The first real furniture I bought was a set of living room tables. They were polished rosewood, with a sleek contemporary line and black-stained legs. I thought it was unusual that the two end tables were not identical-they were about the same size, but one was square, the other was rectangle.
But the square coffee table is what sold me on the set. It was big-big enough to sit on the floor and eat meals at, which was good, since I didn't have a kitchen or dining room set to call my own. The rich red of the rosewood was highlighted by an-almost black grain that made it the prettiest piece of furniture I had ever bought.
The square coffee table became the center of my living space for the next couple of years. I sat a handful of guests around it on the floor for the first birthday dinner I made for my new husband-we were young, and nobody minded the improvised seating. The living room had very little furniture other than an outlet-store sofa and the rosewood tables. I was able to center the square coffee table in front of the fireplace in the restored Colonial where we lived outside Boston, and it looked like it was made for the room.
A move to Florida meant a new house, and its huge family room needed a big sectional sofa to accommodate our family and friends. With that L-shaped sofa, the square coffee table dropped right into place. It maintained its rightful place as the cornerstone of our entertainment space.
After a few years, we sold the home in Florida and moved to Austin, Texas. With that move, we needed a second set of living room furniture. We bought new things for the family room, and this time, the square coffee table we chose was painted wicker. Its soft edge was a better choice for a family with toddlers actively cruising the edges of the furniture.
The rosewood table maintained a place of honor in the formal living room, right inside the front door. Anybody who rang the doorbell and stepped inside got a good look at the table that remained my favorite.
Another move meant a new living room to outfit. This time we moved to smaller home-a Victorian house we lovingly restored in an elegant beachside neighborhood. This house, however, had a small, awkward living room, and even though we tried to live as a modern family in this treasure, our modern furniture did not fit well in its small rooms. We squeezed my rosewood end tables into the front room, but there was no way the coffee table could find a home there.
Rather than have it block the passageway through the living room, I moved my favorite piece of furniture into the playroom for my daughters to use for their dollhouses, their building block constructions, and even their modeling clay. The square coffee table I once babied was now the workhorse of the preschool set.
New homes and new neighborhoods mean new furniture. My square coffee table held up well, but it didn't make its way into my new house. I was happy to hand it off to a close family friend who was outfitting his first real home. I didn't make it over to his place often, but I was invited to his birthday party given by his new wife. I walked into their living room for the first time, and got a warm, fuzzy feeling. My rosewood coffee table sat in the middle of their living room, holding center stage just as it first did in my home twenty years earlier.
Thanks To : Wood Wick Candles Industrial Heaters
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