Our Hideaway came with an unfinished bunkie. Bunkie is a Canadian term for a small cabin, originally designed to provide extra sleeping space for cottages. Ours will probably serve that function, too, once our house has been built. We worked steadily this year to finish ours. Now that the weather is cooler, we enjoy the cozy space when we visit our Hideaway.
Last year, Charlie put down a nice Ledgerock flagstone floor in the bunkie.
He was looking for granary boards from inside an old barn to line the bunkie walls. As good fortune would have it, we heard that the people who had bought my parents' farm might be having the barn taken down. We contacted them, and they generously allowed us take nonstructural boards from inside the barn. It's very meaningful to both of us to have the boards that were actually inside my father's barn!
Granaries are small rooms or bins used to store harvested grain throughout the winter for feeding to the animals. The boards that formed the granary walls were removable. They slid into slots on each end, so they could be lifted out to allow easier access as the level of grain receded. The boards from each granary were given a number. That way, the farmer knew where they belonged when it was time to build the wall up again. While our approach of mixing the numbers together is not exactly authentic, we felt that it was the preferred artistic approach for our bunkie.
Charlie built a bench and shelves, and I painted them Beauti-Tone Patriot Love red. With some cushions piled on, it makes a nice day bed and could double as a single bed.
A friend gave us a wood stove he was no longer using. Charlie sandblasted it and painted it with high-temperature paint. For safety, we put corrugated roofing steel behind the wood stove, with cement board behind that. The pretty fires really make the bunkie cozy on chilly nights.
The twig spindles in the loft railing were a labour of love. When we couldn't find a light that was exactly what we wanted for the upstairs ceiling, I designed this one, and Charlie made it.
The old, kole oil lantern once belonged to my grandfather, the match holder was a gift to us, and the bellows came from Charlie's family.
I actually found the candles for the window sill in the States. They made no claims to be Canadian Hudson's Bay colours, but they're a perfect match!
Rustic coat hooks come in handy inside the door.
We keep adding a few finishing touches of decor, but our work over the spring and summer has really paid off and we're enjoying our bunkie now!
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