California 2 Puerto Rico

Summer and I went to the Rooms to Go liquidation center before she left for California looking for some furniture. I found an awesome couch set for my office but ultimately didn’t buy it…but I had a reason. I couldn’t rationalize spending a bunch of money on lounge furniture for my office when i am still working on a desk that I made out of left over Cedar plywood.

It prompted me to look around online a bit and I found this great desk….in Wisconsin. Does anyone know if there are any antique dealers here on the west coast or in San Juan?

Popularity: 63% [?]

Stefan and I have been shopping for our master bedroom furniture for a few weeks. We have stopped at every furniture store that we could find from Rincon to Mayaguez (Sears, Pitusa, Berrios, Rooms to Go, Seduca, etc) and have been highly unsuccessful in our mission for a nice bedroom set. The handful of times that we have found something decent, we come to find that they don’t carry what we want in king size. As a matter of fact, most furnitures stores carry so few king size bed options, that we started asking off the bat, “Just show us what you have in king size beds”. The sales guys then leads us over to the two ugliest beds in the store and tries his darnedest to sell it to us.

Today, we set off on our final mission. We went to 5 furniture stores before deciding that we would just go to Sears and get the bedroom set that we thought was “okay”, last time we were there. In a last ditch effort to avoid settling on something we didn’t really want, we went to the Pier One that is located in the Sear store, first. Low and behold, we found the PERFECT king sized headboard, dresser, night stand and bench, for our master bedroom! It’s from the Shanghai collection (which just happened to be on sale this week) and is pretty much exactly what we wanted. We also purchased a king sized Simmons Beautyrest mattress, and everything should be delivered next week.

YAY!

Popularity: 87% [?]

Stefan and I layed out the design for our master bedroom closet and purchased 3/4″ cedar plywood a couple of weeks ago. We finally started building a couple of days ago and it’s starting to come together!

The plywood that will be built.

Day 1 - Building floor to ceiling center shelf

Since the center shelf is floor to ceiling, we had to construct most of it inside the closet.

We measured wrong, as you can see on the top rear of the shelf. So we cut some additional pieces and fixed it. Luckly for me, Stefan is as big of a perfectionist as I am.

Day 2: Pieces for the sides have been carefully measured and cut and I am sanding the edges.

Right side has been successfully built (on the 1st try this time!).

Sides installed!

So far, I am so excited about what we’ve built! There was a bit of bickering in the beginning since neither of us has any experience building furniture and both of us are “A” personalities, but we’ve found our niches and we’re moving right along. I draw what we visualize, we work together to get the measurements right on paper, I measure and mark where the wood is to be cut, Stefan cuts the wood, I sand the edges on the cuts and we both put the pieces together with wood glue, a squaring ruler and a nail gun.

When building a closet (or furniture) it’s SO important to get your measurements 100% correct before you start cutting up all the expensive wood. All of my fashion design classes are all coming back to me now…Furniture design and fashion design are very similar when it comes to putting the design on paper, measuring, cutting and building. Who would’ve thought…:)

Today we are going to hang the dowels and build the side shelves. Off to Home Depot!

Popularity: 48% [?]

Damn you, westelm.com! I found the perfect day bed for our guest bedroom and they won’t ship to Puerto Rico.

A day bed seems like the perfect solution for our guest bedroom. Since there is a queen size bed in the loft area, we’ve been going back and forth on if we were going to get another bed or perhaps a pull out couch or something along those lines.

Cool daybed = bueno, West Elm’s shipping policy = no bueno!

Popularity: 54% [?]

Since the upstairs flooring has been laid, we decided to set up the living room set that was delivered a few weeks ago (and has since been sitting in huge boxes in Stefans office). Here is the dark brown leather couch and chair we got at Rooms To Go in Mayaguez:

We picked up the carpet at the Marshalls Mega Store (they have a great selection!) in San Juan and the TV came from the Costco in San Juan.

I can’t even tell you how nice it is to have a comfortable place to lounge! Before the couch, we would either be sitting at our desks, on a bucket or in the hammock, which isn’t very social friendly…

In our quest for decent furniture in/around Rincon, we’ve found the two best places to be Sears and Rooms To Go, both in Mayaguez.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Summer and I have been looking around Puerto Rico for furniture since we moved down here. We weren’t necessarily planning on buying anything at the time, but we were getting an idea of what was going to be available to us. Just like in California, there are a lot of junky furniture store that sell poor quality particle wood furniture. Keep in mind, particle wood does not last in the islands. It gets attacked instantly by the high humidity and the ravenous termites.

We found a really cool couch at Rooms to Go as well as the vanity in our bathroom…but I didn’t see any bedroom sets that I liked. I really am convinced that buying a bedroom set from a big furniture company is the wrong path to take. I would love to slowly furnish the house with killer furniture from our travels and explorations of the world. We can scoop up antique mail desks in Rome, hand woven Tibetan rugs from Nepal, authentic statues of Buddha in Thailand and teak furniture from Bali!

POP

That was the little dream bubble popping over my head. There is no way Summer and I will live in a half furnished house for the next 5 years especially since my world travel so far this year has been limited to a 5 day trip to Oklahoma City and a 10 day visit to San Diego for some legal stuff.

OK, with all this said, Summer and I still need to furnish our house. I found a bed online that I like that is hand made out of teak in Bali. It isn’t expensive, but the shipping costs more than our new truck. I don’t necessarily like the head board, but I really like the simplicity of the frame and legs. I think I could build this King Size Platform Bed. Maybe I could find some “How To” instructions online as far as recommendations go on how to fasten the corners and legs on so it is super sturdy.

Teak King Size Platform Bed

Popularity: 41% [?]

I think this bookshelf/desk would look pretty cool in the guest bedroom. I wonder if it would be strong enough to use as a ladder up to the loft? Would that be weird or cool? Here is some info on this bookcase and desk combo from Crate and Barrel:

“The next generation in our popular leaning desk-shelf system - now in a sleek mahogany finish. Ladder-style design crafted of solid mahogany and engineered wood secures against the wall for maximum stability (hardware included). Sturdy open desk has two shelves and workspace for a laptop. Five-shelf bookcase works well alone or in multiples (two shown here with desk). Also available in white.”

Each bookcase is $129 and the desk set up is also $129. $387 as shown (2 shelves and 1 desk).

I think this shelf/desk combo and a couch with a pull out bed (plus the bed in the loft) would make for a pretty sweet guest room…

Popularity: 26% [?]