Furniture

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email newsletter.

When I see a beautiful piece of furniture, my emotions take over and I can’t help myself — I wind up lusting after it. Thankfully, I’ve learned to wait a few minutes until I calm down, or I’d be up to my eyeballs in debt from furniture and home decor purchases. After a little while, my green side kicks in and reminds me that buying things I don’t need only contributes to the overconsumerism that threatens to turn this nation — and in fact the world — into a giant landfill. Doesn’t stop me from looking, though

I never, ever thought I would want to decorate with a beanbag chair. I’ve never found them attractive — not even in kids’ rooms. But leave it to Pottery Barn to create a beautifully designed room around a beanbag that makes me want to do a total 180. I am really loving this Bean Bag Sectional from PBteen. And what makes it even more beautiful is the fact that it is covered in organic cotton canvas and filled with 100% recycled fill.

There are a bunch of pieces to choose from, so you can get whatever fits in your space. Here are some of the configurations:

Making origami is one of those things I’ve always wished I knew how to do, but never learned. My stepmother is a very crafty lady, and origami is one of her many talents. I’ve always imagined how great gifts would look topped with a custom origami creation, or how they would make great place markers at Thanksgiving dinner. Until I finally sit down with a stack of old paper and learn how to do it, this ingenious table will suffice.

I don’t know how many of you have ever seen the movie “Belly.”  It’s a late 90s urban flick about two partners in crime, literally, that stars rappers Nas and DMX. If you’ve seen it, you probably remember the house DMX’s character lived in. It is hard to forget. It was monochromatic black & white — furniture, floors, walls. Everything had clean, contemporary lines, and anything that wasn’t white or black was either transparent or chrome. It was so glossy that I could barely look at the TV straight on because of the glare. But I loved that house.

Mothers will tell you that there’s nothing quite like sitting in a rocking chair cuddling with a sweet-smelling infant. It was one of my favorite things to do back when my daughter was young enough to sit still for more than a few seconds at a time (ie. before she started walking). Now that she loves having stories read to her while on my lap, I wish I still had access to my rocker so we could spend some quality time there.

Have you ever had furniture that was just plain too large for the room it’s in? I have that problem right now, and it is not easy to live with. This is of course, because we bought the furniture years ago when we were in a much larger room. Now that the space has been downsized, I wish I could wave a magic wand to make the furniture smaller too.

Here’s  a general decorating tip for you: Never underestimate the power of using furniture that is the right scale for your room.

The room my husband and I are currently in is small, to say the least. We are always tripping over things, squirreling away papers and trinkets into nooks and crannies, and losing things because we have too much stuff for such a limited space. So I’m always looking for creative storage options that maximize available space — mostly vertical space, since there isn’t much floor space left.

I’ve never liked caterpillars much — or any creepy, crawlies. I love their brilliant colors and I’m fascinated by the fact that they become butterflies, but not enough to get up close and personal. This caterpillar, however, would be welcome in my home any day.

The Caterpillar Activity Bench from Skyline Design’s “greenplay” collection is funky and functional — and the “green” goes a lot deeper than just the color. It would be the perfect start to any kids’ play area.  It’s the perfect kid-size height and can be outfitted with a variety of graphics and surfaces depending on how you plan to use it. It is apparently intended for use in libraries and other public spaces, but I see no reason why it couldn’t fit comfortably in a playroom at home — except for the 4-figure price tag, that is.

If you ask someone to tell you what they like, lots of times they’ll say “I can’t explain it, but I’ll know it when I see it.”  I may never have been able to describe the picture of the perfect entertainment center that I have been holding in my head for more than a year, but I knew the Lexington Entertainment Center by Modloft was it as soon as I saw it.

It warms my heart to find companies with a conscience, particularly independent ones. For companies just starting out, I know it can be tempting to go with the cheapest materials and follow only the most lenient standards, and many companies do just that. That makes the ones who take the time to create quality, safer products stand out from the crowd even more.