Atlina's Apparel and Tailor Shoppe

An experimental description essay regarding the Atlinas' family home and business. Pre-writing, practice.

From the street, the Atlina house is small and seems crunched between other similar houses on the block, with hardly an alleyway between them. Its front is simple and sophisticated with red brick walls and a black door with white trim set in the center of the building between two large windows. In the windows are headless canvas-covered mannequins with all sorts of lovely clothes on them, all made by hand by Darrick Atlina and designed by his wife Kyra. Above the door swings a black sign that says "Atlina's Apparel and Tailor Shop" in big, golden, ornate letters. The doorknob is iron, painted gold, and there is an iron knocker, also painted gold.

Opening the door, a subtle ringing from the bell above the mantle signals the arrival of customers. The shop itself is approximately sixteen feet from side to side and twenty feet from door to door, or around three-hundred-twenty square feet. The front of the shop has racks displaying clothes that have been hand-made or woven and dyed, or are altered items that previous owners had not retrieved. In front of the counter are a few homemade sweets straight from Kyra's kitchen to help bring in a little extra money. On the far right of the counter is a short swinging door and a cabinet against the side wall with bolts of fabric and other supplies. The shelves stretch to the ceiling and there is a ladder against the back wall, along with some unused mannequins and a rack of altered clothing waiting on the original owners. The counter itself is large and wide with numbers and measurements etched into it for easy fabric cutting. Upon this sits a small sewing machine and various sewing items like thread, needles, scissors, and measuring tape. Below the counter are more cabinets and drawers, as well as a small safe for money.

Behind the counter to the far left is a sectioned-off area with a red floor-length curtain hanging from a rod near the ceiling. The curtain serves to hide customers while trying on items or while Darrick performs his alterations. Inside is a short stepping stool upon which customers can stand to give the tailor ample room to measure and pin the chosen fabrics to their proper fit. There is also an adjustable rolling chair, missing its armrests, with worn brown leather upholstery and a creaky backrest covered with a fabric measuring tape and an old button-up shirt. There is a door in the back left-hand corner of the room which leads into the kitchen and the rest of the house.

The kitchen is significantly smaller than the front room, which had once been marketed as a living room before Darrick and Kyra decided it would work well as the front-end of a small business. The kitchen and dining area is approximately sixteen feet from side to side and twelve feet from front to back, or one-hundred-ninety-two square feet, with white walls and well-swept dark chocolate floorboards. The center of the room is taken up by a round dining table with five chairs for Darrick, Kyra, Veroni, Ranna, and Brin; and a folding wooden high-chair for Isan. The table has been varnished with a dark resin to match the cabinets and shelves of the kitchenette and left wall, while the chairs have been upholstered with white fabric, embroidered with a black floral design.

Directly to the right of the front entrance is a staircase that begins as three steps up to a four-foot-square landing with another nine steps to the second floor along the right-side wall. The space under the stairs has been re-purposed from extra cupboards into a small five-by-four-foot lounge area with two short storage drawers beneath a padded bench-like seat, with a number of colorfully embroidered throw-pillows and a small neatly-folded quilt. On the far right corner of the room is a door leading to the tiny back yard, where Kyra, Ranna, and Brin have cultivated a small vegetable garden.

Along the back wall stretches the majority of the cooking area, with dark brown cabinets and drawers, a basic sink with a window looking onto the back garden, and a wood-burning stove with two burners and a smoke pipe that curves out through the back wall. The cabinets above the sink hold all manner of earthen cookware and the drawers below hold forks, spoons, knives, and other utensils. The shelves on the left wall opposite the staircase are filled with shelf-stable foods like apples from the town orchard, fresh potatoes and squash from Kyra's garden, boxed bread, and pots of sugar, flour, and spices, as well as frequently-used white ceramic dishes with black floral designs to match the dining chairs.

The stairs go up from the front wall to the back, where the hallway upstairs curves around the banister and along the left side of the house. The first door at the top of the stairs leads into the full bathroom, while the second leads into Darrick and Kyra's bedroom. Further down from the stairwell, the hall turns to the right, where there are four doors, one on the right that leads back into Darrick and Kyra's room, one at the end of the hall which is a closet, and two on the left. The first door on the left is a bedroom shared by Ranna and Brin, and the second door is what was once Veroni's room and now belongs to Isan. For a week now, Veroni has opted for sleeping downstairs in the lounge area beneath the stairs.