Designing Furniture

When we moved earlier this year we found ourselves in need of some different furniture for a few bare spots in the house.  I looked and looked and couldn't find what I loved for a price that was right.

Then on craigslist I saw an add for a guy that would build furniture for you.  My husband and I went and checked it out.  He ended up making three pieces for me.  I gave him the basic wants and a drawing, he added a few things and now I have some furniture that works really well for our family.  It was less expensive than buying ready made (but more then I usually spend on furniture).

I'm going to apologize now because my photographic skills are not the greatest and my camera is on the blitz- got to send it in for a repair.... I was squeezing up against walls trying to get the entire piece into the view finder- trying to adjust the colors to get close to the actual paint colors, etc. ..so sorry, but these photos will give you a general idea.. .

So, first up.  The entryway shelf needed to be tall but not too deep so that it would fit near a window.  This is what we came up with:

My version:

Finished product:

You can see our office from the front door entry.  I needed something that was functional- that would hold two computers, printers, cords, etc.  but I also needed a way to hide all of that clutter.  This is the computerized version of my design:

 

Here is the finished product:



I wanted some more storage in the office area.  Not to decorate with but to actually hold books, etc.  Here is my version:

I had the furniture maker paint it with Valspar's Fire Orange (from Lowes)- in real life it's a beautiful pumpkin/spicy orange and then I antiqued it.  We are going to hang a large family picture on the wall above it- but getting that set up may take a bit (it's all a process, right?!).  Oh yeah, and that wall color- not really gray- it's greige with taupe and a tiny bit of olive green mixed in- love how it looks in real life....

Here is what we came up with. 

I'm grateful to have furniture.  I'm grateful to have a place to put it.  This has been a BLAST!  I learned that designing something and the having it be created is really super FUN!