Somehow, most of the furniture I used to own disappeared while I was in the frozen north. I weeped over the loss of my Chinese table until Steph (glorious moving pal) reminded me that it was nice, but I probably shouldn't cry about furniture. So I'm looking at the bright side: I have a beautiful empty apartment waiting to be filled and this time I can be a little more choosy and organized about it.
I'm attempting the West Elm deep, dark brown Asian wood James Do look for the living room. Of course, I'm not making the dough to swing the Do. Therefore, just installed: coffee table and floor lamp from the inevitable Ikea. Jen and James kindly chauffeured me to all the nice Berkeley shops and I saw lovely things, but when it comes down to choosing between a $500 or $129 table, it's hard to avoid Ikea.
Next big buy is the sofa. If I were $3000 richer and had an additional 500 sq. feet of space, it would be this and this or this.
Meanwhile, these shiznitty lamps are affordable enough to consider.