The bedroom furniture is here!

Ok, so it actually arrived well over a month ago, but this blog certainly isn’t in real time!!  Let’s dish the goods, shall we??  But before we do that, let’s take a trek back in time to what it looked like before…

…and here are a few WAY old pics (like right after we moved in pics) to show you the other pieces of furniture in the room:

And here we are today with the BRAND NEW FURNITURE!!!!!!!!!!

Isn’t it so pretty?  Again, I apologize on the quality of the photos.  Everything is still mid process so these were kind of taken on the fly.  And to answer a few of those burning questions right off the bat: it comes from Bassett Furniture, it does NOT match our bathroom cabinetry (this is espresso colored and our bathroom is black), and we only purchased a dresser, tallboy and sleighbed!  We did NOT buy nightstands!

So what prompted us to buy furniture in the first place?  Well, first off, the previous furniture was my Grandma’s, God rest her soul.  She bought that furniture as her wedding suite when she got married in 1941, which makes that furniture ~70 years old!!  It’s got that cool art deco retro vibe and a classic Waterfall design that I just learned about recently.  But as with all things old, it was just….ahem….OLD.  And much like our wobbly dining table that was also Grandma’s which we replaced recently, it also needed to go.  It was small, only had one nighstand and the bedframe didn’t fit our queen sized mattress.  Poor Dr. J also only had two drawers that he could use (which meant our closet was stuffed to the gills) and it just didn’t have enough storage to be useful to a married couple.  It was great when I was a singleton, but not so great when we got married.  I had always planned on replacing it, but I still wanted to keep it since it reminds me so much of my grandma and I still love the look of it all these years later.

Alas, I had no place to put it and I refused to put it in storage as I think if you have no use for a piece, then you should either get rid of it or *make* it work if you have nothing better.  My “dream” is to someday use it as additional Guest Room furniture, however all the rooms at the “inn” are full and the worst thing I could do would be to stuff it in the garage, which would just ruin the piece and not give it any credit.  I also refused to get a storage garage, which is sort of the popular thing to do in the Pacific Northwest since nobody has basements or attics – urg!  What to do…what to do….?

…then Dr. J’s parents bought a house!  A vacation/rental/investment house to be exact!  And with that began the great Pacific Northwest furniture expansion and migration project of 2011!  In the end, my Grandma’s heirloom furniture has found a temporary home with my in-laws at their permanent residence – at least until they retire and/or we buy a home where we can lovingly bring that furniture back.  I feel extremely relieved to know it’s in good hands and will be cared for and used less than it was being used before!  Phew!

Finally!  We were able to purchase furniture for our bedroom!  And as much as I loved the idea of finding something on Craigslist to rebuild and/or reimagine, I also knew that I didn’t want another hand-me-down furniture set.  So we began hunting and pecking.  Here were our wishes/wants for bedroom furniture:

• A sturdy headboard.  We were originally looking for something upholstered and/or a nice sleigh/wood bed.
• More storage than what we presently have (which honestly wasn’t difficult to find since we had practically no storage before)
• Sturdy construction and finish.  Something that would wear well because I really don’t plan on buying more bedroom furniture in my lifetime.
• In keeping with the above bullet, solid wood construction with dovetailed drawers – which is actually REALLY hard to find!
• Nothing too matchy-matchy!

I don’t think the above is being too picky, is it?  Because of the above, I immediately ruled out Pottery Barn.  I love their furniture, but I have coffee tables/end tables from them and their finishes just don’t wear very well.  Restoration Hardware is great (and all of their drawers are cedar lined, which is a big plus), but their furniture is ridiculously expensive for what you get.  I’d be better off going to a traditional place for furniture.  Macy’s had some good pieces, but the construction wasn’t solid wood and the drawers seemed flimsy and cheap.  We also ruled out places like Ikea, Mor (local) and Ashley furniture for various reasons aligning with above.  So we finally decided on Bassett Furniture, whose Portland branch was going out of business.

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Let me tell you why I LOVE our bedroom furniture.  First off, the lines and finish of the furniture is contemporary and (hopefully) classic.  It doesn’t feel pretentious and/or too traditional/stuffy.  We’re certainly not stuffy or pretentious and a lot of the overly traditional pieces felt very carved and too “fancy” for our tastes.  We’ve got a fancy bath now, isn’t that enough??  The best part of the pieces is that the bottom drawers on all of the dressers are actually cedar lined!!  How cool is that?!?

Regardless, now we have a few “issues” to deal with still in the bedroom.  Here’s a little rundown of some of the things that still need to be “tackled” in our new space:

• New nightstands.  Hopefully something shiny!
• A new mirror
• New bedding – ideally something with a little bit more color
• Paint!  That wall paint is starting to feel a little too muddy to me.

So that’s it for now!!  I’ll be back later with a few more updates – maybe after Labor Day weekend!  Regardless, we’re lovin’ our new furniture!  It’s so beautiful and I guess you could say that our bedroom makeover is well under way….stay tuned…