My Nautical Room

I am a "landlubber" and have only been to the ocean twice in my life. But, I have, it seems, always been in love with the sea. So, I decided to make my own "ship's cabin" filled with nautical collectibles. Below are some pictures of the room.

None of the collectibles are expensive items, but combined all into one room (there is perhaps 12" square of blank wall space now) they are quite impressive.

The "heads" are nautical characters from Legends. The paintings shown include some original ("starving artist") oil paintings. The sailor and fish are wood carvings; there are more sailor carvings out of view. The brass porthole is a mirror, and the dolphin which you can barely make out above the porthole is a brass door knocker.

The clock makes nautical sounds. The strange-looking thing below the fish on the right is a fiber-opical "waterfall" that I made. Tiny pinpoints of light show when it's turned on at night.

The two teak ship's wheels are from my father, who served in the Navy; they were the start of the nautical room. The paintings are watercolors - the one at the very bottom is an original, while the rest are prints. The sea shells were collected by both my sister and I over a period of many years - the collection includes several Lion's Paw shells, which I have always fancied since I read Robb White's book of the same name when I was a youngster. In this picture you can also see the largest John Perry sculpture (sharks), and on the bottom right is the cabinet which houses 3 of the dozen ship's models that decorate the room.

On the left is a closeup of the wall above, showing my new mermaid figurehead. She's about 2 feet tall. Another wall has a larger figurehead, a Polynesian maiden - she's 3 feet tall.

The curio cabinet contains a variety of my favorite collectibles, mostly ship's models, some blown glass, a replica scrimshaw carving, and some mini lighthouse figures. The ship's lantern that you see on the top-right flanks the doorway to my bedroom; a matching starboard light is on the other side of the doorway. To the left of the curio cabinet is a ship's barometer - the colored water rises and falls.

At the very bottom is an old brass sundial, with dolphin ornaments. It sits on a plaster pedestal that I finished to match the patina of the sundial.

Sitting on the floor on the other side of the curio cabinet, is a half-life size pelican statue. The banjo clock is one of my favorite finds: they were made in 1950; my husband found this one at a yard sale around the corner for $3.00. It works great.

This photo shows an old - much repaired, beaten and battered - coffee table that was given to me years ago. It displays several brass items (whale, dolphin, sand dollars), one of those popular(?) shell lamps that people used to put atop their television sets, and a ship's model. The photograph on the table is of a whale breeching.

Also in the room is a 5-foot-long console cabinet that contains many John Perry sculptures and other collectibles. Here is a closeup of the miniature room on top of the console - I designed it to combine my love of cats and nautical items.

Well, I had to "expand" out of the nautical room - this is part of a wall in the laundry room next to the nautical room. The Chinese junk was sent to me by a good friend across the country; the shark, dolphin, and whale carvings are from Pitcairn Island, while the seagulls are a John Perry sculpture.