My Current Makeup Storeage and My New Dressing Table

Happy Monday Morning everyone.  I'm so thankful to have a week off this week, so rather than venture out into the cold first thing, I'm still tucked up in bed!  Anyway, yesterday my boyfriend and I went to the MidCentury Show at the Paintworks in Bristol.  It was basically a market in their event space for dealers and shops specialising in 1940s-1970s furniture.  We both love this style of furniture, and there were some excellent items, fabrics, ceramics, art and even some jewellery.  Some of the things I remember my parents having when I was a child - it's a shame most of it went in a skip, when the dealers were charging mega bucks yesterday!

When we moved into our flat from our previously rented house, we only had a few bits of decent furniture, so other than these choice items, we furnished the flat from scratch from Ikea.  This was mainly because we had little money and needed to get it done quickly.  However, after seeing so many lovely and well made items yesterday, I'm itching to give the whole flat a makeover - or even better, to move to a little house and furnish it from scratch.  Especially as using second hand items would avoid our flat looking like every other flat in the world!  I once saw an episode of Relocation, where a couple's living room in Poland had EXACTLY the same furniture AND accessories as ours.  I want to be a bit more individual.

Anyway, after my ramble, this  post is about something that I did buy yesterday, a dressing table.  I've never owned a dressing table before - I store my makeup in a bag in the bathroom with overspill boxes under my bed, and do my makeup standing up in the bathroom or in the kitchen.  In previous houses I've used a mantlepiece, a trolley, a desk and the floor to store my makeup, so it was about time I got this sorted, especially as it no longer fits into a small makeup bag.

Shamefully, this is how I currently store my makeup - in a bulging bag, and with other, dusty boxes filled with stuff. It's hidden away, but it's such a mess - I hate it!  I'm quite an organised person really, so I like everything to be really neat. I know that I don't have a huge makeup collection, but it's ever growing and it's far too big to continue to store it this way.

Enter my new dressing table, vintage from the 1960s.  It's small, but I think it's perfectly formed.  It is a delicate looking table, but is also quite sturdy.  There's a flip-up mirror (that needs a bit of a clean), with compartments for makeup underneath, a drawer to the side and a flip-down cupboard area.  Although it is small, it's actually quite spaceous and will easily fit my makeup, as well as nail polishes and perfumes.  It will also stop me buying too much more, as I really want to fit all my makeup into the dresser.

Yes, that's me in my dressing gown, and one of my cats your can see

I've had this lining paper for ages - yay, I can use it finally!

I'm really looking forward to sorting out all my makeup into it later today, and will do a post on how it looks like!

I have a vintage stool that I thought might look good with the dressing table, but unfortunately it's too big and won't fit underneath it, so I'm going to be on the lookout for a new stool over the next few weeks.  I also need a lamp, as the lighting is not good where it is located.  Unfortunately, this was the only place it would fit, and involved us rearranging the furniture in two rooms to fit it in.  There is a problem, which is the nearest plug socket is 10m from the table.  Once I've found my perfect lamp, I'm going to have to run a long cable behind cupboards and wardrobes to get power to the table.

This was quite an expensive piece of furniture - I think only my sofas and the bed cost more than it. It was £250 after haggling, and as I'm rubbish at haggling, I reckon I could've got it for £200 if I'd tried a bit harder. I'm loath to part with lots of money on one item, but I completely fell in love with it.  I did go away for a coffee, discuss it with my boyfriend and weigh up whether I could afford it and where it would go before buying it, so it's not so much an impulse purchase.  We also decided that he would give me some money towards it as part of my Christmas  present, which makes it much more affordable.

What do you think?  I know it's probably not to everyone's tastes, but for me, I love that it's individual and different, and extremely functional.  I'm going to feel like Joan Holloway when I apply my makeup!

Thanks for reading