refurnish my house with modern furniture

Josh and Anne lent me their coffee table for a spell and my new lamp arrived. It’s a knock-off (about 1/3 the cost), but I can’t tell the difference so I’m happy.

My couch, chair, carpet, dining table and 6 dining chairs are now all in the house. This is the end of phase I in which I repalced the major dining room and living room furniture bits.

The clean lines and more livable forms have been a real improvement to my living situation. I have a phase II brewing which involves a new coffee and side table, painting the living room walls and a few pillows, etc. Phase III involves the bedrooms and den. But in general, the expensive hard part is complete and I’m happy as a clam.

I was able to sell this table on craigslist which I bought at an estate sale a few years back to a family moving into a new home. Replaced it with my new table that has metal legs and very basic lines. I love it. The chairs are temporary—I’ve got some new chairs coming in a few weeks.

The old table served me well and originally cost $125 so I got a lot of value out of it. Plenty of holiday dinners and late night drinking occurred here but I’m happy with the change.

I met with Nelleen (the interior designer) two days ago. Great meeting. Understanding that I’m on a tight budget, she came up with some nice selections and use of existing bits of furniture that I currently own. In this case, the constraints seem to be helping—I think the end product will benefit from the smaller budget and reuse of existing stuff.

My mission is to go check out Nelleen’s suggested pieces this weekend in downtown Seattle. Then, we’ll decide on final items and hopefully get to ordering a few things. I’ll also liquidate my two shelving units from my house to make room for the new stuff. I believe it’ll be 6-10 weeks before new things arrive.

I’ll try to take a before-and-after picture series.

We are parents of a toddler, and I worry about the impact that growing up in a house of conventional cheap mass produced furniture will have on her psyche. I could deal with Ikea, but shipping to Florida is outrageous. It might be time to take up furniture building in my spare time…

1. I’ll likely break even or even save money by leveraging her discounts with furniture retailers
2. It was very helpful to have someone who does this for a living listen to my needs and desires and make practical suggestions
3. She didn’t balk at my lower-end budget and seemed generally excited about using existing furniture and clearing out unnecessary stuff to make room for a new couch and dining room table

We took measurments and discussed how I like to use the rooms and what I like about the house. Nelleen agreed with my suggestion for a a bench in the entry way and gave me a handful of very practical ideas that I would never have arrived at on my own.

I’ll let you know how it all turns out. Pictures will be coming soon enough.

Real furniture and modern design are not to be tinkered with by amateurs – that is the lesson I’ve learned over the years of buying modern pieces – an interior designers fees are minimal compared to the money you’ll save avoiding bad decisions. Plus, most designers get substantial discounts they’ll pass on to you.

I definitely want to upgrade from a lot of the dark wood furniture I scored at estate sales when I first moved into my house. I like order and am not much into clutter. In fact, too much clutter drives me nuts—I can’t play guitar in a cluttered room.

That said, I want to make sure I don’t end up with a sterile environment—my greatest fear when I think of refurnishing with too much modern stuff. Modern style for sure.