I bought WAY to much furniture!

[DonnaB 3]

I got a flyer in the mail on Friday about a warehouse sale at a furniture company. So I went on Saturday afternoon, just to see what they had. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My husband and I have been married for six years now and we've never had proper bedroom furniture. We bought a really nice Select Comfort bed, so we're comfortable but . . . our bedroom looks sterile. Yuck. Crappy old put-it-together-yourself stuff, of which we each brought several mismatched pieces to our marriage.

So back to the warehouse sale.

The furniture was great. The prices were great. We found stuff we both like (ok, he probably doesn't even notice the yucky mismatched stuff, but hey, he wants me to be happy, right?). So I picked out several pieces of nice, Victorian-style furniture. Sleigh-bed, 2 nightstands, 2 chests of drawers, and a television armoire/chest thingy. Dark cherry wood, ornate scroll design - Victorian. It's really, really pretty.

Problem is, it's too big for our room. Or there's too much of it. Or both.

OMG. It didn't look that huge in the warehouse. AH HA! I think I've spotted the problem, detective. Warehouse vs. bedroom. Warehouse, bedroom. Hmmmmmmmm.

It was a one time sale to the public - they normally only sell to furniture stores and interior designers. ALL SALES FINAL!

Oh my.

Big furniture.

I guess we have to move to a bigger house!

Crud.

Here are a couple of pics: (Note the plain room with no color, draperies, artwork, or decorative accents - I don't even have freaking lamps! SIX YEARS! I guess I went a little crazy.) (My husband is taking it very well.) (Thank you, Lord.)

(Just for scale, that's a 27" television) (sigh)

I still really like it - there's just a lot of it.

[princess_n_thep 2]

Well if it helps, it is absolutely beautiful!

[argon 3]

I agree... beautiful! What about turning it (the bed) sideways, so the window is along the side of the bed, and you're not blocking it. And holy crap! That armoire IS huge! Lucky you said how big the tv was, cause I was thinking it was alot smaller.

Nice kitties! The white one looks like a little porcelain statue!

[NurseTeresa 0]

It is absolutely beautiful. Have a great solution for you if you want you can let me have it......lol I am sure it would fit in my bedroom without any problems. Just kidding! That TV looked like a little 15 inch thing stuck in that big armoire. If you are anything like me no matter how big and heavy it is you will arrange and rearrange until you get it just right and well if it looks fantastic who cares that there isnt much floor room. That just means not much to sweep now. Just need to add some pics etc and make it even more fantastic.

[Bettina 0]

That furniture is beautiful!!!! When you wake up in the mornings you are gonna say "ahhhhh". Hmmmmm makes me want new furniture!!

ha ha and I see the cat took right to it.......it can't be wrong now!!!

(what are the cat's names?)

editing again...i see you have one cat that matches the furniture and one that matches the carpet!!!! how cool is that!!!

[Stitchy 0]

The pieces are lovely. I have been married 35 years. I still have my mother in laws furniture. Now don't me wrong, it's pretty. But I have always wanted my own. It was originally for twin beds so the kids got the headboards. My headboard is brass and the rest of the furniture is wood - nice, but .....

Keep arranging it until you get it right. So what if you have to squeeze around it. This new stuff will inspire you to do something about window coverings and pictures on the walls. It will be your most favorite room. :sleep :bananapartyhat:

[Goannabanda 0]

It's beautiful, and will be an investment you'll cherish forever, way longer after you forget how much you spent, or how hard it was to fit into your house.

I know from direct experience - the gorgeous oak bedhead we bought when first married didn't fit into the bedroom of our house - we couldn't open the bedroom door properly for 4 years, before we had enough cash to get a folding bedroom door fitted for the next 4 years spent in that house.

We were devastated on the day the furniture came home, but quickly got over it. Now we wouldn't change it for the world. It's the only decent furniture we've bought in our married life! Everything else was inherited, hand-me down, flat packed or bought "just to get through the having small kids years".

PS We've moved house and now our bedhead it fits perfectly into the new master bedroom.

PSS Our old bedroom door made a great computer desk - we added legs and a computer hutch purchased from Ikea - the door handle hole was great for the wires to drop through... ...we used it like this for another 6 years, until recently :-)

[the best me 6]

Wonderful! You are a real grown-up now, with real bedroom furniture! LOL I thought buying our bedroom furniture would grow me up...it didn't.

I can't wait to see how the room ends up. Get out the paint rollers! You need a bold wall color, but not dark. Is one of the dressers a low, long dresser? That always helps...it looks as if you have 3 tall pieces (2 dressers and 1 armoire).

I agree with Argon, get the bed off the window wall and turn it sideways. Wow Donna! Very cool! Keep us updated on the new look!

[vinesqueen 2]

Very pretty! And there is no rule saying that you have to use all the furniture in your room all at once. But putting your bed on an angle might work well.

No, I think you can go dark. But white walls makes your wood look flat. I have my mother's antique walnut sideboard and table, and they look amazing against my dark green walls. When these pieces were at my mother's place against her white walls, the pieces looked dark and almost featureless.

Here's a couple of pix of my kitchen. The first one has my spinning wheel and a corner of the buffet/sideboard, the other is a pix of the prep area. Btw, I have a HUGE kitchen, my table seats 16 with all the leaves pulled out. With both leaves pulled out, it is 9'5" long.

Most of my other furniture is still flat-pack or cast offs from other folks.

[lisah25 3]

It is very beautiful! And who needs a lamp when you have a nightstand-cat!?

[paula 4]

I had to laugh.

If ANYONE knows how you feel - its me!

In 2003 we bought another home. I 'special ordered' (cant return special orders) a sofa with matching chair and ottoman. Waited and waited for it to come in... When they delivered it my mouth dropped open. The sofa was enormous! Didnt even fit in the space I had been planning for it to live in.

So I can totally relate!

Your new furniture IS beautiful, but I agree with everyone else. What I first noticed in your pix were the white walls and very dark wood. Bringing the tone of the walls down a little will soften the room. And YES! Change the furniture around (had to do this with my sofa). You may need to grab all the extra men in the neighborhood to do this - cause that wood aint light!

Thanks for sharing.

[barbara465 2]

Maybe you can angle the bed, paint the walls a softer color than white, and put some of the furniture in the closet. I put one of my pieces in my walk-in closet and the other one in my dining room. I had a bookcase with glass doors on one side of the TV armoire and a open bookcase on the other. In my new house my wall isn't big enough to accommodate all of that so I split the pieces.

The furniture is beautiful. Just add some color. The cats are nice accessories.

[DonnaB 3]

Thanks for all the reassurance and suggestions everyone!

When we decided to buy the furniture we had planned to arrange it so the right side of the bed was toward the window, with the armoire at the foot of the bed on THAT wall. We even measured to be sure it would fit that way. Sadly, (stupidly) we measured the FOOTPRINT of the bed and didn't figure space for the way a sleigh-bed swoops away from the bed at the headboard and the footboard. Doh! With the furniture arranged the way that makes the most sense (and has been suggested a couple of times here, lol) it only leaves 18" between the footboard of the bed and the front of the armoire. It looks crazy that way, like it's in storage instead of in use! I suppose we could turn the bed and leave the armoire to the left of it on that wall, but then we wouldn't be able to watch TV in bed - which we enjoy doing, and is the reason we bought the armoire to begin with! *sigh*

My sister sent me a furniture store website that has a virtual layout planner. I'm going to spend a little time and put in all my measurements (making sure to account for the silly sleigh-bed swoop!) and move the furniture around vitually to A) save my back, and see if I can get the headboard away from the window. In all honesty, I just don't think it can be done.

That's OK. Victorian rooms were usually crowded with heavy furniture. All I need to do is cover the whole window wall with rich, heavy curtains just dripping with bullion fringe, add a potted palm and a thick rug - and VOILA! Victorian heaven. A couple of nice oil paintings in ornate gilded frames would really seal the deal but . . . Oh hey, how do we feel about pastoral scene mural medallions painted on the ceiling?

I know, overkill! I'm famous for it.

The pictures I took make the furniture look like a tighter fit than it really is. 24 hours later and we're starting to get used to it. Now I just have to talk my husband into my decorating scheme (either that or just do it) and we'll be all set.

Sadly, I've spent all of our disposable income - and THEN SOME! lol - so the expensive part of completing 'the look' is going to have to wait awhile.

Question:

Do most couples have mutual consensus on decorating their homes or do most women just decorate and let their husbands get used to it?

As far as I can tell, the husbands really don't care that much about it, and after the decorating is done they stop seeing it. Whereas women still see it - they have to, they're the ones dusting it.

P.S. The cat's are Baldrick, he's the 16 year old gray Maine Coon, and the white tub of lard, er, cat is Percy, he's 15 years old.

[Wheetsin 714]

Can you put the bed on the wall where the cable outlet is, head against the wall, angle the armoire in the corner that would be bottom right of the bed, place a chest of drawers across on the wall that is parallel to the right side of the bed, and then the final chest can go across from the foot of the bed? Hard to visualize w/o knowing room/furniture dimensions. Now get a warm camel color on the walls to bring out the warmth of the furniture finish, some burgandy drapes, and start shopping for the house the furniture actually fits in. Isn't that the way we do it?

No mutual consensus here. Not much anyway. We just finished painting his bathroom, new faucets, new lights, etc. and his say in it consisted of answering, "Which of these two paint colors would you prefer?"

He really doesn't care, and knows the interior design of our home matters much more to me than him. The way he sees it is, "If our bills are paid, there's food on the table, and I can have my electronics, I don't care how much you spend - as long as you really want it."

[Bettina 0]

Mutual Concensus......hmm sort of. When we first got married...I wanted colors all over...he didn't he wanted eggshell. (for that "clean" look)...So we painted colors, then 10 years later it all went to eggshell and by then I didn't really care as long as it was painted...lol. Tomorrow I am painting the bathroom, he doesn't know, I don't think he will care either..anything has to be better than what it looks now! But generally we do come to agreements on what the house should look like, we listen to what each other has to say...its all good.