Walking my son to school on Monday, Dec 9th, I saw this furniture and thought it would be perfect. But my day was already spoken for. We were having a carpet cleaning crew come to our house and I had to be home all day. I told my husband I really wanted these for a secret project but he refused to leave work and help me grab them that day.
I tried to convince my husband to help me pick up the items on Tuesday, December 10th, but he said he had walked by this collection at the curb on his way to work and it was already gone. I didn't walk to school that day because we were having dangerously high winds. I had the car, but I was already committed to attend my son's winter program at his school and I didn't know how long it would take.
Walking my son to school on Wednesday, December 11th, I saw that it was all still there! You can't believe my joy. It was "Winter Gear" spirit day at school and my son was wearing his hat, scarf, gloves, and fleece PJs. He could feel my excitement and posed for a photo on the pink couch.
I was committed to help build gingerbread houses at my son's school, but I said to myself, "if I finish all 600 gingerbread houses, get home, and drive over there, and all of it is still there, I'll grab it." Well, blessed be, the furniture was still there!
Can you believe I got this couch into the van by myself? Well, I did! I called my husband to ask if he would assist me when I got to the loading dock at CSUN. He said he would meet me there.
We amazingly got the couch to fit in the elevator. We even squeezed it through the bathroom doors. I just had a feeling that this furniture was built to a woman's scale, it was lightweight (as I had suspected) and sized appropriately to fit through a regular door, in a minivan, and in a normal (not freight) elevator. One kindly student offered to help us carry it. I hushed them and told them to tell nobody what they had seen.
Well, that just got me even more excited. We ran back to the house to get the chairs and pillows. As I suspected, it all fit in the van in one load. We drove back to school and put all those things in the elevator in one load.
Getting the chairs through the door was no problem. I'm not wild about the arrangement, but, hopefully, someone else will step up and improve it. I love the transformation!
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Before
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I mean it's not a perfect boudoir but it's a heck of a lot more feminine than it was before. The students asked, "Is this a prank?" No, it's not a prank. It didn't help that I was dressed like some secret Santa's elf with a shirt that said "oh snap" on it. The students asked, "Can we sit on it?" Yes, you can sit on it! Then two former students recognized me and asked why I had to wait until they were graduating to make it cute. That made me so happy because I agree, it should have always been cute.
I posted on Instagram about 1 month ago:
I was so devastated about the re-election of 45/47 that I needed a place to cry at work. I started looking for furniture with French Rococo eleganza vibes. I wanted gold, I wanted glamour. I wanted something that looked distinctly feminine. I spent an afternoon screenshotting furniture sets that had the look I was going for. I searched Buy Nothing. I shopped at IKEA. I was considering donating my own money to furnish this safe space that I needed in my life.
I was trying to explain to my husband how architecture and furnishings can either make women feel a sense of belonging or exclusion, based solely on scale and placement. I have come into this restroom several times where there is a line of women waiting to use the toilet and one or both stalls are full of girls who are crying. They want privacy to feel their feelings. But this restroom felt cold and ugly, which could make one feel even worse. I wanted to make it feel cozy and warm, welcoming, and dare I say it, pretty. I'd love to add a mirror with some fancy trim, or some other touches to give it sophistication. What would you add?
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