From the bedroom in my mum and dad's house, where I spent my formative teenage years, through early adulthood in starter flats and now to my current home, shared with my boyfriend, a dressing table has been an important component in all of these scenarios.
Each time I have acquired a different dressing table; a new one to fit a new phase in my life.
As a teenager, a cream painted wooden number from MFI dominated the central wall in my bedroom. Here I would apply make-up, stress about teenage blemishes and fill the table with folders and notebooks while studying for my highers.
When I moved into my first flat in my early 20s, my search for a new dressing table took me the Salvation Army store on Glasgow's Dumbarton Road, where I picked up a retro 1950s one. My dressing table aided my quest for a new grown-up appearance now I had entered the world of work. I began a daily ritual of sitting on the stool, staring in the mirror and getting ready for the day ahead.
Now I am currently searching for a new dressing table to go with the new co-habitation stage in my life. Living together means storage space is tight and battle lines get drawn over who gets access to which shelves in which cupboards. In the new spirit of sharing and compromise, all I ask for is a little space all of my own in our bedroom. A dressing table, where my feminine side, which has been suppressed in favour of a gender-neutral colour scheme, can find a home.
Dressing tables may have fallen out of favour, even dismissed as out-dated, but if my experience has taught me anything, it is not to under-estimate the importance or usefulness of this simple piece of furniture.
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