Furniture Shopping

We kind of loathe furniture shopping.  The result of that is a major lack of furniture in a home we've lived in for almost two years.  So, we've decided it's time to get serious about it; we've dedicated our home to God, and if we're going to use it for His purposes, people are going to need places to sit!

We bought furniture for our family room when we moved in--we were actually sitting on our camp stools and the patio furniture the previous owners left behind.  I wish I was kidding.  We didn't really want to bring any of our old furniture with us--kind of a new beginning, out with the old, in with the new thing.  So, for the first two months here, we put it off, knew we needed to make the trek to the furniture stores, and finally did it.

I want to walk into a store, see the whole room set up and buy it. I will admit to very little imagination and even worse decorating skill, so that's kind of how it has to be (and really, a lack of patience and interest, too...).  I don't want to be followed by a salesperson, I don't want to look at swatches (I actually may have laughed at the one salesman who handed them, and a bottle of water, to me, telling me to get comfortable, take my time and enjoy myself as Shawn tried to desperately corral our three overstimulated and tired children.... Maybe when Shawn and I buy grown up furniture I will...  Nope, probably not then either) and I don't want to listen to jokes or be sold on scams.  I just want to see the furniture, like the furniture and buy the furniture.

We kind of did that with the family room furniture.  Sort of.  At the eighth store of the day.  Yeah.

Now it's time to start on the rest of the rooms.  Sigh.  The first room is the formal dining room.  I've started looking online first this time, hoping to kind of reduce our time in the stores even further.  Problem is, I know what I want, and I'm not likely to find it in a traditional store.  But I started looking anyway.  I found something different, something I kind of really liked and was getting used to the more I looked at other pieces.  It was kind of an antique-ish looking off white wood with fabric chairs, and it would brighten the room right up against our wood floors.  It's totally out of the box for me (Shawn is very sweet--if I like it, he likes it, so I really did need a second opinion!), so I sent the link to my best friend for her opinion, "What do you think?"

She shot me down with three words:  "You have boys."

Ugh.  She's right.  Handprints.  Footprints.  Boy dirt.  Virginia red clay.  Sharpies and crayons.

Maybe I'll have more luck at a scratch and dent sale???