Do you ever find yourself being bossed around by furniture?

Last August I hung curtains in my office.  Immediately the room looked so much more polished, but the process of hanging them showed me just how much a few pieces of furniture were constraining my design choices.

Once the curtains were hung, I wanted to move the furniture around more, but my dresser only fit on one wall.  (see below)

The dresser was my grandmother’s and not my style. I’ve used it because it was free from my parents.    Guess what?  They had more “free” furniture in their basement – my grandfather’s old dresser, which was half the size of this.

So over the holidays, as part of my January goal to “clear the clutter,” I ruthlessly downsized my wardrobe in an effort to have it take up less space.  I choose the same clothes over and over, because I love them and feel good in them, so why do I need all those other pieces that I don’t love wearing as much?

My grandmother’s dresser went to live with my brother and his wife, and my grandfather’s dresser moved in with me, fitting perfectly in the corner with my mirror and jewelry display window.

The dresser is very sentimental for my father, who said it was the first thing he ever saw as a baby.  His family didn’t have a lot of space, so he was in a crib in his parent’s room, and this was right next to it.  Later on, he and his siblings each had one drawer of the dresser for their clothes.

One drawer for clothes? If he could do that, I thought, then surely I could whittle things down to one small dresser.

It needs to be refinished after 70+ years of use, and I will not paint it because it’s got huge sentimental value for my father.  It’s simple enough in design that I think it will look great after a good sanding,  some teak oil, and some fun drawer pulls – I’m thinking pretty ceramic ones.

I added my grandmother’s hand-embroidered linen runner to the top of the dresser.  I love this because now I have a little corner with vintage items from grandparents on both sides of my family!

We have several embroidered table linens that my grandmother made, and the detail is just stunning.

On top of the dresser, a vintage cigar box hold assorted jewelry that I don’t use or that is broken.

A pretty monogrammed tray from one of my good friends holds hair ties and bracelets that I wear a lot, and my flower clips are in a pretty Turkish bowl from my best friend.

As for the drawerganization, now the top drawer holds undergarments, and the second drawer is dedicated to socks and tights.  Um, I do have a bit of a sock problem, but I can tell you who gave me almost every pair of socks in there.  

I still use cardboard boxes and shoe boxes to keep everything corralled.  I don’t like things bleeding over into the “wrong” sections.

The third drawer is leggings, spanx, and PJs.  I have 2 sets of winter PJs and one set of summer. The bottom drawer is workout / painting clothes, one sweatshirt, and leg warmers (because the heat doesn’t work in my car).

Now that the large dresser isn’t bossing me around anymore, I’ve moved my desk to the largest wall.  The only problem?  Now one half of the room looks nice and classy, with my antique dresser and mid-century secretary, but the long wall side has an ugly white Ikea desk.

That’s why I’ve started building a farmhouse-style desk using shelving boards from my old apartment.  I think I’m going with less of a mid-century modern vibe in this room, and more of a modern country style.  Everything in moderation. 

Are you being bossed around by furniture?  If so, are there any changes you can make to the situation?