Airing Our Ugly Furniture

As much as we love our house, we would be dishonest if we didn't disclose its one flaw: some ugly furniture. We all showed up in August to take stock of what we had collectively--it wasn't much. As we are all operating on minimal college budgets, we had to be creative with the decorating. We stalked neighborhood yard sales, kept a constant eye on free furniture listings and begged all the boys we knew to use their trucks for transportation. The results turned out OK, but we had some adventures along the way. For example, Amanda and Gail found a beautiful mustard yellow pleather couch in a dumpster and managed to get it out before anyone else did. It was missing a leg, but they implemented a few bricks from the back yard and you can hardly tell!

Despite all our efforts at cheap ingenuity, we still have a few "oh well" pieces haunting the house. Here are just a few of the "winners. " Please help us decide which one is the least deserving of our house.


Amanda and Gail picked this oak baby up at a garage sale and managed to wrestle it into Amanda's little Corolla. They planned to add a few more shelves, but alas, this lonesome shelf remains happily single like most of the girls in the house.

This is the homemade stenciled step-stool that graces our kitchen for the shorter residents that can't reach their food cupboards. There's no doubt whose it is with Amanda's name scrawled four times in pink paint on the top.

This white wicker table has seen better days with its previous owner, but unfortunately that person is dead now. Gail and Michelle happened to hear about a man who didn't want to see his late wife's belongings around the house, so they offered to take them off his hands. It was a little awkward when they arrived to go through her stuff and they're still not sure if it was worth it.

This five-headed lamp (with only two functioning heads) has been a joke since day one. Our brazen Medusa has made a grand tour of the house, moving from one room to another as different people have tried to find a less conspicuous place for it. This beaut was Melissa's prized possession as a freshman.

This baby screams mod 80s, and while the color goes with our couch covers, it just can't do our entertainment nook the credit it's due. I'm sure the "one-piece simplicity" was one of its greatest assets at one point, but now it just makes the house look like a dentist's waiting room.

Gail says she feels dejected when she sits in this butterfly chair. Whoever settles there ends up involuntarily slouching and feeling half as big as they are as their body kinda gets folded in two. Additionally, it's necessary to launch out of it in one quick movement when rising, otherwise a series of hesitating jerks result. House note: Keep away from obese guests. Besides its impracticality and strong church picnic chair vibe, c'mon now--it's just ugly.

But you decide. Which piece is worse? Oh, and boys, we want to solve our furniture problem, so if you don't need your truck for a few hours over interterm ... we might just have a few extra man points to give away.