TV Stand Shopping

I never thought finding a piece of furniture would be so damn difficult.  I used to make fun of people who would leave a room empty for years waiting for the "right" piece.  To me I always thought it was just something you went and got when the time was right.  I was clearly misguided.

I remember in our big house on the prairie growing up we always had the formal living room empty.  As long as we lived there, we never had furniture in the room except for the console television that was replaced by a 21 inch Sony Triniton.  Keep in mind, in those days, that TV was the STUFF!  I remember asking mom why we didn't have furniture and I only remember walking away wondering what the right furniture for that room was.

Fast forward to today, I am looking for a television stand.  I walked to Target, I found one I liked, I started loading it into the cart.  Then some three-little-bears-syndrome hit my like a truck.  The stand was not wide or deep enough for me, I want something deep and sturdy, and since the TV is large, I don't want the sides to hang off, in fact, I would like to have 3-6 inches off each side so there can be some margin of error if someone bumps it.  

Then there is the color, it has to be black because our coffee and end tables are, and not that I feel married to them, they are cheap IKEA numbers but I don't want to have to replace them anytime soon.  I don't want shiny black, I want that wood-stained-black look.  

Now the shape, it has to be squared off with very clean lines.  I do not want fancy crowns or arches, our living room tables are very simple and I would love to the TV stand to blend in with them.  Furthermore, I do not want brass or oil rubbed hardware, stainless steel or brushed nickel only.  

Height, oh the height.  The matching one at IKEA is only 13 inches tall.  That is practically sitting on the floor (where the TV is now for free) and too low with animals and kids in the future.  I want it to be a minimum of 22 inches tall (coffee table height) but I would prefer even a touch taller than that.  The reason is that I want to sit in my chair with my feet up and not have to look over my toes or the laptop monitor to see the TV.  It should be above both obstacles when I am enjoying Palladia, a music channel I just discovered and am watching John Mayer in HD perform.  That guy is always on the tube.  

Okay, so, I guess I now have complete empathy for the crazy "perfect piece of furniture" people. The kicker has got to be that we do not want to spend a lot of money on it... ha, I found one Broyhill model that is a thousand bucks... that will NOT be coming home with me.  I should dent the crap out of the floor model and offer them a hundred bucks.  There a few on Target's website that I love but I think I can find them cheaper, not 400 bucks.  Someday, someday, I will find the perfect value packed TV stand.

I need to get that catalogue I left at the Malady's house at Halloween... see you Thursday!

Does anyone know when the IKEA opens here?

I love irrelevant statements at the bottom of my blog posts

Amanda and I are going to try to get NCDL's tomorrow

We have to register her car too.