A Time for Everything

I've been on a quest for several years now for some furniture. My problem is that I'm picky. I don't go into a store, look around, see something I like, and buy it. I think, ponder, pray, think some more, until I decide exactly what I want. Then I have to find that exact piece to be happy.

Despite the whole issue of perhaps doing this backwards, it's also very difficult. Styles disappear and reappear over years. For instance, I won't settle for end tables for my living room that don't have enclosed cabinets. I need the storage space (it's where I put our games) and I have to be able to close a door on it so it doesn't always have to look perfect. For about the last 10 years, the popular style has been open - no drawers or cabinets with doors. I've had to wait it out, hoping the styles would change back to enclosed cabinets sooner rather than later. I finally got my end tables, after about 8 years of shopping for them, the year before last. Now, the trend is moving back towards enclosed cabinets and drawers.

I've had the same issue with many other pieces of furniture. When I bought my end tables for the living room, I also bought a sofa table that matched. It's lovely and has three large drawers down the middle and enclosed cabinets on either end - just what I needed. The problem - I don't have the right sofa and, until I do, I didn't want to put the sofa table in the living room.

I put it against the back wall of our den, which needs an occasional table, but it's far too big for that location. It became painfully obvious within minutes of settling it in place that it's just too long. The heighth is perfect, but it's overwhelming large for the space where it temporarily lighted.

Now I have another problem. Don has taken over the cabinetry. All his computer papers, disks, and miscellaneous other stuff has found a home in the sofa table. When I move it to its permanent place, I am going to HAVE to replace it. But finding the perfect piece for that location is quite an issue. It needs to be about the same heighth as this one, but much shorter. However, we've got to have those cabinets for all of Don's computer stuff.

I've also been on the hunt for the perfect couch. I want a light-colored leather sectional with recliners. But not just any light-colored leather sectional will do. I'm picky about styles and I have to be able to arrange it in a "U" shape

Several years ago, I saw exactly what I wanted at a discount furniture outlet.

"That's the perfect one," I told Don. "We need to snatch it up!"

"If they have it here now, honey, I'm sure there are lots of them available other places. Let's look around."

Big mistake. One I'm sure he'll never make again. When we finally, many years later, find the perfect couch once again, I'm quite certain he won't be paying discount furniture outlet prices for it. He'll be lucky if he can buy it without having to auction off the house or children.

Yesterday, in my continuing quest, I visited (for the second time) a Bassett furniture store that's going out of business. No light-colored reclining leather sectionals, but I did find a leather and wrought iron stool which I bought as a footstool for the den. Last time I was in this store, with a friend, we diligently searched through EVERY piece. We tried out some leather couches, thinking perhaps I could substitute a couch and loveseat combination for my sectional. We also considered several fabric sectionals. But with Don and the children's allergies to dust, I'm really trying to avoid fabric furniture. The leather traps so much less dust and can be wiped down frequently. It just IS the way to go with the kinds of allergic problems with which we deal.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new, COMFORTABLE bench for our dining room, which I love, and am moving the old natural wood Parson's Bench into my bedroom to sit at the foot of my bed. I originally bought it for my bedroom, but that was before some furniture my parents sent down to me took up it's space. It will replace my teakwood carved Hope Chest, which will move into the far end of the living room, in front of the double windows, and serve as a window seat.

I guess I'm making progress - slow but sure. I still need my couch, the occasional table for the den, and a piece of furniture to replace the bookshelf Don uses for storage of envelopes, checks, magazines, etc., that is an eyesore. And a nice computer table that we can close up when the piles of stuff that have taken up permanent residence near the computer threaten to overwhelm me. When that's all done, I need to find a new dining room table and chairs with a matching china cabinet.

Just a few little things. But, if I take them one at a time, I think it's all do-able.

In the right season.