How I thought furniture might change my life

Today, I want to talk about furniture.

In Durham, we--that is, the bunch of us who were staying in the hotel for the wedding--decided to grab dinner before the reception. We ended up at a place called Pop's, A Durham Trattoria. (Yes, punctuation included. I'm going to start collecting place names that are punctuated.)

The food was lovely, once we got in. However, the place didn't open for dinner until 5:30, and it was right about 5 when we got there, so we had to kill half an hour. That turned out to be easier than it might have been, as there was a huge store right next to the restaurant.

I walked in; my immediate assessment was that it was full of tchotchkes, but that it covered half a city block. As it turned out, Morgan's had a huge selection of tchotchkes, but it also had some good useful stuff.

This is where we come to the furniture: gorgeous mahogany and ebony stuff inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, all at prices that are equivalent or sometimes less than you'd pay for similar pieces of semi-disposable swedish furniture.

So I'd remember the manufacturer's name, I bought a jewelry box. It's quite lovely and coordinates with the rest of the wood furniture I have. (This consists of a dresser and a piece called a "vanity" that mostly gathers dust. Mom stole the dresser years ago, and I don't love the vanity, but I still have it.)

The rule is that I can't buy furniture until after the house is free of junk and clutter. (Or, as Ed put it "until you have a room for the furniture.") Maybe this means I'll get inspired. The only thing I require that the line didn't seem to have was an entertainment center.

I'm still pining for that Stickley dining room table and chairs that I saw at Daniel Donnelley, but it's a little spendy for me, since I am one person and tend to eat in front of the teevee or the computer.

I'd rather have the sort of life in which a dining room table and chairs were necessary, but at this point I don't.

Speaking of food: Pop's. Everything on the menu sounded great, and everybody had good things to say about whatever he or she ordered. I had salmon with mustard creme fraiche (!) on a bed of lightly steamed spinach over white beans, tomato, onion, and tangy black olives. Ed's chicken looked good; Jim and Matt had the seafood stew, which looked good; Karen had some pasta that looked incredible. Being a big-city restaurant patron, I thought the prices were reasonable.

If you're in Durham, NC, for any reason, you might want to eat at Pop's.

before - after