adventures in re-furnishing

I’m writing this on Sunday, some 30,000 feet up, I’m not quite sure. Ask the pilot (digression: I’ve long been fond of that column, but it’s been ages since I read Salon regularly). Anyway, a good time to get some thoughts down on the weekend that was. It’s not every day, after all, that one gets to refurnish a condo.

So, backing up a bit. I think everyone reading this will know that Conrad and I have had a second home in Vancouver for some time now. 5 years this May, in fact. Most of the time since that purchase my sister, Marie, has lived there. But Marie (darn her) went and grew up. My big sister now owns a condo of her own (she’s a suburbanite now!), and as of a week and a half ago, she no longer lives in our place.

This might not be a big deal, but most everything in the condo was hers. Oh, we had a bed, we had clothing, we had a Christmas tree (what? You know me – are you surprised?), we had some kitchen stuff. We didn’t have a lot. Over the holidays, we set to work purchasing things for refurnishing as soon as she left. That set the stage for this weekend.

Yes, I know that IKEA is relatively cheap stuff that college students buy. Yes, there are a lot of cool, funky, whatever furniture stores in Vancouver. Can many of them let us take home things in a modestly-sized rental car? Can many of them deliver the next day? Frankly, the IKEA aesthetic suits us reasonably well, especially in the concreteness of our condo. We shopped there a bunch over the holidays and kept things boxed up in anticipation of this visit. We shopped there more on this trip – a visit a day save for Saturday when Conrad had to make a second visit to pick up a missing part. I’m unashamed. I’ve also got battered fingers and hands from all the putting to together. Ugh. So many screws and pegs and such. All that we bought is together and arranged, though. Yay!

We also took time to pop by bed in Kitsilano, locally-made bedding. We don’t have the linens washed and set up yet, but we do have a gorgeous gold duvet cover, natural sheets, and charcoal grey pillow cases. I think they’ll look sharp.

I’m in love with it all (though I have yet to fully re-arrange my kitchen, and we still have to deal with art and such on the walls)(oh! We also need a sofa and coffee table and a side table in the bedroom). I absolutely loved coming to Vancouver and the familiarity of the condo as Marie had it arranged. That wasn’t ours, though. This is. And it’s very welcome. Best of all? That dining table that theoretically seats 10-12 but will currently seat 8 comfortably with the chairs we’ve bought for it. I can’t wait to have friends over and enjoy food with them around that table.







Next trip? I’m not sure. Perhaps not until this summer, unfortunately. We have drop cloths on some of the furniture right now, keeping the dust off until we get a chance to enjoy it again. And, happily, add to it!