Bureaux de Change

Remember this lovely bureau from the hallway?

And this bureau + bookcase combo from the snug?

Well, the painting of the snug caused a bit of a rethink on furniture and it currently looks like this. The bookcase that sat atop the bureau is still there (although it has been sold and [fingers crossed] is being collected at the weekend)

while the bureau itself now lives in the hallway. It fits perfectly (it's slightly wider than the previous bureau which means extra storage in those drawers) and looks just right.

The bureau that formerly lived in the hallway is currently residing in the garage awaiting its fate which will probably be eBay, truth be told, as we can't think of anywhere else where it can comfortably live. We bought it at auction when we lived in Reading and hubby used it as his desk for a couple of years; since moving to Somerset it has resided in my office (as storage) and the hallway and now it's surplus to requirements. Much as I love it - the wood is such a gorgeous colour - I think it has to go (insert sad face.) However, the bureau that now lives in the hallway does at least have some sentimental value (as well as being very useful for storing all sorts of stuff - wallpaper samples and candles and batteries and sunglasses [we have somehow managed to amass eight pairs between us; say wha?!?] and all sorts of other things that can't find a home anywhere else) since it used to belong to hubby's grandparents - it's a family heirloom, no less! See the drippy stain running down the far right side of the top three drawers? Hubby's dad did that when he was a young boy by knocking over an ink pot (and he got a proper telling off by all accounts.)

Oh, and if you're wondering where the 'Request Bus Stop' sign is, it;s down the back of the bureau - I knocked if down there when I was dusting last week and haven't been able to summon the strength to move the bureau out and reclaim it (actually that's a fib, it's nothing to do with summoning the strength, it's more to do with being too lazy.) Hence the vintage Fruit Gums advert that has taken its place for the time being.