Room With A View

We took a major step this summer and bought an all new bedroom set. I know, I know. Big deal, right? People buy furniture all the time. But this was the first time we had bought a room full of new furniture. In fact, the only other pieces of new furniture we'd ever bought were the entertainment center in 1999 and the boys' bunk bed in 2003. Otherwise, our furniture is a mish-mash of scratch & dent, used and hand-me-down pieces. And even that was a step up from the cinder blocks and milk crates we used for furniture when we were first married.

This all started this spring when we upgraded our bed from a king-size futon that sat on the floor to a queen size adjustable Tempurpedic bed. When Rachel saw it, she exclaimed, "You got a real bed!" Very funny.

Anyway, the new bed looked out of place, like it deserved better than 40-year-old dressers. So we went to our favorite furniture store, Simply Wood in Mandan. Larry there is terrific. They sell unfinished furniture, which you can finish yourself, or they will finish for you. We ordered a mission style set in maple from his catalog and picked out a stain. The maker is in Minnesota, and he does beautiful work. It took about seven weeks from order to delivery because his pieces are in high demand.

Here was the bedroom before:


And here it is after:




I love it! It arrived right around our anniversary, so we kind of called it an anniversary present to ourselves. To be honest, I was kind of holding out hope for a new setting for my wedding diamond, but that didn't happen. Oh well. Maybe for our 20th!