[Fallingwater living room sitting area and fireplace]
Living room, west (downstream) side, from southeast
Most prominent in the photo is the sitting area, which includes a long built-in upholstered bench accompanied by cushioned modular seating. A similar, longer bench extends practically the full width of the living room, under the "front" windows at a right angle to the window in this picture. Cushions on the benches and in the modular seating are stone white or autumn colors.
      In front of the fireplace, lighter stone is visible; this is actually the top of an original boulder on the site, left in place, and which protrudes slightly above the level of the rest of the floor, becoming the hearth. The earth-red sphere recessed in the wall is a kettle, described in Edgar Kaufmann Jr's book on Fallingwater as "symbolic," but which can be swung out and around into the fireplace.
      Just to the left of the photo are the doors leading out to the west terrace (partly over the falls, and jutting toward the camera in this view), and behind the photographer is the hatchway consisting of sliding glass panels which open to the stairway leading down to Bear Run.
Photo by Jeffrey Neal, GNU License

It takes but an instant to see the character of the house; yet after all these years, there are details and relationships in it which I've discovered only recently. Its beauty remains fresh like that of the nature into which it fits. It has served well as a home, yet has always been more than that, a work of art, beyond any ordinary measures of excellence.

- Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Fallingwater: A Frank Lloyd Wright Country House, pp. 65-66.


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