Mom’s Latest Craze!

Pretty Ken flew in from Manila to attend Baby Kim’s birthday. I also arrived in Cebu from Davao after a joint fieldwork with my boss. Dad fetched me and Ken from the airport and we went straight to our little niece’s house where the party took place. The rockstar diva had the wonderful time last night. So was my mom.

I was informed before hand that her latest project had materialized. She had commissioned a nearby furniture shop to make her a set of wooden sofa. At the party, I was told that her sofa set had been delivered. No wonder that she left the party so early.

After the party was over, I got a little excited to see the furniture. Mom had asked me before to sketch the sofa set that she had in mind, measurements included. I remembered that she brought the sketch and some reference pictures for the craftsman to see. I envisioned how the sofa’s going to look like. A long long armless seat with elegantly designed backrest. The plan was to have an L-shaped sofa for the family room.

I expected it to be comfortable, very functional yet not the typical cheap piece of wooden furniture. What I had in mind was not necessarily wooden. It was more of modern yet comfortable like this:

But then this was what shocked me:

And it had a twin brother:

They were not what I had in mind. But I wasn’t sure if these were what mom wanted. To tell you honestly, I didn’t like it. The design was ancient and unflattering and also it was a bit costly. Mom has yet to put cushions on the sofa set so that would entail additional cost.

She thought about putting some small throw pillows for the backrest while I thought about adding dark stains to the wood. They literally ”paled in comparison” to the other wooden fixtures in the house. Mom may have this fetish for wooden furnitures but then this so-called craze is scaring the hell out of me.  

Right now, I ran out of ideas on what to do with this set to make it modern, elegant and comfortable. Guys, what can you suggest?