Filling a House

This is what our family room entertainment setup has looked like since we moved into the house. (Well, usually it’s not quite as messy, but I took this photo in the middle of some weekend cleaning and straightening.)  I’ve had that old Ikea TV stand since I moved to Houston, and while it was great for a small apartment, it feels all kinds of wrong for our house.  Too small.  Too college.  Too Ikea.

We looked around quite a bit for entertainment centers without much luck.  The one we liked was way more than we wanted to spend, and we didn’t find anything else that was acceptable even as a second choice.  Last weekend, we decided to try one more store — Gallery Furniture, a Houston institution owned by the ever-on-TV Mattress Mack.  Despite years of seeing their commercials on TV, I’d never actually been there because their stores are on the other side of town.  We decided to check out the Galleria store, despite the fact that it’s the smaller of the two stores.  We were pleasantly surprised by their selection!  Although they didn’t have any big entertainment centers, they did have a TV console that we really liked.  Half an hour later, we’d bought it.

Pretty!  It already makes the room look so much better.  We debated whether to put the bookcase back, and in the end decided it’d be nice to have it as a display area.  (And we may get an identical one to put on the right side.  The asymmetry bothers me a bit.)  We also need to move the Hubble photos up a few inches now that the TV is higher, but other than that, I’m really happy with it.  It’s made from mango wood — SOLID mango wood. The delivery guys brought it into the house and put it down a few inches from the wall. When we went to adjust its position on the wall, we could barely lift the thing. I’d forgotten how heavy real wood is, since a lot of your other furniture (bookcases, desks, etc) is compressed wood or particleboard!

It’s amazing how much furniture we have acquired since moving into the house.  With 2800 square feet (and some of it’s still empty), we now basically have two of everything.  Two bedroom sets — one from my old apartment that’s in our guest room, and the new one we bought for our master bedroom.  Two couches — one from Jose’s old apartment that’s in our bonus room, and the new sectional we bought for the family room.  Two dining room sets — the small one from Jose’s apartment that’s in our breakfast room, and the new larger table we bought for the dining room.  Two desks — the one I’ve had since I moved to Houston, and the new one we bought for Jose when we moved into the house since he didn’t have one before.  Two coffee tables, two sofa tables, three end tables.  Plus at least…8? or 9?…bookcases that are spread among the various rooms.  If we moved back to an apartment now, we’d have to sell quite a bit to even fit into a smaller space.

While I’m at it, I figured I’d show you what we have on either side of the TV now. This is a Murano glass plate we got in Venice and carefully carried home. This is the “millefiori” or “thousand flowers” style. Each little circle is an individual glass bead, and they are put together to make the larger piece. There are a zillion knock-offs of Murano glass available — even in Venice, where a lot of the glass is actually made in China — so we made sure to get an authentic piece by Ercole Moretti. If you look really closely, you can see their trademark bead with an “M” on the top edge of the plate.

This is a new addition courtesy of my brother’s wedding! They gave out wooden flowers from Ecuador as favors, since Cindy is Ecuadorian. Her family brought a huge box of them when they came for the wedding. Each guest got one, but there were a bunch left over so I got to take home some extras. I think they are so cool!  And right next to the flowers is the cake topper from our own wedding. Awwwww.

That photo really makes me want some cake.