What IS The Orbit Room?

For months I've been discussing the progress on our new lounge, The Orbit Room. I'd make a passing reference and people would say:

• "What's an Orbit Room?"

• "What do you mean by a 'lounge?'"

• "Is this replacing the Rat Pack Tiki Bar?"

• "How many bars can two people reasonably enjoy in one house?"

It all started last fall, when we were trying to decide what to do with a curious room in what we call "the sub basement." It's a quad-level house so every level has a name: Second floor, first floor, basement, sub-basement.

The room looked like this:



The wall was cantilevered with a square hole which confused us, until we contacted the former owner. It turns out, he built the wall for his son's train set and the hole allowed his son to sit in the middle of his train village and operate the set. Very ingenious. And while we liked the "bones" of this area, part of the wall would have to fall...

We decided we wanted to make this a relaxing room, a lounge of sorts. We considered various themes until we happened across this sign online:



The Orbit Room was born.

For the past seven or eight months, we've begun the process of outfitting the room with a mid-century flair. Think: Jetsons meets the Rat Pack in a Eames blender. It's complicated...

The Internet became the colors to our blank canvas. HomeDecoratorsOutlet.Com, eBay.com and Overstock.com became frequent stops.

Patiently, we scored huge deals. A pair of bar stools that cost $340 new was found for $60 on eBay since they were floor models. A chrome bar that once sold for $299 was $49 after a coupon on HomeDecoratorsOutlet.com. That same site yielded a $300 chair for $89 a $589 endtable for $69 and a chrome/plexiglass pub table that once sold for $200 for $59. A $200 lamp at J.C. Penney's cost $46 after clearance – and Mary's discount.

We scored deals and hid them away in the furnace room section of the sub basement.

Mary patiently painted the walls and even the floor. She spent days recovering the ceiling tiles in fabric.

This weekend, we began to start putting the pieces, as Dave Wannstedt might say, in place, Now, the room is almost done but there are finishing touches yet to come. The fluorescent lights are being replaced, the couch has yet to arrive. Floor molding needs to be done.

Still the room's cool is emerging. That cool was augmented with an early anniversary present: A pinball machine. The name? "Super Orbit," of course.

So, for the curious, here are some sneak peaks at our new, intimate, cool lounge: The Orbit Room.


THE MAIN BAR


THE PINBALL GAME


SAMMY INSPECTS SOME OF THE COOL NEW ORBIT ROOM STUFF

We'll post more when the room is done.

More later.


Mark