Burning Question: Spendy Splurges?
This query of the week was actually submitted by a reader named Molly and we couldn’t wait to get everyone’s read on the subject. The big Q: What has been your biggest home-related splurge? And looking back, was it worth it?
We love to hoard our pennies whenever we can but we’re also known to save them up for something truly special for our little ranch, so we know a thing or two about splurging on a few occasions. What have you guys gone all out on? And was it all that you thought it would be? Does it make you smile every time you see it? Or are you too scared that you’ll “hurt” it to truly enjoy it?
Breathtaking kitchen image (which appears to be a nice balance of steals & splurges) via Cornflower Cottage.
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So far… my only real splurge has been the house itself!! We haven’t done much updating b/c it was a new construction when we found it… However, I am very happy every time I come home… I love my house and my yard… One day, our splurge will be finishing our walk out basement!!
granite countertops. solar water heater. large plasma tv with HD. all of these have been so worth it. i wish we had taken the time to save and splurge on a better kitchen table, kitchen faucet, and bathroom cabinets….arrggh!
Custom kitchen cabinets to match the original (1929) wall of cabinets in our kitchen, coupled with a custom butchblock counter for the original cabinets and granite for the new cabinets. The granite was a remnant and the guy who made our cabinets and counter did an amazing job. People are shocked that part of the cabinets are new. And while we consider it a splurge, the custom work cost about the same as higher end stuff from big box stores (and the granite was much cheaper than any quotes we got from other places). Lesson we learned–always check out local and custom sources–they may surprise you regarding price and the quality can be amazing! Best money we ever spent.
Our biggest splurge was on our tempurpedic mattress. It helped relieve my backaches. It also helped me sleep during my pregnancy. We’re still very happy with the purchase!
Actually 2 – Granite counter tops & our Fisher-Paykel dish drawers. I’m tickled with both!
The biggest splurge, and one I’ve never regretted, was my mattress. I got it at cost through the company I work for and still paid about $1000. Still, I’ve had it 5 years and it’s fantastic!
After 20 years of asking and sometime begging, my husband finally said yes to landscape lighting. Love love it. I have always said put outdoor lighing around a ho hum house and magically it is beautiful. That was a little pricey for us.
My biggest splurge was a custom dining room table built by the Amish (no, they don’t just make “country-ish” tables – I, for one, was shocked by that). It was super expensive (to me), but is literally the nicest table I’ve ever seen. The wood is gorgeous and very solid, it’s finished beautifully, I could go on and on. I would recommend one to anyone, but I do admit I’m anal retentive about keeping it clean because of how much we spent on it! Still love it though! :)
You guys did a dining room mood board for me FOREVER ago (I bet you thought I’d never send after pictures, didn’t you??), and it took us a couple months to agree on a table and then a couple more for it to arrive. MAN we’re slow decorators! It’s getting close though!
Take your time Lindsay! We definitely know rooms don’t come together overnight! Just promise to send those pics when the decorating dust clears. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out!
xo,
s
We have several I guess. :(
- our kitchen
- our Family Room
- Landscaping
- converting to gas
…..all of these were worth it in the end….and we didn’t even go crazy with them either.
- our next splurge will be our backyard, all new paver driveway, new stoop and new walkways…all in pavers. Plus new handrails and front fence. But it will be worth the splurge to make our house look nicer. Can’t wait for that tax money to come in. lol! ;-)
Great question, especially right after tax time! I just had a lot of major splurges! My husband and I just bought the Stora loft bed for our son, a king size Hopen bed w/ Hjelmas mattress, a dyson ball, Samsung steam washer and dryer, and as a special treat a new Samsung wireless surround sound!! Half of the purchases were necessity since the original items were broken or sold. Anyway, from here on out it’s back to saving the money for special items.
By the way, your nursery is ADORABLE! I love the crib, makes me want another baby just so I can buy that crib!
I’m a pretty practical person so my type of splurges are not really glamorous.
We are currently working on redoing our basement and we gutted it and found out that we needed to put in new insulation but since they installed 2 X 3 studs (gah!)
We were deciding whether or not we would replace them in order to get a higher R-Value.
After months and months of talking to people we decided on spray foam insulation, we are so happy with the results and it was well worth the cost so even though it’s not something you can see, it sure does feel toasty warm…
And to top it off it is an an eco-friendly product called
HEATLOK SOYA; made from recycled plastics and renewable vegetable oils.
splurged on lighting in the kitchen and beautiful tile for the master bathroom. i don’t second guess them at all- but i am a little obsessive about keeping the tiles clean!
i really enjoy your blog- i have a slightly different design aesthetic, but i find your home beautiful & your projects inspiring! you have something for everyone- even a slightly shabby chic, cottagey style person like me!
have a great day-
rachel
We rent so we haven’t really been able to splurge much but ours are the typical home electronics (boy has to have the biggest TV’s I’ll let him) and our couch. We paid 2000 for it along with a matching round ottoman. After that, we decided anything that comes in contact with our skin has to be the best we can afford. That’s bedding and towels and flatwear. The rest of our stuff is all HomeGoods and Ikea. I practically live at HomeGoods and sometimes feel guilty about how little I pay for the stuff I find in there.
What are your splurges??
Hey Tracey,
Well our beloved organic mattress was a bit of an investment and our granite counters in the kitchen weren’t cheap (we actually upgraded to pretty expensive stone but we loved that it looked like marble and was sealed for life for easy care). We also paid full price for a Pottery Barn PB Basic sofa (but we actually regret that splurge since we like the other sofa that we later hunted down much better: read more about that here). We also paid a pretty penny to have someone lay our back patio for us right before we got married since it was literally weeks before we would have 75 people in our backyard and we didn’t want to stress about it getting done. That was totally a worthy investment!
xo,
s
Two things…we replaced a dining room window with top of the line French doors leading into the backyard. Totally changed that room. The second is we added a skylight in our converted attic which is now our girls’ bedroom. It brought in the afternoon sun and turned the room from a cave into a bright spot.
Hmmm…we definitely like to NOT spend a ton. Our guess our biggest house splurge would be the cherry cabinets we picked out. We even ordered cheaper maple ones from Home Depot and as soon as they got to our house I knew they would make me unhappy everytime I looked at them. Not because they were maple, but because I didn’t REALLY like them and we ordered the second best we liked to save money. Our kitchen and living room is one big space so I knew that we couldn’t have a wall of them in that room and stare at them all the time thinking “If only…” So we sent them back and coughed up another $1000 dollars to go with our first choice. If we hadn’t done that while building the house, we’d be currently saving for a whole new set of cabinets because the old ones just were NOT right. Sometimes it pays to splurge – especially if it’s something you walk past EVERY day or it’s where you spend most of your time.
On another topic – I’m curious if you guys could share what program you design your logos in. I’m trying to design something, but having the toughest time! I’m at line looking at programs and most that I see would be quite the splurge!
Hey Jen,
We use Photoshop all the way! It’s expensive but we both had to have it on our computers due to our past lives in advertising so now we take advantage of that fact and use it as much as possible (to make our blog header, resize photos, build mood boards, etc). Hope it helps.
xo,
s
We just moved into our 3rd house in 3 years! We splurged a lot on our last house…new furniture in pretty much every room. On this house we were planning to splurge on beautiful wood floors for our kitchen and dining room (they had nasty carpet before). However, we ended up getting the deal of a lifetime. Lowes mismarked some flooring, regularly $2.99/sq. ft. and we got it for $0.14/sq. ft. So, since we ended up getting such a great deal I think we’re going to splurge on some new landscaping this spring!
Well I’ve only been living in my first house for a month so I’ve only splurged on one thing..the washer and dryer. I figure if I’m gonna do it I’m gonna do it right the first time. They are energy star rated and quiet as mice..could not be happier. Any advice on where to splurge next, I can’t figure out if I want to start in the kitchen or the bedroom?
No advice at all! As you can see from all these responses, there are lots of places you can splurge so it’s really a personal thing. Whatever seems like it’s important and rewarding for you!
xo,
s
Ok, it’s not super-glam but we had all the windows in our house replaced with low-e argon filled windows. Our old ones were aluminum and literally had ice on the *inside* when it got really cold outside. Needless to say the heat ran *all* the time. It was the first thing we paid someone to do (we put bamboo floors in by ourselves)but it was totally worth it.
Biggest splurge was when we had our home built, we sprung for black walnut floors on the main living floor, they are gorgeous. A nice change from maple and oak (which are still beautiful)
We haven’t had much of a chance to do much work on the house but the idea file keeps growing!
Our biggest splurge was updating all the original 1928 pipes in our house, and yes, I am still glad we did this every time I get into the shower and actually have water pressure. Our second biggest splurge was our beautiful Dwell Studio bedding. And yes I absolutely am still makes me smile :)
Oh and Jen my super computer savy fiance uses Photoshop and he swears by it too!
We spent a ridiculous amount of money on our bluestone patio but it was worth every penny. We live out there in the summer!
Hello!Biggest splurge, I guess just like most of the responses would be our mattress. We got a Tempurpedic {the ad with the jumping & the wine didn’t spill really worked for us…yay, now we can drink in bed!}. Almost 2 g’s! we’ve only had it for a couple of months, hopefully it’ll last a lifetime!
i think our biggest splurge were our kitchen appliances. when we purchased our house the previous owners renovated the kitchen and painted the cabinets just off white and added black granite counter tops. but the appliances that came with the house were white. like very white and they just looked off with our cabinets. it was a bit silly because we didn’t need new appliances, the old ones worked just fine, but to make our kitchen aesthetic “work” we new we had to take the plunge.
We have an open, eat-in kitchen and I’m in the middle of re-designing it to add storage and brighten and soften the space. I haven’t splurged yet but have my eye on some beautiful upholostered dining chairs. The chairs will cost more than re-doing the tile back splash in the kitchen, but comfortable chairs and a touch of elegance are worth it. I hope. And I never thought I’d have a rug in the kitchen – but the rug is so soft and seperates the kitching from dining room in a subtle way.
our biggest splurge would have to be the photographer for our wedding next year. it may not seem home related but im sure we will hang those pictures everywhere. cant wait!
I have a question, when you painted the ceiling i your bedroom how did you prevent paint from getting on your walls.
I am painting my ceiling this weekend and everyone keeps telling me that I am going to ruin my walls!
I also could use some advice. I painted our bedroom walls gray last weekend and this weekend we are painting an accent wall in the bedroom. we have a damask stencil that we plan to paint on. The problem im trying to decide is should do the damask stencil in white and paint the ceiling white or should I mix the wall color with white and paint the stencil and ceiling with a lighter gray. the gray that we put on our walls are already pretty light.
Also we did a eggshell finsih, do you think we should do the stencil in eggshell also?
Thanks so much. Any advice would be great thanks!
My big splurge didn’t cost a lot but it was a huge thing for me. I painted my walls dark colors. I love the look of lightly colored houses done right (like yours) but I adore darkly colored walls. After living in military housing for 9 years and having basic blah dingey white walls… I splurged.
We’re not done yet but I’ve painted my front living room dark blue, my master bedroom is black (!), and my dining room is dark teal. I have plans to use those colors in the rest of the house too. It was scary to paint that first room a dark color but I LOVE the way it has turned otu!
The biggest splurge so far has just been on our house itself! We haven’t really splurged on anything since we just moved in and it’s new construction, however I have my eye on a LOT LOT LOT of furniture to fill it up. I just wish I lived by more discount joints like you always find Sherry. I am so jealous. Raleigh just doesn’t have as much stuff (unless I have never found it). We put some upgrades into our home that count as splurges though, like granite, stainless steel appliances, and some hardwood flooring.
Ps–Sherry I love your blog, I’m pretty much obsessed. Sometimes I’m like “I just need to be her friend!” haha!
We stretched the wood floors into the living room and it was worth the cost. Even though our house is not completely decorated and the walls need paint, the type of floor makes the room.
We constantly have to monitor how much we splurge on home improvements since we love in an historic neighborhood that is socioeconomically mixed. Our 1650 sqft 2BR 1.5BA cost us less than 100 grand, so equity is always a concern. That being said, we just couldn’t find anything close to what we REALLY wanted in a ceiling fixture for out dining room. After 7 years of an ” acceptable” fixture (which cost us $159), we are THRILLED with our 5-arm fluted column chandelier from Restoration Hardware!!!! Although the RH website has it for $425 (not including 5 shades @ $9.99ea or shipping), I found it on eBay for $299.99 (FREE shipping!) and paid $16 for shades at Hancock Fabrics. Sure, I saved at least $150, but STILL….. a $300+ lighting fixture is a HUGE splurge for our house!
Although sometimes I feel it’s not the best decision, we only splurge on “portable” additions to our home. Both my husband and I decided shortly after moving in that our home would not be our forever home, and therefore I have been reluctant to put much money into the structure/built-in features. I would love to replace most of the flooring and the woodwork, but I just can’t justify the expense to myself. I should mention that our home was only built 7 years ago, so the features I don’t like are just issues of taste, and not of substance. My favorite splurge so far has been our front loading washer and dryer. They make laundry so much more enjoyable! Now, if only I could find someone to come fold it all…
The biggest permanent splurge was having our front steps resurfaced with bluestone pavers…but we kept the same orientation and the original concrete base so that helped us save a little. The biggest non-permanent splurge was having an antique bar cabinet that belonged to my husband’s grandparents professionally refinished. Sentimentally, it was worth every penny to him and we will have it with us no matter where we live.
(I wrote a long response but then lost it to the internet monster when the page refreshed. Drat!)
I’m a newlywed living in a two bedroom apartment, and we try to keep things simple and cheap since we don’t have a whole lot of money to waste (and I try to save as much as we can).
We did splurge on our table and chair set to replace the $20 thirft store set my husband had (which had been destroyed by years of college guy apartments). It’s a counter height, classic lines, mission style. I’s lovely, but I kind of regret it since we never eat at it and it can only seat 4 (no leaf, extra chairs can’t be used in other places). I think it was $500 after delivery and all, which is a lot for us to spend.
The other splurge was the couch to replace the futon we had (a hand me down from my husband’s cousin, also used for years in college apartments by her and me). It was a floor model on clearance (I think $650), quite comfy and fits in our apartment well. I’m not sure if it will hold up for years and years, but we might end up needing something diferent once we buy a house anyway.
Right now I’m considering a new coffee table. We’ve been using a storage bench (just like the ones YHL has!), but the cat has clawed it a bit and it’s always covered in clutter since there’s no shelf under it to stash stuff. Last weekend we were visiting friends and they had the Mission Natural coffee table from Target (which matches my end tables) and now I want it. It’s not very expensive, but I have a hard time justifying the cost when we don’t *need* it.
http://www.target.com/Mission-Natural-Coffee-Table/dp/B000087HN2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&searchView=grid5&frombrowse=0&node=1038576&keywords=mission%20coffee%20table&field_browse=1038576&searchSize=30&id=Mission%20Natural%20Coffee%20Table&field_availability=-2&refinementHistory=subjectbin%2Ctarget_com_age%2Ctarget_com_gender-bin%2Ctarget_com_character-bin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&searchNodeID=1038576&field_launch-date=-1y&searchRank=target104545&searchPage=1&field_keywords=mission%20coffee%20table
Any advice when you want to replace something that works but doesn’t make you happy? Buy it and stop worrying about it? Learn to live with what we have? Keep looking for something free/super cheap to fill the same purpose?
Hey Kate,
We just save our pennies up if something bothers us (and if it works we try to sell the working one on Craigslist so we don’t send it to a landfill and we get money for it to boot). Then once we have enough to actually afford it without putting it on a credit card that we won’t be able to pay off right away (which makes us feel so guilty we can’t enjoy the spurge) then we go for it. We’ve learned that it’s never smart to buy something cheap for the interim (at least for us) because we hate that we spent money on something that’s just a placeholder for the real thing that we want (and we would rather wait and put our money towards the forever-item instead of some placeholder). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
We’ve been in our place 5.5 years now so we have quite a few… and quite a few more to go!
-Just bought a new king mattress set on Sunday – what a difference – but yikes, those things are $$!
-Brick paver patio (we had someone come and install it)
-Landscaping… we did everything ourselves though (from digging the sprinkler trenches, to laying the sod, to designing and planting).
-New stainless kitchen appliances
-Front-loading washer/dryer
-And our furnace konked-out last year so we had to get one of those.
Now we’re saving our pennies for a bathroom gut and reno, a new bathroom install, kitchen gut and reno, refinished hardwoods, insulation… and a rug I desperately want, but it’s $800. With 2 large dogs, I just can’t bring myself to spend that much $$ on something they’re going to trample all over!
I think the biggest splurge to date was the light-blocking DwellStudio roller shade from The Shade Store for my son’s nursery. We did it because we got married & got our tax return in quick succession, so we had a lot of extra money, and because I’d read that light-blocking shades help with sleeping habits of little ones. I think it totally helps make the room feel like I wanted it to design wise, AND the light-blocking-ness of it is INSANELY AWESOME. Now I just have to figure out a plan for our second nursery, because that kind of dough won’t be easily come by again.
We bought our living room set as a splurge…. But we don’t even like it that much anymore, sadly (and it’s only about 18 months old!). Sigh.
Ours was our kitchen in general- the appliances and soapstone countertops specifically :)
And they were well worth it!
We splurged on quartz countertops for our kitchen. The existing tile was in good shape, but not having to clean crumbs from grout lines everyday was totally worth the extra money. We’re also glad we chose quartz instead of granite, since we don’t have to re-seal it every year. A splurge with a little money savings mixed in!
To date, our biggest splurge was our plasma TV. I’m a stickler for only ONE family TV in the house (no bedroom TV’s), so buying a good quality one was an easy decision and we don’t regret it at all. We have spent many Family Fridays (today!) eating popcorn and watching movies with our two lil’ guys. We wouldn’t change it for the world!
Next splurge will be new counters (we saved by painting our current cabinets) and eventually new flooring. But we are maxing out are IRA’s first. Ugh. Sometimes being responsible is no fun!
I think the only splurge we’ve had is having some really special art professionally framed. It looks really fantastic, but I think we still have buyer’s remorse. Maybe if it’s still looking great twenty years from now, we’ll be able to feel good about it.
In my last house, the dining room had a really ugly, cheap brass fixture that irritated me every time I looked at it. I got a replacement on clearance for like $40 at West Elm, but then I dropped it while trying to install it. Then I had no light fixture.
A friend and her husband (an electrician) came out to visit shortly thereafter and I asked if he would install a fixture for me (after I ran out and bought one). He said sure, no problem. So while they took a nap, I ran out to Home Depot, scanning frantically for something to put up. I bought a modern looking nickel chandelier fixture for $150, but I wasn’t really happy with it.
On the way home, I spotted a lighting store and screeched into the parking lot. I decided I didn’t want just a make-do fixture since that room got a lot of use. So I splurged on a George Nelson bubble lamp (about $270 including tax), and I love it. I specifically excluded it from the sale when I moved, and now it hangs in my new dining room. It was expensive (to me), but once you factor the use I’m getting out of it, it was worth every penny.
We splurged on all new single & double hung vinyl windows for our home right when we closed escrow. It was a necessity that could not be ignored (the home had all original casement windows and only 1 window had a crank handle). It was the best decision (and purchase) we’ve made yet!
Very few pieces in our house were bought for full price – usually I “stalk” my furniture in the bargain/dent-scratch/floor model rooms at major department stores! But I have bought two things that were shiny new and don’t regret it for a minute!
#1 – Matress – it’s one of the sleep number beds – LOVE IT!
#2 – Dining room table. We built a craftsman style house and I have been wanting an original “Stickley” piece of furniture, but could never afford the real antiques. Good news, Stickley still makes furniture and the table I bought is SO beautiful. With inlay-ed carvings on each corner, made of solid cherry and it doesn’t hurt I can seat 12 for dinner! I’m in love!
:)
I wouldn’t say the big ticket items I’ve purchased were exactly splurges. A new furnace. A new refrigerator. That kind of item… necessary, but not necessarily exciting or fun.
My husband and I just bought our first place in July, a Jr. 4 co-op in New York. So far, our biggest splurge has been hiring California Closets to come and install all 4 custom closets. Living in New York, where space is at a premium, these are a non-negotiable, and make me smile everytime i open the door to any of the closets. Our next splurge will be in the bathroom, which we are planning to renovate this spring. I think the splurge will be either a really nice toilet (my husband’s preference) or a soaker tub, or some awesome glass subway tile. Stay tuned!
Good lampshades are a splurge of mine. Cheap, ill-fitting lampshades are so obvious. You can go budget on a lamp and then put a well-made lampshade on top to make the whole thing look high-end. For example, I have Target lamps in my bedroom that I probably paid $25 each for but really nice linen lampshades on top that were probably twice the cost of the lamps, and it makes the lamps look like they could be $200 each!
Our biggest “splurge” so far has been replacing all of the windows in our 80-year-old house. It came with those super old pulley-style single paned windows that, while pretty cool-looking, offered NO insulation from the heat or cold (in the winter, you could literally feel the wind blowing when you sat on the couch in the living room). It was a $5,000 project, which is the most I’ve ever spent on ANYTHING other then the down payment for our house, but it’s saving us about $150 a month in heating bills, so it’ll pay for itself over time.
I have a somewhat related question. We recently moved from a 1100 square foot house to a 3600 square foot house. Obviously, we don’t have enough furniture or stuff to fill it up (it has an eat-in kitchen plus a dining room, a family room and a formal living room, four bedrooms, etc). What do you suggest we do in the interim as we save up for bigger purchases? My plan is to do one room at a time and take things slowly, redecorating and adding furniture and accessories as I can afford them (I hate purchasing anything on credit). But in the meantime, our house looks so bare! We don’t even have any furniture in the family room or dining area right now. And with the wood floors and no rugs, the space just looks huge and echoey and empty.
What did y’all do when you moved in your house, before you saved up enough to finish each room? Did you just use hand-me-downs and freebies? Or cheap things from thrift stores and IKEA? It almost seems counter-intuitive to spend money on things that I’ll eventually replace, but at the same time, I hate that it doesn’t really look like anyone lives here right now!
Hey Stacy-
Here’s a post all about that: http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/08/email-answer-look-before-you-leap/
We basically believe in decorating in stages as you go (and as your wallet can handle) so we don’t really think that paying for placeholder items is as smart as saving up for what you really want and then making the ultimate move. Of course we took a lot of freebies and hand-me-downs while we saved our pennies, but we never went out and purchased a $500 sofa to tide us over for our $1000 sofa if that makes sense. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
We often say that our biggest “splurge” was our 3 girls, all of whom we adopted (one at a time, over 2 years) from Russia. We are so in debt from them that it’s not even funny, but they did so much to brighten up our otherwise boring house and lives that I’m really not sure what we did before them. :)
Biggest recent splurge was having custom hanging steel/glass doors fabricated to close off a bedroom: http://www.bitly.com/MyBsmt
We’re still at the beginning stages of our house reno, but so far our biggest splurge has been a waterfall faucet for our main bathroom:
http://designedbyrj.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-country-to-contemporary-bathroom.html
Even though we spent twice as much as we could have on a basic model, but it’s been so worth it! The style of the faucet fite perfectly with the new vanity {which was a steal} and I literally smile every time I have to wash my hands! *lol*