Many have them. Few talk about it.
What do you do with yours? These folks, perhaps at an impasse on how to use theirs, added a bumper sticker.
A friend of ours displays her stamp collection in hers.
One reader uses hers to store CDs.
How do you use yours? Did you modify it in some way to make it work for some special purpose?
Umm... we bought a retro red phone and use it for that. It seems like magic, in our techno driven world, that when there is no power, this phone still works. I suggest we all use it for the purpose for which is was meant, in case of the next big shaker...
Is this creative?
I think Lisa was just writing about shrines existing in your homes without you even reaizing it. This seems to me like a perfect place to actually create one intentionally. With photographs, collections, flowers, anything special to you. And you could define the space by painting the recessed area a contrasting color to the walls. Could be nice..
I'm really boring: I use mine as my Landing Strip. I hung a coat rack on the wall next to it. I've tried to picture how these niches were used and can't. It seems like such an odd place to put a telephone, right in the entryway, with no place to sit. Did folks just stand there and chat?
I thought they were for buzzing someone into the building...
I don't have a phone nook in my place, but my friend does. She has a couple of medical conditions and, as a result, has an overabundance of pill bottles and small medical devices. She added shelves and a pretty little latched door over the nook and uses it to store all her med supplies.
If the phone mounted to the wall, yes, you just stood there. Phones in the kitchen used to be wall-mounts.
If the phone was the other kind, you hooked your fingers under the bit that holds the receiver and you carried the whole phone to where you wanted it. Like deeMacey, we have a retro phone -- with the longest possible cord. Yay! No more annoying beeps when the batteries on the handset run down. The husband can do an entire day of conference calls. (We don't have a cute phone nook, though.)
I created a small shrine -- had a great antique buddha statue, a little plant..
When my cousin Stel lived in SF, she did a similar thing with her phone nook: turned it into her little shrine to Paris. She painted out the nook and styled it with photos, handbills, postcards, stamps, a Pernod bottle and assorted tchotckes from her numerous trips there. It was a really sweet touch and she always loved showing it to first-time visitors. "Come look at my little Parisian shrine," she'd say as she greeted them with a glass of wine... This was back in the '80s when that funky "Desperately Seeking Susan" aesthetic was still considered cool.
Yay, phone niches! I have a phone in mine. Mine also has a shelf that holds a stay at home address book. Very convenient. When it comes time to sell the place, I think I'll put a vase with flowers there.
Our building is 1914. We have a phone nook with a wired phone in it. On the other wall there's the original intercom for the front door. It's a small wooden box with a mouth-piece, and an ear-piece that you place to your (duh) ear. It has a button on the front to buzz guests into the building.
I painted mine robins egg blue and the walls around are chocolate brown. Trim is left white.
I put a tiny yellow shelf inside that holds my sunglasses. Underneath is a small bowl for change and keys and chapstick. Simple,efficient. I love it.
Underneath, all of my books are stacked up in a shelf like way since I refuse to buy bookshelves.
This is also where the mail goes.
My nook is the perfect size for my collection of nun-themed bric-a-brac. A glow-in-the-dark Virgin Mary statue sits in the middle of all these little black and white nun figures, and it looks spectacular.
Since the nook is directly across from my bathroom, my nocturnal loo visits are always capped by Our Lady's glowing green form hovering in front of my face.
These sound great...let's see some pics!