Be A Man

I might be the most female thing alive. If it makes you squishy, curvy, or emotional, I've got about as much of it as a human being can carry. If there were a way to sell estrogen, I probably wouldn't be slinging furniture.
As it happens, I'm sitting here at Joyful next to several very handsome pieces and thinking, if they could talk, they'd invite me to take a walk on the man side. No long-term changes, of course, but just a vacation from the usual with an itinerary something like this:

1. Do something all by yourself, even if it might be smarter and faster to get help.
2. Keep a thought to yourself.
3. If that doesn't hurt, try keeping a complaint to yourself.
4. If that doesn't kill you, try keeping a judgement to yourself.
5. Give someone your bus seat.
6. Shovel a neighbor's sidewalk.
7. Carry something for someone.
8. Stick up for the little guy.
9. Stick up for yourself.
10. Risk total humiliation in a no-holds-barred romantic gesture.
11. Risk life and limb for fun and adventure.

These pieces of furniture are no beer-swilling frat boys or corporate drones. They wouldn't be caught dead scratching their smelly bellies in front of the game. These are gentlemen.

The dresser is smooth and mod like Tim Roth in Prada. The spiral-leg table is Cary Grant, all coiffed hair and wry humor. The old door halltree is the bartender at your favorite place who smiles for real. The stout ladderback chairs are bodyguards in perfect shape and perfect form.

They've probably got money on whether I can do anything on my man list. If you're interested, they're probably still taking bets.

A Really Really Goodlooking Band-aid

Okay, fair enough. It's true. Having crap all over your house (as I currently do) is a sign of an unbalanced life. It means you either buy too much, purge too rarely, or spend too much time working/playing/blogging and not enough time nesting.

It would follow then that quick, easy, storage solutions are just band-aids designed to hide the real problem. Whatever. Have you ever been stuck without a band-aid when you needed it? It's the pits. So get some bandaids. Get some really really goodlooking ones.

Like this hall tree for instance. Perfectly sized for kids' jackets, shoes, hats, and gloves all wrapped in a cute little cowboy package. Joyful also has an elegant tall one in espresso brown for grownups.

Our benches don't even get away with just looking pretty. We've got a gorgeous rustic white one with deep drawers under the seat. It looks like the lovechild of a wayward throne and a garden gate.

Some people seem satisfied with a shelf here or there but I'm partial to a cabinet. In some mythical Pottery Barn catalog world, we all fold our sweaters and stack our magazines perfectly on shelves. I like to throw them in something and shut the door. We have a very handy nightstand right now in rustic white that not only has the cutsy little drawer for your "novel" or your "earplugs" but has a big cabinet underneath for whatever else you might have around.

Someday you might not need furniture with storage. You will be calm, balanced, and organized and your spartan little house will be guest-ready at every moment. When that happens you can proudly rip off your storage band-aid. Have fun with that.