My front living room got a rearrangement that I have mixed feelings about. I like the new furniture layout, but I’m not so crazy about what’s across from it. These:

These three giant wine refrigerators are not what I had in mind for our living room/entrance area, but they make my husband so happy I couldn’t say no. He found someone who wanted to get rid of them and offered them at a crazy low price. We put two against this wall (the only place they could fit in our house on tile) and there was a big empty gap the end.

Me: Well, you might as well get a third and fill it out.
Marcello (with joy and shock in his eyes): I’ll call tomorrow. You know what this means …
Me: Yes, it means I’m nuts and love you very much.

Our layout before the black beasts (that are the opposite of my white, airy idea) arrived, looked like this. It was sort of disjointed and didn’t make much sense as a conversation area.

As much as I hate to say this, the fridges actually pushed the furniture into an arrangement that is more functional. And yes, I like wine as much as the next girl, so there are much worse things he could bring home! (He works in the wine industry and most of the wine that will go in here, though, is not for our consumption.)

My favorite part about this room are the book shelves (styled mainly by my mother) we had put in a few years ago. Before, it was a giant empty blank wall that haunted me whenever I walked in the room. It’s only 12″ deep, so it doesn’t take up much space in the room, but provides lots of storage and acts as an interesting focal point.

By the way, There aren’t normally flowers on the coffee table, and there are usually child locks on each of the cabinets. I didn’t get away with this for long — Adriano was trying to pull down the leaves and Luca was opening the cabinets in no time!

Would these show up in a living room magazine spread? I don’t think so. But I can live with that. I don’t think any magazines will be stopping by in the near future anyway. Welcome, giant black beasts. This calls for a toast.