Souvenirs

Kevin and I have the same philosophy about collecting souvenirs. Instead of buying a ton of trinkety junk (which we've both done in the past), we try to just buy one or two nicer things. We decided to buy a piece of furniture here in China, and we finally did it this week.

Our shelf!

We shopped a few places for it, the "antiques" market by the Consulate and where we finally got it, Bei Shichang (North Market). There are several furniture stores with all sorts of cabinets, cupboards, shelves, and whatnot. Most of them are really beautiful, and it's hard to decide which one to buy-- until you look more closely. We narrowed our selection down to a few, and after we'd eliminated the extremely expensive (and overly ornate, carved, and decorative) furniture, we were left with a few nice ones. But once we started inspecting them, it turned out that the hardware (drawer pulls, etc) were really flimsy and cheap. The joints were kind of hastily thrown together, and finally, the wood itself was really poor quality, though it was painted with thick varnish to make it look decent in the store. Lipstick on a pig.

This one we found was actually in a tea-set shop. They had nice furniture, and like the furniture shops, the furniture pieces had trinkets and tea sets on them. But after a while, we realized there were a few more tea sets than shelves. But the shopkeeper was more than happy to sell us her shelf. 

Not only was her starting price lower than the furniture shops', but the quality was much nicer. She had bought it for her own use, and even after being in her shop for 6 months already, the wood hadn't cracked or warped or anything. The wood has a nice finish, but it's still a natural wood color, instead of heavy red varnish trying to imitate mahogany. And the lines are clean, with minimal frill and fuss. 

Though there is this bit of frill and fuss. Subtle. I like it.

When I originally set out to take a picture of it, I wanted to put something on it to show the scale. I told the girls to just get their toys and stuffed animals and set them all over it. Kevin got home, cleaned it off, and then put our nice pictures and decorations on it.
I'm glad I married someone with an eye for decorating!