A LARGE coffee table for a fraction of the price! (SO much better.)

Hey hey! Happy weekend!  

I've done a lot of online shopping over the past two weeks -- really not so much actual shopping as just looking. I was checking out all of the great President's day sales last weekend and starting looking into coffee tables. 

I've been looking for a new one for more than a year. We placed this round glass table in our family room when we moved in, because it was the biggest option we had: 

As you can tell, because of the size of the room, it was looking a little teeny. (The aerial shot emphasizes it a bit.) The glass and thin lines of the table didn't help that. I've wanted something more substantial for a long time. 

Problem is, everything big enough is BIG in price too. I don't even know how many times I found something I liked and then looked up the price. They all varied from $500 to more than $1000. Nope.

I even started looking into finding a welder to make a base, because I knew what I wanted -- a very simple black metal base with a wood top. Not hard! But anything in the size I wanted was crazy expensive. 

So last weekend I was laying in bed, browsing online when I found some pretty options...but again they were too small. I started doing some thinking...because the price was so good, I could purchase two tables. I did some searching online for photos showing just that and found many lovely examples of double coffee tables.

I was sold! And super excited I had figured out something that would work for a MUCH better price! I went back and forth on three options from Target...

This mid-century coffee table with a faux marble top (affiliate) was lovely and the legs come in a chrome color as well.

This open base coffee table has a similar top and had the base I really wanted: 

It comes in three different options for the top -- the faux marble, a faux concrete and a wood. I wanted the wood but it was out of stock. (It's back in stock now though!)

I wasn't sure the marble would look right in our family room -- with our light rug and sofas, I wanted some contrast in the room. So this coffee table with the lipped edge was juuuust right: 

It was the three bears of coffee tables! 😆 This one had the wood top, the open black base that I wanted, and the price was GREAT! It was just over $100 for one, so getting two didn't hurt too bad. 

The tables came within three days, and I set them up right away. The assembly was easy and quick. They immediately felt right in the room: 

I'm actually glad the other wood table option wasn't in stock at the time, because that wood tone would have been dark. This one has some gray tones in it that keeps it from getting too heavy. 

The size of these fit the room SO much better than our round table! My goodness...it only took me a year to figure out the two table thing: 

I've never had a coffee table this big in my 40+ (ahem) years so I was excited to decorate it! I stole some items from other rooms and love how it came together.  

I don't care for perfectly curated coffee tables that 1. aren't functional and 2. don't leave any room for a book, a remote, a drink...whatever. So I kept it pretty simple. 

And you know those flowers won't be on there all the time (I'm just waiting for the cats to find them), so it will be simpler most of the time. But we love having all this space!

Here's a close up of the wood tone:

The best part -- we can reach the tables from the sofas! Yay! The other table was too small. I'm so glad I thought outside the box and went with two: 

This is a BIG room (in size and height) so we needed something substantial there.

This one just fits this space so much better:

The bonus is we can easily fit baskets under the tables if we want to add those later. I have been storing our small ottoman under there because there's plenty of space underneath. 

I always say it pays off when you wait to fill a space. It's tempting to buy whatever works or to overspend just to get things in there. But even I (a person who writes a blog about decorating) refuse to do that. 

I use what I have and/or wait until I find just the right thing! I've never regretted it:

Have you ever tried the double coffee table trick? It's crazy but I spent hundreds less buying TWO tables than I would have spent on one table this size. All of these coffee tables are still on sale for great prices. :)

Have a great weekend friends! Hope it's a great one!

Affiliate links included for your convenience!

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The little hallway that could! (With wallpaper, paint and trim.)

Hey there! I've been hard at work finishing up some last minute details on the little hallway transformation. It's been awhile since I've poured so much effort into such a small space -- last time was the little book nook I created from a closet in our loft at the last house.

I think these are some of my favorite makeovers -- the small areas that are unexpected and full of detail. It adds a lot of character and charm to a home. I love it!

The first detail I wanted to finish up was the trim around the door to the hallway. I started changing some of the trim in this house to the chunky Craftsman trim we had in our last home. I shared how I added the trim to this large doorway here:

I've decided I'm not going to do every doorway -- at least not yet. This house has waaaay more doors than our last one. I think too much trim may get overwhelming in spots. But I am going to continue to work on the larger areas like this pass through above (the other side) and the taller areas like to our basement, the back door, and the entrance to the little hallway I've been working on. 

This time though, just because I was being a little lazy, I wanted to try something different. I don't mind our door trim -- it's nice! It's not quite as wide as the stuff I used on the doorway above, but close enough. 

I tried cutting down the side trim at the top, instead of taking it down and replacing it. I marked a level line across the trim, then used my Dremel cutting tool to saw through it: 

It worked great! That left me with just a small triangle-shaped, mitered cut to take off the top, as well as the top piece of trim.

I held up my header pieces to see how I like it with the trim we already have and loved it! So that saved me a ton of time. You can see what I did here -- the old side trim butts up to the new header:

It looks great! There are a few spots I plan to match the ones I've already done and replace the side pieces, but many of them I'll do like this. It saved SO MUCH time! 

I also simplified the gallery wall hanging on that wall -- more on that in a bit. I went with simpler, but bigger frames instead: