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Margery Seitz

Buying a house and watching my bank account dwindle should affect my spending habits, and it has, but I can’t stop myself from spending on my new house. I want it to be perfect and I want it now. I can’t live another minute with my old red counter stools; they look terrible in my new space.  I can’t live without new nightstands.

CB2 and Ikea understand my desire for instant gratification. They understand that I just bought a house and can’t spend a fortune, but I still want simple and stylish furniture. I needed to buy nightstands, a kitchen/dining table and counter stools immediately.

At CB2, I found the perfect nightstands. My bedroom is already too full of wood furniture: I have a light colored wood platform bed, two upholstered chairs with dark wood frames, a wood desk and a cedar chest. The last thing I needed in the bedroom was more wood. The Proof nightstands at CB2 are an industrial looking metal.  Described on their website as “Science lab goes bedside,” they worked for me, especially at a price of $149 each. They have a drawer to hide all my stuff and a shelf for reading material.

At Ikea, I bought the Galant Conference Table for $229. I am using it as a dining table and as additional kitchen workspace. At first I was concerned that the white formica top would make it seem too “kitcheny” for dining, but it dressed up well for my first dinner party with a runner and candles.

Still a concern is finding comfortable stools with backs so that people will want to spend many hours at my dinner table. I’m going back to Ikea today to see if the stools they show with the table are comfortable enough. 

Shown here is the Galant Conference Table in my new kitchen with Jasper Morrison stools (which I had in a previous house) that are just too tall for the table. The quest continues…