Choosing and Dealing with Furniture
Submitted by SharpMan Editorial Team on Friday 8th October 2010In this series, the SharpMan Team covered Step One — finding the perfect couch. Of course, there are a few more steps to making your dream a reality. In this installment, our editors walk you through steps two through five, covering:
- Painting
- Sorting Through Existing Furniture
- Choosing New Coffee and End Tables
- Choosing New Secondary Seating Furniture
Plus:
- Dealing with Hardwood Floors
- Sharing Space with Your Home Office
Step Two. Your next goal is to give your common area some flavor. Pick a primary color you like - red, blue, green, or yellow. For SharpMen who already possess reasonably nice common area accessories, find a color that dominates in these items. Your aim is to pick a background color that looks nice with your accessories in the foreground. For the more advanced, the color field may be expanded to periwinkle (a brilliant light blue), ochre (an earthy deep yellow or manila envelope), or varying shades of gray.
Paint the wall behind the couch your chosen color.
Now, paint the wall opposite the first painted wall - the one you look towards as you sit on the couch - another primary color, or a color that compliments another shade in your accessories. You may place your "entertainment" center against this wall, just to the side of your fireplace, should you be fortunate enough to have one. The entertainment center and fireplace will be covered later.
Step Three. The next few steps focus on your "secondary furniture". This step deals with finding great-looking surfaces on which to place your beer (end tables) and dinner (coffee table). If you already own items that serve these functions, take a good look at them. Are they cardboard? When you look at them, is there anything about them that screams out "Chicks Love Me"? If so, or, alternatively, if they don’t scream anything, but seem to fit the descriptions provided below, go ahead and keep them. Waste not, want not is the SharpMan motto.
If it turns out that all of the surfaces you use as tables are cardboard, or you just don’t care for them, consider purchasing simple and inexpensive coffee and end tables. Simple is best. Glass tables with black frames work well. Alternatively, mom’s rich dark wood furniture can also be nice -- but avoid Formica or other outdated styles better at home on the Brady Bunch set. They’re just not antiques yet.
Remember that small square or round dining tables also make great end tables. These are perfect for a corner, and add height to the room design.
Where does one find tables and other secondary furniture for little or no money? Many home stores, some on-line, feature attractive "starter furniture" (remember, you don’t need this stuff to last forever), with many pieces under $100.
For the ultimate in low-cost, reusable end-table options, check out Cosmopolitan Home’s Juxta Drawer System, a "multi-function" system of drawers (with foldable legs) that may be connected, Lego-style, to create coffee and side tables, entertainment centers, TV stands and chests of drawers. Just imagine, today these drawers serve as inexpensive matching furniture, tomorrow (when a woman comes into your life and insists that you throw everything out) you can convert them into a home-office wall-unit!
On the brick and mortal end, seek out chain home stores such as Pier One Imports and Cost Plus Imports in your area. These stores frequently run in-store specials on stylish coffee and end tables in stock. Visit a couple of times, as these items change weekly or monthly. Also look for marked down floor samples.
Finally, check out Ikea, which features several hip styles of coffee and end tables (which can also be used as entertainment centers) in the $100 price range: the Lack side tables ($17.95); waxed wood, castered Hemlinge table ($39); the birch plywood and frosted glass Kvicksund coffee table ($59) and matching side table ($19); the Robin TV-Bench and coffee table ($79-95); the black metal framed, glass-topped Barsta coffee table ($89) and side table ($69); the Ivar castored TV-bench or coffee table ($99); the Jussi square table ($99); the Bjorko coffee and end tables ($79-99); the Timra TV-Cart and coffee table ($149); and the Iggesund small dining table ($199).
Alternatively, pick up a local paper and search for garage, yard and estate sales. Although finding a great garage sale requires patience, and could mean that you don’t furnish your place in a weekend, garage sales often yield some of the best, and least expensive secondary furniture. Also, always remember to check with family, friends and neighbors for hand-me-downs.
Place one end table at either end of your couch and the coffee table in front of your couch.
Step Four. Now time for additional seating. You wanna have guests over don’t you? Survey your existing furniture - do you see any viable secondary seating furniture in this group? Do you have any upholstered chairs, stools or ottomans that "go" with your new couch and painted walls? These items needn’t match exactly to accomplish the new look you’re creating. Sometimes another color or pattern can add a little life to your room. Before you abandon anything, arrange your items per this section and ask a visually inclined friend for their opinion. If all inquiries lead to a resounding "no", get rid of the objectionable.
Instead, purchase two stools or ottomans of the same style and color, but in a different color than your walls. For example, if your walls are electric blue, buy stools or ottomans in a black, a rich brown, gray, or even a lime green. Yes, all of these colors may sound insane, but depending on the item you choose, they will add a Sharp contrast.
Your secondary seating furniture choice should also take your flooring into account. If you’ve got hardwood - anything goes. However, if your existing carpeting is a flat industrial-grade gray, then perhaps a darker gray, a black, or a lime green should be your choice.
Where to find great (or at least, attractive and inexpensive) secondary seating furniture? If you’d like to go retail, try the aforementioned import stores, Cost Plus and Pier One. Also visit Ikea for a pair of rattan Dalby Footstools ($29 each), beige canvas and dark leather trim Fribo Folding Easy Chairs ($39 each), the Ervalla ottoman ($149), the upholstered Tullsta tub chair ($149), or our favorites, the Aivak Custom Footstools, stylish and versatile upholstered seats with a hidden storage (or junk) area beneath the cushion (35 x 18 inch, $229).
Also, shake down those relatives and seek out those garage sales. If a chair or footstool has a good shape, you can reupholster it for approximately $100, depending on the price of the new fabric you choose.
SharpMan Tip: Hardwood floors are beautiful, but absent proper cleaning they can turn into a dustbowl nightmare. If you have hardwood floors, sweep corners and crevices as often as possible. Also, you can minimize the sight of dirt with an area rug. Depending on your other color choices, an area rug can be as lively or stade as you like. Kilim or Chenille Rugs come in patterns and solid colors, look great, and are often inexpensive (around $100-300, see the retailers listed above). However, their flat weave means that they are also thin. For thin rugs and decorative throws used as rugs, use a "rug liner". Rug liners are rubberized layers that lie just beneath your rug or throw and keep it from sliding under your feet. They are available at most rug and home stores, and run about $20-40 depending on the size required. Skip this step and you should prepare for a trip to the emergency room - or a lawsuit.
Step Five. Remove all furniture and other clutter from the room. This is particularly important with regard to any favorite school and sports paraphernalia, assuming you no longer attend. Optional, but highly advisable, is to remove these materials even if you are still in school. Greek letters and framed NBA jerseys simply don’t spell "interior design".
SharpMan Tip: If you run your burgeoning internet start-up from a desk in your living room, try to separate this office space from your seating area by putting up a screen or room divider. Many styles of attractive screens can be found at home stores, some for as little as $50-100. If you’d prefer to spend your money elsewhere, look for aluminum or wood blinds, hung on the ceiling and lowered to hide the office mess. Alternatively, look for decorative rods and wires from which you can hang a pre-sewn curtain.
Till next time . . . good luck.
This article last updated on Wednesday 8th February 2012