My quiet spot

K being the loving hubby that he is, decided that he wanted to buy me an armchair for our room for Christmas.  I have mentioned it to him sometime back before about having a cosy reading spot in our room, but I didn't pursue the idea further because we already have a comfy bed to laze around on.  Since he insisted on buying one, ok then! :)

We decided to order one from made.com in October after hearing good reviews about them, but had to wait 3 months for the delivery of the iceberg blue colour armchair we chose.  It's quite unheard of to me actually - ordering a chair online without seeing or trying on the real thing.  I was secretly hoping it would be a comfy armchair and that the blue would not be too bright.  It had to fit into the greyish theme of our room.

Finally the day arrived and it came in a huge cardboard box.  When the delivery men brought it out, I was relieved.  It was a very subtle shade of blue (almost light grey) and looks as good as the online picture.

Introducing… my reading chair

We both love the setup as it already is, but we both agreed we needed a small table to go along with it.  To put a cup of tea.  "Oh how English", you might say ;)

I said I would source one from where else haha, but eBay!  Yes indeed I was about to search with key words "shabby chic occasional table".  Guess what, the first table that came out from my search results was this beautiful white round table with birds painted on the edge of the table.  It is lovingly restored by this lady who lives - get this - 9 minutes drive away from us!  What are the chances?!

See, if you don't already are familiar with eBay… like how I learnt it the rather hard way when I discovered the first cupboard I bought, the seller was based in Birmingham.  For small items such as this, it makes sense to buy from a seller close to you so you don't spend too much on transport cost, be it your own fuel, or to pay a man with a van.  To get someone 9 minutes away by car considering it's the UK is almost like striking the lottery.  And so on to the bidding war!  I guess it's the same principle the other way. If there isn't anyone near you wanting to buy a small table as this, the number of bids won't be too many.  Nonetheless I was all geared up for a tough bidding battle.  I monitored the bids and the price on the days leading up to the countdown on Friday evening at 8.05pm sharp.  Which wasn't crazy bidding I must say.  It was a very peaceful process compared to the one where I was bidding for our dining table set.  5 minutes before it ended, I went in and gave the winning bid.

woohoo!  Of course we won!  *fist pump*  The seller contacted me immediately, giving me her address and contact number.  I told her we could drop by the very next day.  Which we did.

When we saw it, I will be honest to say that: it's smaller and lighter than what we thought.  And the birds, they were not painted but it's a decoupage, meaning she cut out from a template and pasted them on it, and set a coat of varnish over it.  I have to say she did it beautifully and I love the details on it, such as on the legs as well.  She even had a bird hidden on the underside of the table, "soon to be my trademark - a little hidden bird, a bit of a surprise like that", she told us.

So finally, I think we created a quiet reading spot for both of us in our bedroom.  Now one very last thing, a reading lamp… and no, I'm not going to eBay for that one!

Cosy corner

With the mister

I've since removed the picture and the little stool beside me in the picture, creating some space for the soon-to-come reading lamp

That's one more step into furnishing our home - so fun!