Furniture, the Eventual Frontier
I’ve been reading over previous posts and came across the one on how much I hate cat gifts. And earlier today I was talking to Alex about furniture and how, when we get our own house, I want to save up for quality furniture that we’ll keep for the rest of our lives.
So, as I’m wont to do, I went to Amazon and perused their furniture section for decorating ideas. And what I noticed was that they have a lot of furniture that I don’t like. And I tried to narrow down my criteria for furniture and came up with the following list:
- Comfortable
- Attractive
- Useful
- Unassuming
For example, the image to the right is of an ottoman and a chair. The ottoman is pretentious and ugly, like someone tried to take a graduation cap and put it on a box. But the chair looks nice, matches my color scheme, would be a lovely place to read, would probably make the cat happy, and would be perfect for my husband’s best friend, who likes to break the arms of his own chairs so he can sit in them with his legs crossed.
Another piece of furniture I’ve always wanted is a chaise, which you see in the image below. There are extremely elegant versions with carefully crafted mahogany and rich brocade, which I briefly considered, but then I realized that mahogany and brocade just aren’t us. What wooed me about the one in the image below isn’t its style (simple and nice though it is) but, rather, its usefulness. It’s a storage chaise. You can lift the seat up and put things in it.
Nice furniture that doubles as storage space makes me positively swoon.
I look at that ottoman and think… “Rubeus would eat those tassels the moment I put it in my living room”. I also was excited about the idea of furniture that doubles as storage space, but when I actually shopped for our house I found that storage space + furniture means one of the following:
-ugly
-poor design/not durable/comfortable
-SUPER expensive
-semi-decent, but it never matches my decor. ^_^*
Comment by Leah — October 24, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
We have a storage ottoman and I don’t know how I ever lived without it.
And that chaise looks fairly comfortable, and I think I’d want it in the office, where we usually just sit in our computer chairs anyway. It would be a place to store unsightly equipment and a place for friends to sit if we’re all watching a downloaded movie.
What I REALLY want is a fridge the cat can’t knock his toys under. When we buy a house, the kitchen will be very seriously considered in the way of crannies.
Comment by EA Blevins — October 24, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Well, I am so glad to see that you have good taste in furniture! The ottoman is awful…even if it had hidden storage, you couldn’t rescue it! Love the chaise! I have always loved chaises. Looking forward to helping you shop for furniture one day!
Comment by mom — October 24, 2007 @ 8:57 pm
PS: I do like that chaise you have pictured… it’s very pretty and very you. =D
Comment by Leah — October 30, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
*grin*
This is the set that I would totally get for our offices if we could. I doubt it’s really your style (you seem to have very elegant taste), but this stuff has storage and beds in every piece. I loved the idea of it. It’s from Hom Furniture, called the Tornado Klik Klak set. The whole thing is only $799 (which makes me wonder about the quality??)
Comment by Leah — October 30, 2007 @ 7:53 pm
I really like that. It’s very simple and straightforward. Nice color, too.
I’d definitely try and see it in person before buying. Sit on it, try out the beds, examine the storage… Of course, you’d have to find it in a store, since you really can’t buy furniture online without paying double the price for shipping. So I guess you’d be able to do that then. But if you can find what stores carry it, I’d encourage you to go take a look-see.
(I edited your comment to show the image. Hope you don’t mind.)
Comment by EA Blevins — October 30, 2007 @ 11:05 pm