…this is the most gorgeous kit furniture I’ve ever assembled - and I’ve assembled quite a few pieces in my lifetime. I purchased the entertainment center as a storage unit for OSM and it’s beautiful. I have my eye on the console table as a makeup center because it occurred to me that I’d wear makeup more often if I had a place for it.

With the exception of the sofas, beds and dining table, my apartment is completely kit furniture from IKEA, JC Penney and Pier 1 (and a chic South Hampton desk I got from Target). I like to think it looks pretty good…at least I’m happy with the way it all comes together. Deep down inside I must be a frustrated woodworker. I love shopping for kits and cursing my way through the inadequate instructions.

Now and then I’ll find something very cute and very cheap and figure out how to fit it into my home. I’m also a huge fan of the thirty-minute-condo-from-Goodwill, which I’ve done in the past. But for the most part I enjoy assembling things. Or figuring out how to reclaim a fixer-upper, like the $40 couch recover I did back in the 80’s that my sister liked so much.

Maybe I missed my calling - I could’ve been an interior designer for the financially challenged!