he could avoid sanding), then transportation back and re-assembling. This is a difficult project, since everything was handmade (it dates to the early part of the 1800s) and so panels that

After a lot of complaining, Alviero used his newly-prepared-by-him pegs (no nails here!) to get the wardrobe back together. We all love how it turned out, and you really have to see it to appreciate how incredibly large it is, because photos just can't describe it; the small-looking door to the right is actually a full-size and rather wide door, and remember the ceiling in there is nearly 12 feet high.

Love,

Alexandra