February 04, 2010

Home beautiful

When I was staying with Red-haired Niece last summer, and we were looking at photos of the pre-school playground where she taught, she explained they didn’t have traditional playground equipment. Instead, they provided the kids with big blocky objects of different shapes and sizes. The kids needed to use their imaginations and combine the blocks to make a slide, or a playhouse, or something to climb on.

I had that concept in mind last fall when I was driving past a garage sale and noticed three wooden stools. I stopped and bought them from a woman who kept saying, “See, we broke one.” She seemed to think that four stools were a desirable thing to have, while three stools were utterly useless and should be sold to a stranger for a few dollars.

Since then, we’ve used the stools for all kinds of things. Sometimes, I’ll grab one if I’m going to sit down on the couch and need a place to set a cup of hot tea. Sometimes, I’ll use one if I need to set my laptop down for a moment. The kids use the stools as tables, they combine them to support something heavy, or sometimes they even sit on them.

I’m going to call this style of home decorating “Imitation Block School Playground.” Furniture doesn't need to match or even have any obvious function: it's all up to the inhabitants of the house to figure out how to make it work. We’ve long used an old oak bench as a coffeetable, a bench, a sawhorse, or a pedestal to dance on. Today I brought home a random ottoman to set under the front window. I figure we can use it as a window seat, or a soft table, or a foot rest, or whatever else our imaginations can come up with.

7 comments:

Queen of West Procrastination said...

We do that too! Our living room is too small for a coffee table, and so we bought two short, square wooden stools which can stack under the side table. They move around the house and serve so many purposes.

red-haired niece said...

two thumbs up! "The block, in having no predetermined identity other than its physical state of smoothness, hardness, and shape, is a blank on which or with which the child [or adult] makes his or her impact" - The Block Book

Sarah Sometimes said...

pictures, please!

Lomagirl said...

I've heard about these playgrounds. I think they were inspired by a two-year-old at Christmas, playing with the boxes rather than the presents that came in them.
"zingsi" is my word verification today. Must be an adjective related to the word "zing". That's a very zingsi shirt you are wearing today.

Gina said...

We have two ottoman (ottomen?) like that. We use them to rest our feet on occasionally. They are sturdy enough, however, to use as tables if you need to set a drink or your knitting down. We'll pull them over as extra chairs at the table if we have company over. The cat sleeps on one all day long. My sister pushes them together to use as a changing table when she comes over with the baby. They are the two most useful pieces of furniture in my apartment!

kathy a. said...

the stools sound tres useful! we are always moving things around to fill one need or another.

rented life said...

"It's eclectic!"

We took 3 stools from a family once as well. One is upstairs, one is downstairs, one is in the basement. Each has a different job.