Getting The Scale Right Alongside Furniture

Nope, this is not a weight loss post. The scale that I am talking is this too small had-it-so-we-used-it bookshelf that we shoved into the guest room (simply days before my mom arrived) a few months back. Talk about teeny compact:

And somehow we forgot to update you folks about a little switcheroo that took place after we got our new (well, quite old) dresser for the bedroom from John’s dad. So here is a quite belated dresser related news flash: we moved our old malm (from Ikea five years ago when we moved to Richmond from NYC) into the guest room. So it looked like this:

The scale is certainly better. Someday we’d enjoy to get a thrift store dresser or cabinet (our old malm guy has a wonky drawer and more than a few scratches if you look closely sufficient). But for now it works. Especially because it is in the we-already-had-it-so-it-was-free category.

There it sat looking a little lonely and still a bit bare up top for a while until late last week. Something got into me and I chose to hunt around in our crazy storage room (aka: the future playroom/second kids bedroom) to find the big mirror (scored for $5 at a garage sale a while back) that used to rest above this quite dresser in our old guest room (and then in our old sunroom once the guest room turned into our office as well). It was still wrapped in bubble wrap from back when we moved and leaning in the corner of the playroom. Talk about delayed reactions. It has consistently been a little bit too big for our malm dresser, but since we someday hope to upgrade to a strong thrifted dresser (preferably a smidge wider and made from solid wood so it’ll truly go the distance) we are ok with the 1″ overhang on each side for now (it was like that in our former guest room and sunroom so perhaps we are simply used to it).

As for baby safety, Clara’s never in this room alone (we keep the door closed) and we have slammed the door and tugged on the dresser a bunch to make sure it is not too tippy (thankfully it stays put) but if we ever use the room more with Clara we will be sure to mount it to the wall (along with the dresser). You know, in the name of maintaining our Captain Careful nicknames.

Oh and of course I brought in some guests-might-like-it stuff to the top of the dresser too (do you know me at all?). Like a stack of magazines, a book called The United Cakes Of America (who does not like reading about the history of cake and looking at so-remarkable-you-wanna-lick-the-book iced creations?)…

… and our piggy bank (that is truly where we drop our change- no idea why it consistently ends up in the guest room but it was in there in our last house too). So to those who stay with us: look how much we trust you. We must truly like you.

I enjoy that the dresser provides a place for guests to store clothing (and for us to shove things they might need like spare shampoo and towels, which we have stowed away in the top drawer):

So thanks to inheriting our new dresser from J’s parents when they were selling their house, all this guest room tweaking was free. And nothing feels better than spending zero point zero zero dollars.

Have you folks done any furniture rearranging or swapping? Or wrestled with scale issues of your own? How about finding something excellent on the curb or near a dumpster that is ideal for your house and totally free? I enjoy those stories. Even though they never happen to me. Hearing them makes me feel like someday my ideal curbside find will come. Gotta keep the dream alive.