Furniture and Furnishings

See Also: HOUSES, ROOMS

1. Armchairs angular as choir stalls —Julia O’Faolain
2. Bed that sagged like a hammock —John D. MacDonald
3. The big oriental rug glowed like a garden of exotic flowers —George Garrett
4. (In a mirrored room) carpeted like spring grass —William Humphrey
5. The carpet … felt like fur laid over clouds —Alice McDermott
6. Carpeting as soft underfoot as moss —Sue Grafton
7. Carpets threadbare like ancient shrouds —Jaroslav Seifert
8. The chairs and tables looked like poor relations who had repaid their keep by a long career of grudging usefulness —Edith Wharton
9. Chairs that looked and felt like unbaked bread dough —Jonathan Kellerman
10. Chandeliers as big as locomotives —Mark Helprin
11. Chandeliers like crystal clouds —Gavin Lyall
12. Chinese lanterns … hanging like fiery fruit —Babette Deutsch
13. A clock clucked like some drowsy hen on the wall —V. S. Pritchett
14. Coloured plates, like crude carnival wheels —V. S. Pritchett
15. Curtain of red velvet drawn apart like lips —Beverly Farmer
16. Curtains billow … as if large birds were caught in them —Charles Simic
17. Curtains billowed slightly like loose clothing —Bin Ramke
18. The curtains fluttered coyly like ladies’ skirts —Margaret Millar
19. Curtains, flying out like flags from the opened, seaward window —Elizabeth Taylor
20. The curtains over the open window next to them billow suddenly like an enormous cloud —Tony Ardizzone

    This simile concludes Ardizzone’s story, The Evening News.

21. Each time I’m inside [an apartment] all is precisely as it was the time before, as if riveted in place —Richard Ford
22. An electric night lamp that looks like a big firefly that might have come in through the half-open window —Marguerite Yourcenar
23. The furniture around me thick as elephants —Richard Ford
24. Furniture like mismatched plates —Jonathan Valin
25. Furniture with legs like those of a very fat woman planted firmly and holding her ground —Linda West Eckhardt
26. A hard bench about as comfortable as a gridiron —Emily Eden

    See Also: COMFORT

27. Huge chandeliers, like clusters of grapes —Helen Hudson
28. Lace curtains from the parlor flying like flags in the summer sky —Sharon Olds
29. Long gauze curtains flapping out the open window like ghosts waving —Dianne Benedict
30. One’s chairs and tables get to be almost part of one’s life, and to seem like quiet friends —Jerome K. Jerome
31. A polychromatic rug like some brilliant-flowered rectangular, tropical islet —O. Henry
32. Shadows [of flowers on window-sill] on curtains … waving like swans dipping their beaks in water —Jean Rhys
33. Some aura of grief and transient desperation clings to the curtains and the shabby upholstery like a sour breath —Herbert Lieberman
34. The swinging-to of a shutter was like the nervous and involuntary flicker of an eyelid —Elizabeth Bowen
35. The table [set for party] bloomed like a miracle of shining damask and silver spoons —Elinor Wylie
36. (Grandma’s old long wooden dining-room) table, kept as bare and shining as an ad for spar varnish —Robert Traver
37. Table lamps with shades like extravagant hats —John Rechy
38. A threadbare carpet that looked like frayed paper —Heinrich Boll
39. The waxed (rectangular) table shone like a black lake —Alice McDermott
40. A white curtain like a wedding veil —Beverly Farmer