Years ago I lived with my brother, David, in his sweet little bungalow. At the time, I wasn’t all that into decorating. I was used to the college schedule of moving every 3 to 9 months and never really understood the effort of setting up a more permanent home. I was confused. Most of my decorating attempts included the use of hot pink and black. Again, I was confused.
Shortly before I moved out of David’s house he made a decision that irked me to my core: he got rid of the coffee table. It was quite the disagreement between the two of us. He thought it took up too much space. I thought he shouldn’t get rid of it until he had picked out another one.
Last week (over two years later) he called me and asked me to check some links that he had emailed me. He was buying a new coffee table and needed advice. He sounded miserable. I was ecstatic. We went through proper ratios and talked about potential tables and eventually, I offered to accompany him on his search. So, this weekend he and I spent a solid three hours going from store to store looking for coffee tables. In boy time three hours is an eternity, especially when you’re dong something like looking at coffee tables. In the end, we found something that we both really liked.
{Both via}
He and Peter go pick it up on Friday. I’m probably more excited than he is. (Although, don’t get me wrong, David REALLY loves this new coffee table.) The best part is that now he’s going to let me help him pick out curtains, take down the UT flag hanging over his window, hang pictures on the wall, and maybe—just maybe–get a rug! It’s all quite heavenly. I snapped a couple of pictures of his living room with my phone while I was there. Next time I’ll try to remember to bring my camera so that you guys can get the full effect.
(The line on the floor is just the way that the light is coming in.)
Anyone have any suggestions that I should spring on him? His goal is homey.
When I first moved in Peter didn’t even own a coffee table. Now, I can’t imagine him without one. We spend a lot of time in front of the coffee table. We eat dinner there almost every night and he works at it constantly, but the first coffee table that I brought over was pretty ugly. Here’s a picture for you to see.
The large size of the old coffee table made it a convenient for doing work, but it was far from aesthetically pleasing. So, a few months ago while strolling down the aisles of Ikea, we bought a new one. I’m so glad that we got it, because unlike the old coffee table, this one tells a story about our relationship.
The coffee table has four compartments, each filled with precious memories from our relationship.
On our one month anniversary–yes, we’re that couple–I gave him the journal shown above. At the time, Peter was living in Houston. Throughout our entire time apart from one another we saved little mementos from things that we did and wrote our memories of those events in this book. Next to the journal are sea shells from our very first trip to the beach. On our way home from Louisiana, we saw a sign for the beach and decided to pull over and take a walk.
After I graduated from college Peter and I spent two months in Europe–that’s actually where we got engaged! We bought these postcards in a dark little alley in Paris and now they’re in the center of our living room.
Above is the first present that Peter ever gave me. The first night we met we talked about Federico Garcia Lorca, so the second time that we saw each other he brought me this book of poetry.
In the left corner is a mold of my engagement ring along with its box. Peter proposed to me with a simple ring that I liked in Paris. When we returned to the States, he and I designed a custom engagement ring. This is the mold that they gave us to approve before making the actual ring.
More great postcards from France!
Another thing we love about this coffee cable is that it has a large shelf underneath. We found four baskets at Target for this area that we now use to store our DVDs.
This is what our DVD storage looked like before. See the beaten up box?
This is what it looks like now:
The new coffee table is a great change that adds a lot of meaning and personality to our living room. What does your coffee table look like?
