the unbearable lightness of being a grad student . . .

[chelseagirl]

I scored a really nice couch at the Salvation Army today. Looks brand new, sofa bed, long enough to stretch out on, dark blue with thin off-white stripes. Not perfect, but a fantastic deal at $170.

What's wrong with this picture? Most of my friends my age -- heck, most of my friends no matter what age -- when they buy furniture are doing deep and meaningful searches for the Ideal Couch of All Couches which involve many stores, many websites, decorators, etc.

The frame cracked on our futon couch, and we need to replace it; we'd looked in Sally's Army once or twice before; once saw a great couch that was already sold. Mind you, some of the most style-conscious people I know, including Mark the Modernist Furniture Dealer, trawl the place on a regular basis.

But I'm an adult and I'm buying furniture at a thrift shop, and something in me is rebelling. *must finish final chapter; must rejoin adult world*

OTOH, I spent more, last week, on two skirts at Anthropologie, than I did on this couch. Which I think sums up the grad student lifestyle, really. John of Gaunt bought me those skirts, actually. (No, he did. The last index I wrote over break was for a bio of John of Gaunt, and I decided he was taking me shopping.)

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Heh! Well, I think 95% of our furniture is a hand-me-down and at least two of our bookcases were scavenged off the street by KoT ;) So you’re not alone at all in that regard!

And also? Mmmm, Anthropologie… Love their stuff!

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

It's funny -- I just checked my posts after being offline all day yesterday and it seems like my experience is not so unique. I've actually got some great 20s-30s furniture from grandmas who had sensibly held on to it, and the couple of times we've spotted something on the curb, I've been absurdly proud. For some reason Salvation Army just screams "just moved out of the dorms" to me, but I'm rapidly getting over it. ;-)

Re:

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

And yes, they are truly fabulous skirts that just cried out to be bought. ;-)

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... I bought my couch new. Ten years ago at a discount furniture store.

My dining room table and chairs I bought secondhand from my brother ... after the one I bought at the Salvation army years ago fell apart.

My bedside table, desk, desk chair, and side tables are all secondhand courtesy my parents.

The spare bed is from my childhood.

Bookcases and chest of drawers are made of cheap pine.

In other words, I think you're in good company!

(There are much more interesting things to spend money on than furniture.)

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I just seem to have all these RL friends who are very much into decorating and make a huge project out of every purchase, so the Salvation Army thing is making me feel like an undergrad furnishing her first post-dorm apartment . . . Which is funny, because I've done hand-me downs (lots of lovely 20s and 30s stuff but also metal bookshelves) and take perverse pride in scoring curbside discards. Not to mention my friend Jen scoring these amazing sidechairs at the same Salvation army last summer . . .

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd kill for a good $179 sofa! Mine looks like it's been through the hundred-year war... if that war had been fought by pussycats. The rest of my furniture is second-hand or built from a kit, pretty much.

Anyways, the only Deep and Meaningful House Decorator I know is Alicia. Maybe you know someone else who Decorates with a capital "D", but most people these days are at the same sad level we are: skimping on furniture, then foolishly going out and blowing cash on expensive clothes at Anthropologie (I own a cute blouse & matching sweater from there!)

Re:

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know a number of other Deep Meaningful Decorators on Alicia's level, though without a degree in it. One couple I know looked for a dining table for a year and a half. . . . My aunt shopped for a couch for four years, once.

I think we save on big purchases because we haven't got much money, but then splurge on stuff like clothes because we have a certain level of bourgeois expectations (middle class entitlement?) about how we want to face the world. Or something. ;-)

[ajinamoto.livejournal.com]

I have my mother's day bed instead of a sofa, which is murder to sit on just to watch tv. All my furniture is very old, what there is of it.

I want a new sofa, but the one I really want is $1,900. Um. I don't think so.

Re:

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Get yourself something with a proper back so you can be comfy on the couch!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I tend to say (only half-jokingly) that our apartment is done in "Early stolen from my parents' basement." We have a couple of things we bought new, but not much. Other stuff we've either bought from people who occupied apartments prior to our moving in (we've done that twice with the tenants moving out of wherever we were moving into) or taken from my parents' stash of furniture from other relatives' houses (mostly my two grandmothers).

So, no, I don't think you're at all alone in this.

Re:

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Grandma furniture can be really good, though -- I've got some lovely 20s-30s pieces that way. Salvation Army's just so "just moved out of the dorms", which I haven't -- but it is a great couch at a great price, so I'm getting over it . . .