The Craigslist gods (almost) smiled on me...

I still feel a little sick about this when I think about it.  We are sans coffee table in our living room right now-- the hand-me-down table from Target and my newly walking boy were not getting along too well.  I so love the look of a big tufted ottoman-- like this-- for  a coffee table:

via Cote de Texas

My requirements: stylish and safe.  Large scale, tufted, neutral upholstery, turned legs, castors, nailhead trim-- and, oh, yeah, I have a hundred bucks to spend. 

Stop laughing.  Cause I found this on Craigslist.

In the pictures it reads a little yellow-- in person it was the perfect, aged shade of cream.  It was as soft and silky as my little man's skin.  The legs were turned with castors, the nailhead trim was the perfect aged bronze, the leather too-die-for smooth.  List price: $120.  I cannot even tell you how fast I booked it to High Point, braving a kind of scary warehouse with a really, really nice man who has absolutely NO idea what he unloaded from a container of unclaimed freight he bought.  If you are in the area you should stop by.  It's from Lillian August-- I'm guessing retail is in the ballpark of $2K?  I asked him if he would like five $20 bills.  He would. 

I did measure it-- it was 1 1/2 feet longer and wider than my old coffee table.  In my frenzy I convinced myself that that really isn't much space.  It filled up the entire back of my van with a row of seats down.  It took two people to get it into the house.  And when we brought it into the living room it was so big that you literally couldn't walk around it.  I thought about crying.  But instead I got philosphical and re-listed it on Craigslist.  It sold in an hour.  And the best part is a friend from JH's playgroup bought it, so I can visit it whenever I want.  Ahhhh.  The One That Got Away.