This past year, I bought my first house. A townhouse really, but it's very nice, and it's mine. It is two stories, two bedrooms, two and a half baths, and there is a loft at the top of the stairs, so really I have three bedrooms worth of space.

Since this was now my home, I decided that I wanted to actually decorate it and furnish it properly. Until that I point, I had lived in apartments, and had never really thought of them as my home. The furniture was all hand me downs from family from when I went to college, and is still in good condition, though old and mismatched. And the decorations were mostly posters of Hubble photos or nature scenes, along with random glass paper weights, and various knick knacks I had gotten from medieval fairs. But I wanted my house to be a home, not some cheap college bachelor pad.

So I have set about the task of decorating. Having some rather different tastes from modern America, and wanting to get quality furniture instead of cheap, 'it'll do' stuff, it has turned out to be surprisingly hard.

Overall, I want my house to have a fantastic feel to it. I want a hint of exotic and magical to my home. I say hint because I want subtle, not over the top. It should suggest strange worlds to the imagination, not look like the set to a cheesy fantasy movie. It is a very hard target to hit.

For the great room downstairs, I am going for what my friend termed 'old European.' It goes past traditional and Victorian, and into the old world, such as you would find in a 17th century palace, with all the gilt and gaudiness removed. The first piece is an entertainment center.


I really like the dark wood. That color wood is popular right now, so it should be easy to find. More difficult will be finding wood with clean lines and simple adornments. Contemporary furniture is very flat and plain, no adornments at all. And I don't like the curves and curlicues of traditional furniture.

I also got this chair. While it is definitely contemporary in style, the color and pattern of the fabric help break up the plain shape. It should fit in well with the style of living room I'm making.


But now I hit my first road block. When I picked out the entertainment center and chair, I also found a sofa and matching chair and ottoman. Cream colored upholstery, same dark wood trim. It definitely fit the old European style. But I couldn't afford everything. My plan is to buy a few pieces, pay them off before interest starts accruing, then repeat for the next few pieces. Rather than buy an entire room and spend 2 years and twice as much money paying it off.

So I bought the entertainment center first, since at the time my movies and video games were just stacked on the floor, and then threw the chair in for color and to split the cost of everything I found evenly.

And then they discontinued the sofa set. In six months and half the furniture stores in the city, it was the only sofa that looked right and was also comfortable to sit in. So now I have to start my search all over again. This is the trouble of only buying what you can afford; sometimes when you can finally afford it, it's not there anymore. Still, new things should have come out since last I went looking, so perhaps I can find a replacement in the coming months. By which point I should have paid off the last set.