I Hate Labels

This is the title of an ad that the fine furniture maker Thomasville placed in magazines recently.  I love it.  It absolutely speaks to me.  I never look at a piece of furniture and think of it as functioning only as you see it; I am always thinking of how else can this piece function?  Sometime ago I wrote about my Hoosier Cabinet and its many uses over the decades; it’s an example of how I find solutions to décor problems.

The ad shows a beautifully styled piece and suggests that it could be a coffee table, a place to put your feet or sit while you remove your shoes.  It could be a bench at the end of the bed.  It could simply be a beautiful piece of furniture for decoration only or an impromptu picnic table. 

There are few things that strike me as ‘perfect’ but this ad hit home for me in a way that I have been thinking since I was a little girl designing my own room and friends rooms.

So take a look at something that you have that you love and see if you can’t imagine it in some other way.  Some years ago I needed another dresser for our guest room, I found so many, but the one I settled on was one that I thought I could take with me when we finally downsize.  I could use it in an entry table, it’s got classic lines that don’t scream ‘old fashioned’, but looks like it has an interesting story to tell.  The look changes with a mirror above the piece or a painting or group of black and white photos.  It can hold socks, sweaters or a place for gloves and scarves and hats in an entry.  Top it with a pretty bowl or box for keys and it can go for another 100 years.

A plain, simple lined bookcase can be placed on its side and used as a low shelf under a window and used to hold your TV, framed pictures, art objects or a sunny place for kitty to sit and take in the morning sun.  Does this idea sound familiar to anyone in town?  Many people have TV Armories that they no longer need once they replace old TV’s with the newer flat screened versions; these pieces are an opportunity to use in another way.  How painting it and moving it into a child’s room to hold toys and use as a display cabinet for trophies or stuffed animals?  If you replace the doors with a drop down door, you will have an instant computer desk that can be left in the ‘public’ areas of your home and not have to clean up before company comes.

Start thinking of reusing some of your pieces that you no longer need to function as you originally intended you might surprise yourself with how creative you can be.