I Think It's About Time...

...to get rid of those cheapo inexpensive round tables covered with cloths once and for all. They're nearly 21 years old and it's time to get some normal furniture!

This baby has been in the living (front) room for years:

Yep, the house is still torn apart and not put back together since carpet and furniture cleaning on Saturday.  Yesterday and today home sick with achy throat and really sore ears!  Haven't felt much like putting the house back to rights.

This baby has been in the family room for years:

Both are rickety and, really, I'm just SICK of them (literally?)

In the living room, where the larger, shorter paisley-covered table used to hold a lamp between love seat and side chair, I solved the problem by flanking the loveseat with matching end tables that used to anchor other spots in the room.  More about that later.

In the family room, there is no end table at present.  Hmmmmm, that means....

SHOPPING!

Actually, I've been semi-shopping for some time.  I think it really is true what I read somewhere, that it takes the average person about 10 times looking at something online before they decide to buy it (or not).  Well, that's me.

I've looked around and decided that Target online had the best deal.  I don't want something uber expensive that I will feel I must keep for the next 21 years (like those rickety round tables) and I want free shipping.  So, I settled on these:

This is part of the Staten line by - okay, didn't write down the manufacturer, but it's Chinese.  Sigh.  After looking at dozens of end tables I decided I liked this one best (and it's price of about $90 with free shipping) because of the storage provided by the drawer, and the nice display shelf that can be used for magazines (I have tons around all the time) in addition to the table top.  I like it's clean lines that can blend in with a lot of different furniture styles, because my house is a real mish-mash of styles.  I like the "espresso" finish.  Honestly, it's difficult to tell from online images.  I have seen a lot of espresso, cappucino and dark espresso and dark cappucino, in addition to Ikea's brown-black, and what the heck is the difference? 

Anyway, this color is a compromise between brown and black.  Dinette set is brown (dinette is wide open to family room), my sofa table and entertainment center in the family room are black with brass trim (purchased in 1986) and despite my being tired of them, they're not going away any time soon, so I have to work with their black color and ignore the little bit of bright brass.

Staten also comes with this coffee table that was what first caught my eye:

I want that storage drawer (it's one large drawer, not two separate drawers) and underneath shelf that is high enough to reach comfortably. I looked at and considered other tables that also had drawers and shelves, but the shelves were underneath the drawers, way down low near the floor, not very practical in my opinion.  Staten coffee table is about $120 plus free shipping.

So, I've pretty much decided this is what I'm going to get for my family room, whose re-do is moldering away on the "I'll get to it" pile.  Eventually I'll reach critical mass -- will have enough new stuff bought to put into the redone family room that I'll just HAVE to get moving on getting those walls stripped down, repaired, etc.  Well, that's sort of the plan...