two items

The loveseat was formerly owned by a couple, Ed and Florence. When Ed passed, Florence required a place for her daughter to sleep when visiting from the big city. But, in the tiny apartment that Florence chose when she downsized most of her life, there wasn't a reasonable place for a spare bed, or even a full-size pullout sofa sleeper. Florence recalled that Temple Furniture out of North Carolina used to make a twin-bed loveseat sleeper bed. Proud that she had recalled such an obscure fact, never before necessary in her life of extra bedrooms and otherwise spacious living, she called up Temple Furniture to inquire. Turns out they still made the twin-bed sleeper, selling "a lot to ladies like you," said Bob the salesman to a Florence, who wondered just how old she sounded. She chose a large, mostly neutral floral print, and had it placed in her living room kitty-corner from her red sofa. When Florence's daughter Sandra arrived, she remarked that it was cute and that it would do.

The blue cabinet was made by a whimsical gentleman who stained so many items accidentally with rings of black coffee that he began planning for it. The cabinet was for his granddaughter - his only grandchild and secretly his favorite living person in the world (he felt guilty choosing her over his son, a nice enough lad but not nearly as adorable as a baby as little Sally). She being 10 years old at the time, he designed it as small without being tiny - approachable, he thought. He chose a muted slate-ish blue and made it with simple lines, so that when Sally grew up and developed taste, she might still keep it around. He hoped for this in his subconscious, knowing that he himself might be not around when she made her adult decision about his cabinet. When he was in the garage one day, Sally came out and asked if he was going to stain it with his "coffee stuff like Grandma's ashes table." He shook his head, embarrassed that his wife's urn was on a hand-crafted old TV stand covering up a brown circle, but Sally went on to say "that would be real special, if you made it for me like you made Grandma's fine arresting place." Instead of a coffee ring he chose a dark walnut stain for the front board on the top, and it came out real nice, he thought. Sally said "hmmm, I guess this will do" and turned the two shelves behind the doors into a penthouse for her dolls.