Making Every Square Foot Count: Revisiting the Back Bedroom

At 960 square feet, the Crooked House is too small to have spaces that we don’t use regularly. Meanwhile, Tito and I both have demanding jobs and I have a soul-crushing commute and both of us would do well to have good space to work from home when we need it. That means a comfortable chair and a second monitor. Sadly, this cute little slant-top desk had to go. (Back to my parents’ house, that is.)

So, a desk that is big enough for us to use, but small enough to fit in this room. And maybe kinda something that goes with the other furniture in the room – Tito didn’t want anything black with so much brown in the room. Oh, and I’m a cheapskate and expect all my furniture to be cheaper than IKEA.

We wound up with Chinese Chippendale style writing desk with a 70’s swivel chair. I wanted something a little more modern to balance out the Victorian stuff, but good Colonial reproductions are cheap right now I keep coming back to them. (Still to do: cord management.)

We had just one hiccup: the guy who sold me the chair brought it out of his apartment and I bought it on the sidewalk. It looked good. I handed him a wad of cash. Then my car smelled like a dive bar. Now I’m staring at this chair and thinking its Naugahyde (vintage fake leather) upholstery LOOKED like a dive bar and kicking myself over the money I wasted. Luckily, Naugahyde is easy to clean. The chair still smells a little, but you have to put your nose up to it to notice.

Then there’s the function of the bed. Before Tito, I rarely had more than one overnight guest at a time and no relative of mine has ever stayed with me. Most of Tito’s relatives though are in Florida or Colombia, and that means having middle aged house guests for 2 weeks at a time. So when his mother and grandmother came together, they got our bed and we squeezed into the twin bed in the guest room. Then Tito’s dad brought his girlfriend and I put their luggage in our room, and Tito quietly corrected me and made them squeeze into the twin bed.

So, we need a trundle bed. Because 2 twin beds is what’s going to make everyone comfortable here. And I want one that pops up because I don’t think guests over 50 should have to sleep a foot off the floor. But there’s a problem with this: pop-up daybeds are expensive, usually unattractive, and often have reviews claiming that they’re too flimsy for frequent use, especially if they’re offered on that unavoidable Web site that abuses its employees. Then if they’re on Craigslist they were in children’s bedrooms and are advertised that THE DECOR HAS A GENDER and this just depressed me more. The best ones look like sofas with upholstered arms for head and footboards. But those add more length than we can spare.

And so? I gave up. I found a headboard I like at a fair price, but this gives us none of the things that actually function. I’m going to have to build the rest myself.