You guys! I got some new coffee tables! If you knew how long I've waited for this - if, for example, I'd been chronicling in excruciating detail every small change in my family room, and my longing desire to have something other than a sawed-off kids' art table as our coffee table - you might understand how excited I was to score these two beauts.

But let's back up for a moment and start with the inspo, shall we?

I'd seen a gorgeous, distressed, tufted, black leather bench with brass legs at a local furniture store. I can't find the picture I took of that, which is driving me crazy, because it was beautiful. But this Restoration Hardware version, pictured, is pretty close, just with the colors sort of inverted - black leather, brass legs - and also stunning. Once I saw my black bench, I knew it was the one: The perfect thing for our room, to bring in some metal (rather than more wood), some leather to warm things up, and a much better scale than the miniature table we had going. This RH version ranges from $800 to $1,050, and the local version was a little less than $800. So, you probably see where this is going... we did not purchase either option.

Then, on a recent trip to Crate and Barrel, where Lou and I go to peruse and chat design - really - we saw these Pascal tables. A set of these goes for a special price of $419 right now, if you're in the market. I found these intriguing. Brass and black, nice shapes, and I liked the idea of two. What I would lose in comfort foot-propping from the tufted leather, I'd gain in functionality as a set of tables. Modular is good in a small space. As it turns out, $419 wasn't in my budget for a coffee table, either, but now I started thinking of how I might be able to revamp a table or bench to mimic these. Possibly a mix of the two...leather tops and brass legs?

Thankfully, I didn't have to work any DIY magic - YET. Look at these guys! They are a pretty good amalgam of my inspiration pieces no? Well. I found these at Target, where I went for batteries (which, in a nutshell is both why I go to Target and why I try so hard to avoid it). The tables are the Equestrian Side Table from Nate Berkus' line, and they have all the sleekness + warmth of their pricier versions at Crate & Barrel. For $89.99 each, they were definitely the bargain option. But, budget or no, they weren't particularly friendly to my budget. My budget for a new coffee table, it turns out, was $54. How do I know? Because these babies were marked down to less than $27 each!!!! This was only in my store; they're currently full-price online, so you'll have to investigate your own local spot to see what kind of steal you can get. For me, $27 a table, compared to $1,050, or even $180, was a really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking deal. So good I had to balance these two babies in my cart and hail one of the sketchy cars that line up outside the store to get them home. #worthit.

I'm pretty into them. But there's always room for improvement, and in addition to figuring out some better styling - this stuff is the same stuff as I had on my white table before, but it feels very, erm, brassy with the brass from the table mixed in - I am seriously considering painting the tops black. I've done a little research on the Internet, and painting faux leather is apparently totally doable. I think a distressed black finish could really pop in here, and make the whole room feel a lot less, erm, brown. Which, right now, is definitely the dominant feeling. Brown and brassy. I could be talking about my hair right now. I'm also suddenly toying with the idea of bringing back in the Turkish rug that used to live here...I'm thinking maybe my chunky jute rug isn't quite sophisticated enough, dahling, for my new brass tables. What say you?

Here's what both the rug and the old coffee table looked like, for your reference. So? Any thoughts? To paint or not to paint? To rug layer or not to rug layer? These, my friends, are the questions that keep me up at night. And speaking of not being able to sleep, I am FREAKING OUT about the debates tonight. I can't handle the stress. How are you handling it? Okay! That's enough for today. Let's talk soon!