Little White Table

When my mother, step-father, and I first moved to Southern California, we brought with us only what  we could pack into our car, as we drove from Florida to California.  Mostly clothes, bedding, small items of sentimental value, and my mother's pothos plant!  We disposed of everything else - whatever furniture we had, most of my books, other bits and pieces.  We arrived in California without any furniture.  And with very little money.

Our very first apartment, which was a studio apartment, was furnished entirely with other people's cast-offs.  Family and friends who were already here, gave us what they could.  An aunt (the very same one who is now recovering from a stroke) gave us two single beds that my parents used (I slept on the floor on a quilt; much later, we were given a sofa bed, which I used), someone else gave us a patio table that we used as our dining table, and when one of the shops behind our apartment building remodeled and threw out a couple of chests of drawers, my step-father and I carried them home for our clothes!  We used cardboard boxes, covered with my mother's table cloths, as night stands, for storage, etc.  Why?  Because we didn't have money for furniture.

Then, one day, when I was walking to the nearby library, I spotted a small, brown painted wooden table someone had tossed by the sidewalk.  It was still there when I came back from the library.  I told my step-father about it and we went in the car and picked it up.  It was dirty, so we washed it in the parking lot and brought it up to the apartment.  It had a little drawer in the middle that I lined with some wrapping paper and a little shelf at the bottom. It served as a night stand/side table and, when we moved to a larger, 2-bedroom apartment (in the same apartment complex), we took it with us.  There, I stripped the brown paint and refinished it with a brown stain.

When I bought my house and moved from the apartment, the little wooden table came with me.  It stood in the corner of the hallway, and served as a telephone table.  Shortly after my mother died, I painted it white (and the hallway lilac):

Little White Table (yes, I dusted and tidied it for the picture!)

As you can see, it is my little telephone table - the phone (yes, I still have a regular phone in addition to my cell phone and I actually use this regular phone for my calls more than I use the cell; just call me old fashioned, or a stick-in-the-mud!), answering machine, phone numbers and addresses, a repurposed candle holder for a couple of pens and a small note pad to write down a message or phone number.  Telephone directories (yes, we still receive paper directories!) on the shelf at the bottom.  A wall calendar up on the adjacent wall (a corner of which can be seen to the right, in the picture).  And wires everywhere (there is an outlet on the wall a bit to the left of the picture).  I need to work at keeping the surface looking like that!  Usually, there are bits of papers with phone numbers and notes scribbled on them scattered on it - I shoved them all into the drawer to take the picture!  Going through and organizing that drawer will be another project for another day! 

I thought a white framed mirror would be just right on the wall over that little table, but, true to my frugal nature, I didn't want to spend a lot of money for a decorative mirror.  So, I admit I didn't look very hard for a mirror, but, whenever I saw a white framed mirror, I checked its price.  In the meantime, over the years, I hung photographs, a white message board, a cork bulletin board, or a wall calendar over the table.  Each of these items served its purpose.  But it wasn't quite the look I had envisioned when I painted the hallway and the little table.

And then, yesterday, I saw this mirror for sale for $4.99:

White Mirror

The frame is plastic, but, as I said in yesterday's post, I don't mind.  It is the right size, the right shape, the right design, and, most importantly, the right price!

Today, I put it up on the wall:

Seen from the living room

I have the table facing the living room and the mirror can be seen from the living room.  I tried having it facing the hallway, but I didn't like it that way, as much.

I also took the wall calendar off for the above picture, to see how it would look, but the calendar is back on the wall:

With the calendar on the wall

The calendar is essential for me, because I like being able to see, at a glance, which dates I have appointments scheduled, and I am able to write in any new appointments at once.  Yes, I know, use my cell phone, but I prefer a regular paper calendar.  I bought this one for $1 from the dollar store, with pictures of gardens.

So why did I want a mirror over the table?  I didn't need it, but I thought the table sort of looked incomplete by itself.  Or, maybe, I just wanted to be able to admire myself in the mirror when I make a phone call!  LOL! 

What do you think?