Furnishing a Small House

It’s a Cold Night in Tucson. The night sky is clear. A quarter moon is swiftly sliding through its orbit west. The air outside is crisp and rapidly growing colder. It’s night on the Sonoran desert, where a hard freeze has been forecast.

Inside our casita, though, it’s warm and snug. A casita is a cottage, or a small house. Ours is just 500 square feet, consisting of two rooms with an open kitchen sandwiched between them, a bath, a short hallway, and a tiny front entry way.

When we arrived about six weeks ago I had to re-think living space and how it functions. I knew everything had to be small in scale, spare, visually coordinated. I knew that there would be room for nothing superfluous and that everything must have an essential purpose or two, as well as a proper place.

I had a head start with the couch and chair and soon added end tables and a table to eat on with four marching chairs. In my search for bed side tables I almost bought a mid-century modern five-piece bedroom set, two more pieces than we need or have room for, but came to my senses and realized that furnishing the casita will take time and luck and persistence. It was time to slow down, visit estate sales and moving sales.

Tucson, a popular retirement city, has plenty of estate sales because the retirees keep dying off. At one estate sale I found a mid-century lamp that helped create our music “room.”

At another I came upon an unusual pillow that works perfectly in the “library.”

This weekend at a moving sale just around the corner there was this Kitchenaid mixer for a very reasonable price. (Blair said it was a steal.) The mixer qualifies to be in the casita because it serves an essential purpose – mixing and kneading bread dough.

I also found a good pair of kitchen shears that fits my hand and is easy to use. I needed them! 

Going to estate and moving sales could become a habit. Thanks to them, bit by bit the casita is becoming a cozy cottage, shelter and haven from the heat and cold. It’s almost everything I need except for a sewing place. That, too, will come in due time. The bee house, when its renovation is completed, will add 300 square feet of space. It will seem like a mansion.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer