Changes

It's interesting what a huge difference just one change can make.

Over the last few years I've been working on making my house more of my home and less of the house I shared with my ex-husband.

For example, I turned his ugly orange office into my very peaceful library/meditation room, a change I find most ironic.

I hung more of my photography around my home.

I painted the kitchen (which we never had done) and added ceramic tiles to the soffit.

I bought some art from a wonderfully talented gay artist and proudly displayed it on my walls.

I took my time with these changes as mood, time, energy, and most importantly, budget, allowed. Yet, there was one piece of furniture that I had a hard time replacing. Not because I didn't want to replace it, I did. Badly. I hated that piece ever since we bought it.

So, why did we buy it?

Well, when we went to buy a flat screen television, we needed a new stand and this was our only choice at the time. It was silver particle board with two smoke colored tempered glass shelves and matching glass top. It was oval shaped. It was ugly but as I said, we had no choice at that moment in that store, which is known more for electronics than furniture.

I hated it, but my ex loved it.

My style is a blend of Arts and Crafts and California Mission which is mostly wooden furniture with minimal ornamentation. Quite a contrast from the television stand. As much as I tried to hide it, I couldn't completely. I lost the television in the divorce, but unfortunately not the stand. So, I turned it into a plant stand and placed it in front of the window. Plants need light, right? I loved my plants, and wanted the best for them.

Meanwhile, I kept entertaining ways to get rid of the stand or at least disguise it more; I kept adding plants and especially those that would drape and cover it, like spider plants and English ivy. I thought of painting it, but disassembling, sanding, painting and then reassembling it seemed daunting. I started looking for its replacement in a style a little closer to my own but couldn't find anything that met my requirements in height, length and depth. I thought of getting an appropriately styled table and trading places with another piece I already had that would work under the window but then that might entail rearranging the art that was hanging over the original table to now be centered over the new table. Too much work. And I liked the original piece where it was. But, wait a minute...

The Ugly Stand

The piece I wanted to move would work, but the color was a bit off for the effect I wanted to achieve under the window. But, what if...?

I found the same piece on sale in a more appropriate color plus I had a coupon for an additional twenty dollars off.

So, I bought it, assembled it and placed it under the window.

Now, what to do with the ugly stand? 

I contemplated my options:

1. I could put it out on the street for someone to take, but in the meantime the glass might get broken and injure someone. 
2. I could sell it, but then I would have strangers coming to my house. And it had fallen apart a couple of times which suggested selling it might not be the ethical thing to do.
3. I could donate it to a charity, but if it's falling apart, it might not be the ethical thing to do. 
4. I could simply throw it away.

And that's just what I did.

But, how to get it into the trash bins as each piece was too tall to fit, and it would take a few trash collections to get rid of all the pieces.

The two glass shelves would fit in the large recycling bin and the three small support pieces between the wooden base and top would fit in the smaller trash bin. But the base and top, and the tempered glass top piece were all way too big to fit in their appropriate bin. But...

Taking my saw to the wooden pieces and a hammer to the tempered glass brought such a relief. It relieved stress, it relieved frustration and did a whole lot more.

I didn't realize how much I hated that piece. It was also the last piece that had my ex written all over it as it was more his style than mine.

This new piece isn't as deep as I wanted, so I had to relocate some of my green babies around the house, which is not an easy thing to do as I'm running out of window space for them. But, it works and the plants are thriving.

And this change has done something else, too.  

Although this new piece is slightly longer yet narrower than the ugly stand, it has allowed me to move the sofa a bit closer into the living room making it a much more intimate conversation area. And it just seems so much neater, tidier and cozier with this new piece. 

So much so, sometimes I just like to sit and marvel at the difference it has made.