One of the most exciting aspects of being a new grown-up with the security of a long-term partner is the opportunity that it affords one to play house. Don’t get me wrong – the finding somewhere to rent and the moving house parts were incredibly stressful, but since then we’ve had a blank canvas to play with at our leisure. Even better was when we’d moved past the bare essentials stage and had some wedding money to play with.
We’ve done pretty well out of charity shops, really. I had bought our dining table and four chairs from the YMCA in Durham when I was living in an unfurnished house during my final year at university- at the same time, J had bought a small two-tiered table which now acts as a boot stand. When J moved in with me and my parents we found him a wardrobe for £35; more recently, we’ve bought a pine ottoman for our bathroom, a tall bookcase for the upstairs front room and a small filing cabinet for £65 all in. It’s amazing what’s out there if you look – we got our sofa and armchair free from a friend of a friend who was trying to create space.
Then there have been the wedding gifts, or things bought with wedding money. Our bed. The proggy mat made for and given to us by members of Durham Quaker Meeting, which makes our downstairs living room feel so bright and homely. Four more dining chairs from IKEA so that we could seat my entire family when they came round. A bean bag chair. Pictures on the walls.
I won’t do an entire house inventory, I promise! But we’ve had a fun time working out where our tastes collide (and where they really differ!), and it feels so good to be creating a fresh life and home together.
We made the last big purchase from our gift money today on a sofa bed so that we can have comfy seating upstairs and a place for friends to sleep when they hopefully come and stay. It definitely falls into the ‘investment’ category – we didn’t just settle for the cheapest thing we could get our hands on.
But you know what? That feels good. It feels good because we’re building for our future together. It feels scary as hell, but definitely, definitely right.
The next step? Sewing curtains. Oh yes!
It’s one of the best things about being grown up isn’t it? Good luck with the curtains. I sewed curtains and a matching duvet set for me and John when we moved in together. I’m not sure I ought to have attempted curtains as my first sewing project!
Aren’t curtains just straight lines?! I will actually have to look this up at some point…
Yeah, just really big rectangles. But because it was do big I found it hard to get the measurements exactly right between the fabric, the blackout liner and the thermal liner, so one is about 2cm shorter than the other! Maybe if I had somewhere to properly lay everything out it would have been easier…
Not sure why that post was anonymous..
Space to lay things out, and a walking foot, I bet!
Makes me feel sad in some ways about my transitory life. I’m actually quite looking forward to settling in somewhere long-term. That said, I’ve lived in this flat for over a year, so…
Loved this post :) sounds very exciting – scary, you’re right, but very exciting :). In a few boxes in our garage at home I have what my mother and I jokingly refer to as my ‘trousseau’, mainly lovely old stuff inherited from Gran but also including some lovely moroccan plates I picked up and various other things. And I am very much looking forward to the day it gets unpacked in an as-yet-unimagined new home, that I am making with someone else. So I’m very glad you’re enjoying all this so much, sounds like such a journey :) xx
Yay you brought the sofa-bed! You have been incredibly lucky with your furniture purchasing (in loosest sense) I certainly hope I am when I finally find a house and drag John with me :)
Curtains and seat cushion covers maybe my first real sewing attempt, altering sleeves on a dress for panto probably doesn’t count! xx