Furniture

“God is in the details.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I’m an organized person, but I am not a tidy person. There is a difference. The reality is that I know what I need to do to make things look tidy– and when my heart is in it, I can get things looking pretty darned spiffy. If I do say so myself.

However, this past weekend when I attempted to get some of the more {how shall I say this?} egregious messes in our house under control, the Fates were not on my side.

• For instance, I knew what I needed to make the bookshelves in the TV room look great. But the shelves are so shallow that almost no baskets or photo file boxes or office-style charging stations now available will fit on them. Except for one lovely wooden desktop organizer from Ballard Designs… that isn’t available for shipping until April.

*growl*

• In the bathroom I had a very cute idea, gleaned from Pinterest, about how to make my make-up and other stuff look organized… but I need a tray of a specific size to make it happen.

So I tried Hobby Lobby, Meijer, Pottery Barn, Ikea, Crate & Barrel, Kroger, Kohl’s, Tuesday Morning & who knows how many places online. And here’s what I learned: that size of tray doesn’t seem to exist, rather like a unicorn.

*humph*

• Meanwhile in the un-bedroom, the project stalled over the size, style and cost of the frames I need to create a gallery wall behind the chairs. The beautiful floral drapes from Pottery Barn dictate the color scheme in that room.

But now I can’t find any images to put into the theoretical, yet-to-be purchased frames that won’t fight with the drapes, while gracing the wall behind the stylish and comfy chairs… that we bought at Crate & Barrel just last winter.

*loud sigh*

• And then there is my perennially not-so-tidy desk in our home office… where I shuffle little pieces of paper and catalogues and pens and file cards all over the place. Never quite sure what to do with all the notes I make. Never quite able to file things properly in file cabinets or in computer files. Always aware that my way of organizing, such as it is, would give Leo Babauta nightmares & David Allen fits.

*oh well*

All of which brings me to the following conclusions:

Decorating a home is much more difficult than I once believed– and makes me understand why so many people don’t even try;
I do not enjoy the process of making a house pretty, but know, from experience, that I will love living in it after it’s all finished; and
That when this home redecorating project is over I might never, ever change another thing in this house again. Ever.

A brief overview…

We wanted to buy two comfy chairs and an ottoman for an upstairs bedroom that we’re turning into what I call a sitting room– or as Zen-Den refers to it, the un-bedroom. [The man is very literal.]

Because the bedroom is up the stairs, around a corner, and has a small doorway, the size of the chairs was our primary concern.

After much… much… much searching online and on foot, we ended up with three possible chairs that would fit into the room. One was at Crate & Barrel. The other two were at Ethan Allen.

The Top Five Reasons Why We Bought Our New Furniture At Crate & Barrel… And Not At Ethan Allen

Number 5 – Crate & Barrel was less expensive than Ethan Allen. Not by much, but a little bit.

Number 4 – Crate & Barrel had a better selection of fabric than Ethan Allen. Fewer choices, but more current colors.

Number 3 – Crate & Barrel allowed us (encouraged us, even) to take fabric samples home so that we could see how our chairs/ottoman would look in all kinds of light, night and day, in our house. Ethan Allen wouldn’t let us have even one sample to take home and required us to make an appointment with one of their designers who would bring the fabric samples to our house for one hour; during which time we were to decide which fabric to use on our furniture.

Number 2 – Crate & Barrel sales associates were knowledgeable about the furniture on the sales floor as well as all the items online and in their catalogues. Our request to see certain chairs that I’d researched online before going to the store confused the Ethan Allen designers; they couldn’t find one of the two chairs on the sales floor (or in their catalogue) to show us.

Number 1 – Crate & Barrel sales associates were friendly, hip, and encouraging with lots of good decorating ideas. Ethan Allen designers were uptight and high-handed. They seemed weirdly disinterested in selling furniture to us– or anyone else in the store, for that matter. So, we walked out the door and didn’t go back.

[Hello FTC! I know that posts like this worry you, so let me assure you that I/we have received no money or other compensation for the above endorsements. This is just my take on what happened to us when we went shopping in these stores in our city. Feeling less worried now FTC? Good.]