I have a new coffee table!

The Couchtisch, delivered.

After ordering my new couch, it suddenly dawned on me that I would finally have enough space in my apartment to have a coffee table – and so I started the quest to find the perfect coffee table.

I discounted Ikea almost immediately – I have enough Ikea furniture in my apartment and while it is functional, it’s not the kind of furniture that is high quality or that I’d ever consider moving to another continent should I ever change continents again.

This led me to explore a number of furniture stores around Berlin: Möbel Kraft, Möbel Hübner, plus assorted other shops, some in my neighborhood, some wherever I happened to wander.

Let me just say that, uh, coffee tables are, generally speaking, (1) ugly as sin, and (2) expensive as hell. I spent a number of depressing hours stunned at how much one could pay for furniture that was so ugly that I’d have trouble imagining the homes that it would fit into.

The low point, for me, was a shopping Sunday when I visited Möbel Kraft—it’s an incredibly enormous store with five or six floors filled with an incredible volume of, for lack of a better word (and I hope it doesn’t get me in trouble), shit.

Ikea was starting to look good, even though I was aiming higher.

I mentioned my quandary to a colleague who immediately told me that there was a place in Berlin where you could get furniture made out of old Berlin floorboards. A quick trip to Google and up came Dielerei.

The Couchtisch at home.

Now I’ll admit that not everything on the site spoke to me, but, unlike Möbel Kraft, I was optimistic and contacted the owner. After a bit of determining the details (100cm long, 40-45cm wide, and 40cm tall; plain wood (not painted); and two legs, not four), he gave me a price and told me two weeks.

Friday, only a week later, it was ready.

Saturday afternoon it was delivered.

The Couchtisch, holding up some remotes, Kindle, iPhone, and the pad where the tea is now sitting.

Saturday evening it felt like it had always been there – perfect in its spot, the exact perfect height, and incredibly beautiful.

I need one more piece of furniture – some kind of cabinet – for the apartment. I’m thinking Dielerei is perfect. Unfortunately I still need to decide what I want out of the piece of furniture.