Subtitle: The Decorating Snowball Effect
A few weeks ago I was browsing Pinterest and I came across this stunning pin that I had found a long time ago and have always loved. Actually, I love anything by designer Lilly Bunn – emerald green, leopard, brass, lucite, marble – if you did a cross-section of my soul, these are just a few of the layers you would come across!
Anyway, I felt compelled to turn my laptop around and pine to Bryan: “This is my dream coffee table. This exact one right here. I wish I could find it on Craigslist one day, but of course I won’t!”
I mean, my burl laminate coffee table is fun, indestructible, and a great size. But I’ve been getting a little tired of my never-finished living room with all the same major elements from our previous apartment two years ago (chesterfield, dragon couch, burl coffee table, leopard rug) and feeling a little in a rut due to monetary restrictions. For a while I’ve been dreaming of something modern and bold in brass and glass. Unfortunately, every brass and glass coffee table I fell in love with on Craigslist was in the multiple-hundreds of dollars.
Until last Sunday when I was browsing Craigslist and came across a listing for a $20 coffee table. The photo was on the small side, not well-lit, and the table base was propped on its side up against a fence with the glass top taking up most of the foreground of the shot, but I thought I recognized the shape…
Yep.
Look familiar? It’s almost exactly the same brass stacked coffee table I was swooning over just a short while before!
I did a little digging around online and I think I’ve IDed this piece as Paul Mayén for Habitat, circa the 1960’s/70’s (example 1; example 2; P.S. Paul Mayén was a really cool dude who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright!) I think my table even has the original glass top (completely chip-free!). This may be one of my favorite Craigslist finds ever!
Of course, once I got my prized treasure home, the “decorating snowball effect” began… It’s a little smaller than the burl coffee table, and once I had it in the room, I didn’t like the way I had the couches set up in an L-shape, as seen here:
With the new coffee table, I didn’t like the arrangement. So naturally, I had to move everything around multiple times until I settled on another arrangement I’m trying out for the time being…
With the way our living room is laid out, there’s only one place we can put the tv – on the long wall to your right as you enter the door. So I can arrange the couches at right angles, or facing each other. I like to sit on the couch up against an armrest with my feet propped up, so this layout is working for me right now. Who knows when I’ll get a mad hair to rearrange it though…
Ask my mom – growing up, I dragged all the furniture around in my room at least once every two months, always searching for that elusive “perfect” placement. Bryan says people like me invented feng shui 😉
Is this it? Only time will tell.
Do you spy my photography buddy? Abby religiously naps on the Chesterfield every morning.
So my living room has a shiny new addition, and now I’m faced with the incontrovertible photographic evidence that my living room needs work. One step at a time. One thrifty find at a time. Gathering: slow, frustrating, rewarding. Just the way I like it.
that table!!!!! i die! and we have our sofas facing each other and i love it- keeps the room feeling open and inviting, and helps with our one option tv placement as well! 🙂
I think I'm liking it too! Until I pick up the next snowball-effect-causing-vintage piece on Craigslist 😉
I love love love that table. Can't believe you found it for only $20. You always get so lucky 😉
You say lucky, I say obsessive compulsive about viewing EVERY Craigslist posting and scrutinizing pictures for clues for 2-3 hours at a time. Okay, and a little lucky 😉
That table is a beauty! I love it….you always find such awesome things.
Thank you Jess – you do too!
Craigslist is the man!! I love when you find something and you don't expect to [and that seems to be the only way it works]. It looks so good- and I love the new couch arrangement too. Love that you found the name of it too- I've found that that can be a little hard unless the piece has something written on it. Congrats on your dream coffee table 🙂
So agree – things only turn up when you're NOT looking for them! It's the Craigslist version of "a watched pot never boils"!
When I find a new piece, I'm obsessed with googling every description I can think of until I track it down online… Sometimes I'll find out exactly what it was a year after I sold it and that just kills me!
Cut it out with that table. I am seriously in LOVE!!!! Fantastic find!
Angela @ Number Fifty-Three
Thanks Angela! I'm a little mad at it for turning my life upside down, but hopefully it'll push me to do something really cool with the living room!
That's a fun table! xo Kristin
Thanks Kristin! 🙂
SCREAMING. what a wonderful find! Maybe I have asked you before but WHERE oh WHERE is that rug from?
Oh, let me tell you about that rug! It's a bound piece of Stark leopard carpet that I found on Craigslist a few years ago for $60. I don't know what possessed me to want a leopard rug at that stage of my life (our first apartment, very Ikea, very different from my style now) but I had to have it!
We met the lady selling it at "her" storage unit, which actually turned out to belong to a friend (?!) who was out of town (!?) and hadn't left keys (?!) but who wouldn't mind if the lady called a friend with a saw to come cut through the lock so she could sell us the rug (?!)… Looking back, I have no idea what I was thinking to just not get out of the situation, but at the time it all seemed so strange it was plausible (and who would break into a storage unit to sell something for $60?), so I handed over the money and left with the rug!
So, long story, but that's where the rug is from 😉
Your dragon couch is amazing. You have such unique taste and you know how to work it! I love that you found your dream coffee table! I hope you played the lottery that day. 😉
I totally should have!!! I'm glad you're in the love-dragon-couch camp – it's a very polarizing piece of furniture 😉
Great find! I love the overall message of this post. I've been searching for a coffee table for (it hurts to say) years now!
Thank you Jennifer! I always have to remind myself when I'm looking for something that I can pick two out of three: cheap, perfect-for-the-space, right away. I don't want to settle for cheap and right away, but wrong for the space. Immediately available, perfect purchases tend to be very expensive. So I wait [sometimes] patiently for those perfect, cheap finds 🙂
Your new coffee table makes me weak in the knees! $20?! Amazing find! I love, love, love it! I also love your new furniture arrangement 🙂
Thank you Caitlin! 🙂 I think I like the new arrangement too! I need new inspiration and crazy ideas for this room though, so I'll have to see how that develops…
Love the new addition and I love the couches arranged like that!
Yay! Thank you Ashley! I'm warming up to it… 🙂
Love the new furniture arrangement and of course the new coffee table is so good.
Thank you Emily 🙂
I mean at this point I'm just really upset about the table and the couch. The real question is can I read through such envious thoughts… 🙂
Nooo Amber – you can't be mad at me! We need to be bffs and hang out IRL and then you can visit and envy my cool finds in person 😉
Wow, what a great find. I love how it looks in the room. I am pretty stoked about your tufted leather sofa as well. It's so gorgeous!!
Thank you Katja 🙂 That is definitely my favorite Craigslist find, and one I will hold onto forever!
Brynne that's absolutely gorgeous but I'm wondering where that wonderful black and gold abstract art on your wall went? That looks so good.
Aw, thank you! I still love that art, but had to rearrange the room and I haven't figured out where I want to put it back up yet 🙂
Would you mind if I use it as an inspiration for some artwork? I'm in love with it !
I don't mind at all! Go right ahead 🙂
wow! that really was a find. you have to put your gold and black art back up- it's just too cool to not have up. 🙂 such a cool room!
I'm glad to hear you like the black and gold art, Kendra 🙂 No worries – I'll rehang it once I figure out the room's layout a little more!
whoa. I need to spend more time on Craigslist! That's an amazing find! Really liking the new furniture arrangement, too. I have a very hard time with living room furniture. TVs ruin everything.
Thanks Gretchen! I know – the arrangement was/is driving me crazy. But the tv is a non-negotiable in this house 😉
What an incredible find!!! like HOLY COW I am jealous x1000! Love the score, and love the table. Congrats 😀 😀
Thank you! I just read your Craigslist story – quite the score you found yourself 🙂
I thought I was the only one who dragged around my furniture as a younin' too! Gosh we had this metal bunk bed that was the worst!!
Anyway, I cannot believe you found the exact table you were looking for. Girl you are determined!!
Dude. This coffee table!!! It is perfection!! What a rad score. I love the decorating snowball effect. Sometimes all it takes is one piece to really get the ball rolling. I'm excited to see how it evolves.
Me too! Who knows where this will go next… (I don't!) I need to wait for that next serendipitous find! 😉
I audibly GASPED when I saw your table. Like, my neighbours probably heard me. WHAT A FIND!!! And worth the pain of trying to rearrange everything but OH MY GOD THAT TABLE. FOR TWENTY DOLLARS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Ok, I'll stop yelling now… just wow.
Also, my kitties are in so many of my pics – I swear they hear the click of the shutter and come running to see what's going on.
xxx
Haha, Kimberly, you are the best! This table may make me get rid of everything else in my house now, but I agree – totally worth it 😉