Furniture can be a formidable foe
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- July 18, 2023
- 338
Few things are more frustrating to folks than to have to coexist with furniture too large for their homes. For furniture to qualify as formidable, it must be too large or too wide or too tall or too heavy.
Taller Half and I know the feeling as we have over the years inherited several pieces of furniture that were really not ideal for our homes then, nor our homes now. Most of them are just too large to fit in well with our other furniture, and others are so old they are a bit
unsteady. They are family pieces we feel obligated to keep. We do our best to work around these difficult challenges. But as we get older and our homes get smaller, dealing with these heirlooms is becoming more and more difficult.
For instance we inherited a beautiful, rather ornate bed that belonged to Taller Half’s great-grandfather. We managed to fit it to accept a full-size mattress. It occupies more space than the average double bed, and once set up, it absolutely refuses to move even a
few inches. We tried our best to fit that beautiful heirloom into our current bedroom with no luck.
That lovely old piece of furniture was sent to live in storage, waiting to be adopted by a family member and given a bedroom to call its own. Then we learned a relative bought a new house and needed a bed for their master bedroom. Look no further, we assured
our young relative. The bed was delivered a few weeks ago, and so far they both seem happy. Thank goodness another family heirloom has found a place to call home.
But It’s not just family heirlooms that can be difficult — new furniture bought to fit one house can be difficult to adjust to a new place. We bought a beautiful china cabinet that looked petite on the showroom floor, but once it arrived in our dining room, it expanded to
its true size — very large. It was so heavy the floor actually groaned under its weight.
Despite its bulk, that cabinet was a rather stingy storage provider. Because I thought Taller Half liked it and he thought I liked it, we allowed that piece of furniture to intimidate
our poor dining room for years. When we sold that house, the china cabinet stayed put. Turns out neither Taller Half nor I were fond of that piece of furniture.
The buyers of that house were thrilled we left them such a big china cabinet. Sure hope they still like it.