Stuff We Bought
The Olympic Event Of Rug Hunting
Ok, we know we said our sunroom’s mini makeover was next on the agenda but we just had to share this fun den switcheroo first because we often get reader questions about how we choose room-making things like the right art or the perfect rug. Our reply is always that there’s no such thing as “the right” or “the perfect” formula or item because there are multiple ways to finish off a room that you’re sure to love. Think of it as a buffet with more than one delicious meal to choose from. So the good news is that there’s not just one “solution” when it comes to polishing off a room and calling it done.
Another pretty common misconception is that deals just fall into our laps when we’re usually doing some pretty major legwork to sniff things down that we love. In fact, just to demonstrate that the best deals (and the items that you’ll love for the long haul) usually have to be seriously stalked, we thought we’d share the play by play of our loooong den rug pilgrimage.
Why the need for a new rug in the den? Well, let’s just say we were living with a dirty little secret:
The $70 Lowe’s rug that we scored four years ago was, well, dirty. The natural jute fibers were somehow breaking down and shaking loose underneath the rug every time we walked on it (which is definitely not par for the jute-rug-course, we have other jute rugs in our kitchen and bedroom which never give us the same problem after years of use). And with a tiny human around, we weren’t willing to stand for those dirty little could-be-inhaled particles anymore. So it was out with the old rug and in with the new.
But which new 5 x 8′ rug would we be taking home? When we began our rug search it was much like the first episode of The Bachelorette. So many options, so little time (not to be confused with the smutty new show Bachelor Pad- there was no skimpily clothed Twister game). But after “courting” over 30 rugs and imagining them in our lives for a few decades, we were left with five finalists so to speak. Let’s meet the contenders.
First we came across this celery and beige beauty at a local lighting and rug outlet (pardon the terrible iPhone pic).
We loved it for the 100% wool construction (we like our rugs to be made from natural materials like cotton, wool, or jute without any rubber backing so we don’t have to worry about synthetics, offgassing, or unnecessary chemicals). We also liked the soft and serene colors. We definitely wanted to replace the shedding jute rug with something cushy and soft (since we know Clara will appreciate that once she’s a bit more mobile) but because our den has two storage ottomans that sit in the center of the rug, we didn’t know if the design, which was raised about a half inch, would make those ottomans sit oddly on the rug. So we asked for their best price ($200 on sale down from over $550!) and snapped this photo before leaving to “think things over.” Ideally our new rug would come in under $150, but we know how hard that is to accomplish when you’re looking for something so big made from a cushy & natural material like wool.
With rug number one still on our minds, we hit up a slew of other stores (including TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Lowe’s, Target, and Home Depot). No dice. Everything was either too pricey for our taste, made from something synthetic like acrylic, too rough and un-cushy (remember part of the criteria was that we wanted something softer underfoot for the beanette), or just not our style. So then it was time to let our fingers do the walking. We checked out overstock.com to no avail and also took a look around CB2.com and crateandbarrel.com – just in case they had something we hadn’t seen in the C&B store. Nada. Insert sad emoticon here.
Then we remembered that we had a $100 gift card to West Elm burning a hole in our pocket, so we reasoned that if we saw a 5 x 8 rug on their site that we loved, it probably wouldn’t be as cost prohibitive after we applied our gift card towards the purchase price. And it was there that we found our next three contenders. First there was this guy, who was full of interest and just enough color to be on the fun side (much like our yellow living room rug). But unlike the plush wool rug in our living room, this guy was a bit thinner and not nearly as soft. Happily though, it would only be $129 with our $100 gift card, which really wasn’t bad for such a large area rug. It was definitely something to think about.
Next we flirted with this guy, who also scored major points in the pattern & interest category. Our only fear was that since our house has dark mocha hardwood flooring throughout, it might blend in a bit too much with the brown wood floors instead of anchoring and defining the sitting area in the den as we hoped. And this option was also not as plush and cushy as we would have liked. Although the price wouldn’t have stung too much since it would have been just $129 after our $100 credit.
Then we considered giving the rose to this plush and lovely alternative. We really liked how soft and squishy it looked, and the fact that it was made from natural and undyed wool had us at hello (doesn’t get much more pure than that). But this one was a bit more costly ($179 after our $100 gift card) and although the subtle ribs were gorgeous, it didn’t really offer as much in the personality department as the other rugs with more hue and pattern. And the last thing we wanted was to replace our texture-rich woven jute rug for something that just looked like a blah brown rectangle on the floor- no matter how soft it would be on the ol’ feet.
At this point we were feeling a bit woe-is-me about the whole rug hunt. We had visited a ton of stores (both virtually and in person) and each “finalist” that we had hand-picked still felt like it was missing one crucial personality trait (either some cush-factor or some pattern & interest to keep our neutral toned den from feeling to yawn-inducing). Then inspiration struck. I had heard that it was possible to redeem West Elm gift cards at some of their sister stores, and after some quick google research I learned that they could be redeemed at Pottery Barn and even PB Kids and PB Teen. First we flipped through the options on PB Kids and PB Teen without seeing anything that fit the bill, and then hit up big poppa: Pottery Barn.
We had already visited our local Pottery Barn in person a few days back, but we reasoned that the online store probably had a lot more than the actual brick & mortar store had on hand. And we were right. In fact, we stumbled upon an 100% wool 5 x 8 rug that was both cushy & soft underfoot and full of pattern & interest. The big floral pattern was definitely modern and fun enough for our tastes, and the colors would really work perfectly in our cream, tan and chocolate toned den scheme.
We braced ourselves for the dealbreaker as we scrolled down to look at the price. Happily, it was on clearance (yessssssss) and would only set us back 130 beans after we applied our $100 gift card. Things were looking up. And speaking of looking up, when we scrolled back up to have another peek at the might-be-it rug, we noticed the name. Are you ready for this? It was called the Clara Rug. Not kidding. So of course that pushed us over the edge. Within ten minutes we had redeemed our West Elm gift card online and paid the remaining $130 while victoriously high-fiving and gleefully explaining to Clara that we just added a rug named after her to the family.
So here’s our new favorite rug living it up by the fireplace. Oh and we sprinkled in some already-owned accessories in a soft lime hue to tie things together and add a hint of freshness without spending another dime:
We definitely wouldn’t describe our hunt as easy (things that are worthwhile rarely are!) but we’re so glad that we searched our brains out both in person and online to find the best rug for our family- one that that scored high marks for price, material, softness, color, and pattern (thanks to our insane must-have list). Are there other rugs out there that would look great in our den? Definitely. But we love that we found our sweet new Clara Rug and we couldn’t wait to share the not-always-easy process with anyone else out there who’s still waiting for the table/lamp/print/mirror/chair/bed/sofa of their dreams. Don’t despair! Just keep your chin up and look like crazy and the right thing just might find you. And since there’s more than one right thing, the odds really are with you as long as you don’t give up or settle for something that’s not exactly what you want. No matter how crazy your criteria may seem…
Psst- Wanna know more about our (admittedly very subjective) rug rules? Check out this post and this post.
Something Free + Five Lifesavers
If you’re anything like us, patience is easier said than done, so we’ll get straight to the something free. After many (many) requests, we’re happy to announce that we’ve finally created a downloadable PDF or Word Doc (click here for print-ready PDF, here for editable Microsoft Word) of our “DIY Baby Book” that we revealed in our getting-ready-for-baby post a few weeks back. Just to jog your memory, here’s how we whipped it up:
The idea was actually John’s brain child (I’m telling you, he’s the sweet sentimental one and I’m the neurotic fool who worried about ruining our sofa if my water broke). He suggested that we get a fabric covered album and create our own little baby book of sorts, with fun patterned paper and printed prompts that you see in typical baby books like “The First Week Was….” and “My First Word…” I loved the idea of adding in keepsakes like Clara’s inked footprints from the hospital along with a ton of photos, so we headed over to Michael’s (with a 40% off coupon in hand) and snagged a sweet 8.5 x 8.5″ album covered in super fun Amy Butler fabric for just $9 after my coupon.
We also picked up a pad full of 8 x 8″ patterned paper to use as a backdrop in our keepsake album (to the tune of $6). So our entire DIY baby book project ran us $15 total. And after adding all the decorative paper and leaving room for notes about momentous occasions- along with photos and other memorabilia- we were left with a pretty sweet way to document many of Clara’s firsts (a few of which we’ve already written in!):
And since we made it ourselves we had fun sprinkling in a few quirky things, like this page of “Future Predictions” where John and I guessed everything from Clara’s hair and eye color to her first word, her favorite subject in school, and even her future profession – before her arrival of course. It should be fun for the beanette to look back at all of our goofy (and most likely completely wrong) guesses someday.
Plus the fact that it looks so cute in the nursery is the icing on the cake…
So now you can download the print-ready PDF or the editable (and then print-ready) Word Doc by following the links in the first paragraph. Then you just have to grab some pretty paper and an album and you’re ready to print out our little PDF/Doc, cut each caption out, and arrange them in your new homemade memory book.
And now on to those five lifesavers that we mentioned in the title. Much like the frequent requests for a version of our DIY baby book, we received a lot of questions about what household items have come in handy since Clara came along. And although this isn’t exactly home improvement related, it definitely falls under the “what makes your house more efficient” category so we figured we’d dedicate one post to this much asked question. Although at first we wondered if we’d even have any favorite items at just three weeks into parenting, but we’re happy to say that we most definitely have a small collection of items that we ABSOLUTELY LOVE. As in probably couldn’t have lived without. So although every baby is different and every parent has varying opinions, here’s what we’re so glad that we had on hand to help us adjust to life with Clara-Clara-Bo-Bara:
1. These Aden and Anias swaddle blankets are amazing. They’re made of thin stretchy (and breathable!) muslin and they’re giant (44″ x 44″)- which makes them perfect for giving Clara that back-in-the-womb feeling. Ever since we noticed how happy she was when she was swaddled by the all-knowing nurses at the hospital, we vowed to carry on that tradition at home. Have we mentioned that we actually have to set an alarm and wake her up to feed her at night when we swaddle her before putting her to bed? Note: be sure to securely swaddle your wee one before putting him or her to sleep since loose blankets can pose a suffocation hazard- just google “how to swaddle” for some great step by step tutorials.
2. This little clutch from Skip Hop can be slipped into any large purse to make it an instant diaper bag- which appeals to a deal hunter like me. See, I’ve noticed that bags billed as “diaper bags” can be over $150 for something that looks polished, while non-diaper bags of the same quality/size can be found for a lot less. In fact I grabbed a chic oversized black bag from The Gap for $25 (on clearance!) and just slipped the Skip Hop clutch right inside. Now I always have diapers, wipes, and an extra outfit on hand – I even have a clean mat to change her on while we’re on the go. Plus I can easily drop it the clutch into other purses and bags if I feel like changing up my look without buying another official diaper bag. Oh the versatility. We actually plan to pick up another one because the changing mat part (which can be detached) is great for dropping over our changing pad in the nursery. Clara LOVES to pee when she’s being changed- seriously the girl does it 8 out of 10 times. Thankfully, the slippery waterproof material makes those little impromptu pee-fests so much easier to clean up!
3. Our next must-have Clara item is actually a super handy iPhone app that we downloaded on the day that we returned home from the hospital. We were obsessed with trying to keep track of how many diapers she was wetting and dirtying (since the docs & nurses stressed that as a great way to monitor her health and the quality of my feedings). I also kept blanking out about which side I needed to start nursing her from every few hours. Enter Baby Brain stage right. It’s just $4.99 and it keeps track of all my feedings (it even has a ticker at the top to track how long it’s been since the last one) and it also tracks wet & dirty diapers. We love that we can push a button and see everything there is to know about Clara’s day (and even compare that day to others) . Especially since products like the ItzBeen Timer are sold for around $25 and this app does pretty much the same thing for $4.99. Plus we didn’t have to acquire yet another baby gadget. Score.
4. This mouthwatering lasagna photo represents all the amazing frozen meals that were dropped off by friends & family members after returning home with our little bundle of baby. John and I joke that we’ve never eaten better. Seriously, the kindness of our loved ones has been amazing, and if you’re not sure how many relatives and friends will show up with meals as you adjust to having a wee one around we would definitely recommend making (and freezing) a few meals before delivery day, just so you have them on hand. Anything that makes things like feeding yourself a no-brainer is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit when you’re so focused on providing for your babe that you forget to eat!
5. This last gadget is totally a personal preference thing. We know some moms who scoff at the idea, but personally it’s been the reason that we sleep at least 8 hours a night (interrupted by just one feeding!) so we’re eternally grateful. Basically, it’s a monitor that detects movement in your baby as he/she sleeps- even just their chest rising and falling as they breathe. And if there aren’t any movements/breathing in 20 seconds it sets off an alarm. John and I can’t tell you how much peace of mind this gives us. Plus it allows us to sleep more soundly and not do that hover-over-her-crib-to-make-sure-she’s-breathing thing. Seriously, I haven’t done that once. It has also helped us to get her into her crib from day one (as opposed to a moses basket in our room) which has done wonders for her sleep schedule since she isn’t disturbed by us moving or the dog bounding around the bed at night. Remember, we have to actually wake her up to feed her or she’d sleep right through the night! Oh it’s also a sound monitor so we get to hear her cooing… and if she were to wake up and cry someday, we’d hear that too.
So those are the five things that have been indispensable these first few weeks. And in case it’s not obvious without this little disclaimer, none of the makers of the items mentioned above have paid us or perked us in any way to call them out here, they’re just honestly the five things that have helped us out immensely so we thought we’d share ‘em (especially since we get so many emails from new parents or parents-to-be who want our opinion). We’re honestly kind of shocked that anyone cares about what we like, but there you go!
And now, since that’s an awful lot of words up above, let’s break things up with a few photos:
We’ve decided, like many other fellow bloggers, that we’ll be documenting Clara’s growth with a series of weekly photos. And we came up with the idea of using a white onesie (along with some Photoshop magic to add the week) and a colorful swatch of fabric for the background. We already had some great textiles laying around, but we also look forward to hunting down some cheap remnants to keep the project going (and using baby blankets and even our bedroom duvet if we ever get desperate). In fact the last photo was taken with Clara laying on the fun pillowcases I got for the hospital (mentioned in this post). By Clara’s first birthday we’ll have 52 weekly photos showing how much she’s changed on a slew of punchy graphic backgrounds to compile in a photo book (you know, one of those Snapfish or Kodak Gallery ones?). Should be fun. Oh and we’ll be adding all of our weekly beanette photos to this album in Flickr, just in case you’d like to follow along…
But back to the subject of those five favorite lifesavers, we’d love to hear your top five can’t-live-without-’em baby picks. And if you’re not packing the parental card in your wallet just yet, we’re definitely interested in hearing the five must-have items that make your life easier. What’s frying your bacon these days?
Psst- Some of the links included above are Amazon Affiliate links.
Office Progress: Sleeping With Space To Spare
After recently revealing that John would be coming on as a full time blogger here on the home front (and mentioning that we had a full scale guest bedroom to office-slash-guest-bedroom-slash-playroom makeover in the cards) we’re back to spill more details about that space’s big switcheroo. First we’ll take a look back – waaaaay back – at what the room looked like when we moved in.
It was actually a pretty blank slate to begin with, so replacing the ceiling fan with a flush mount fixture (like this- basic and cheap, but still an improvement) seemed to raise the ceiling about a foot. Then we just painted the walls a neutral tone, added some crown molding, stained the floor a richer mocha color (which we also did to the rest of the existing hardwoods), switched out the valances for some clean-lined (and super cheap) roman shades from Ikea, and brought in a hand-me-down bed from a family member with some fun linens and a DIY headboard that we whipped up. Even the wall art was made on a budget.
We loved our little guest bedroom and it served us well for years. In fact we were pretty sad when we realized that we’d have to make some major changes to the room when it came to accommodating an office for two along with a spot for a wee one to play without losing the can-sleep-two-people function that it always provided. Being use-what-we-have kind of people, our first thought was that maybe we could reposition the bed against two walls to create a daybed type feeling and free up some floor space. So we rotated it into the corner and came up with the idea to upholster another headboard panel (which we drew in thanks to Photoshop below, see the arrow?) to demonstrate the idea:
And remember the rug we snagged on super clearance from the Pottery Barn Outlet for $300 off a while back (with every intention of working it into the guest bedroom for some added softness)?
Well, we laid it out under the bed in an attempt to further ground that daybed/sleeping corner of the room. Burger seemed to like it (ten points if you find him), but we weren’t convinced.
The problem? The full sized bed still took up a huge portion of the extremely small 10′ x 10.5′ room… leaving Clara zero floor space to play on while one or both of us worked (and speaking of working, we really had no clue how we’d fit two desk spaces into this plan as it was). So we decided that we had to pull the plug on the full sized bed and come up with an alternate sleeping solution for our guests (preferably one that could be tucked away or minimized during the rest of our time in that room so it could more easily accommodate two bloggers and a baby most of the time.
Which meant that it was time to hit up Craigslist to see who would cough up $60 for our full sized bed frame and hand-me-down Sealy mattress & boxspring. The craziest thing was that by the time we had the bed disassembled we already had a buyer in route to our house! And within two hours of listing our bed we’d sold it (for our full $60 asking price). Pretty sweet, eh? Here’s the mattress waiting for pick-up in the nursery.
And you can tell this part of the makeover actually occurred a while back because there’s no skirt on the crib and the nursery art wall hasn’t been altered yet. We just like to do one project at a time, so after taking a quick nursery hiatus to sell the mattress we were back on baby-room duty while the office waited its turn.
Oh and because we know that you guys like seeing our house all torn up, here’s the master bedroom with our guest bedroom linens piled high on the bed while we waited for our new Craigslist friend to come cart the bed away. Burger seems to sneak into every bed photo that he can, doesn’t he?
So anyway, once the ol’ full sized bed was sold and the rest of the things in the space were cleared out, we were actually able to give the green bench and the bedside table that used to live in the guest bedroom a second life in the nursery (we love repurposing everything that we can so that was a thrill and a half for us).
And we were left with a blissfully bare space to analyze every which way…
… to see how we could possibly squeeze a double office and a play area for Clara-Bean into the 10′ x 10.5′ room (along with maintaining the can-sleep-two function that we’d grown so accustomed to over the years).
First we seriously considered a murphy bed. You know, those fold-out-from-the-wall options that we’ve seen popping up all over the place lately. The downside was that many traditional murphy beds were not only extremely pricey, but the layout of the room wouldn’t accommodate the fold-up function since two walls had windows which would have been obscured when the bed was folded up (not a good idea in such a small space since we need all the light we can get). And the other two walls wouldn’t work thanks to the doorway into the room and a closet that we needed to maintain access to. Even if the layout could have accommodated a murphy bed, the one thing we didn’t like about it was the fact that when it was tucked up and away it didn’t provide a place to sit (which we knew would come in handy for everything from nursing to relaxing with Baby P while the other 50% of YHL blogs away at their desk). So we wondered if we could bring in a piece that would provide functional seating space all the time, just with a much smaller footprint when it wasn’t serving as a full sized bed. Yup, we’re talking about a sleeper sofa.
But we had some serious reservations about how comfy a sleeper would really be for our guests. Almost everyone has had the ol’ rollbar-dented-back experience when crashing on an archaic sleeper sofa, and we definitely want our visitors to be 100% comfy (as opposed to stiff and sore in the am). But we’ve actually slept on some just-as-comfortable-as-a-normal-bed sleeper sofas on occasion, so we knew that if we didn’t skimp on the quality we could probably find something that would meet our needs when it came to providing some nice seating by day and sleeping by night when it was all folded out and fluffed up with linens and pillows. So our next step was to do some internet trolling to see what was out there online- just to test the waters. Here’s what we dug up:
1. This $689 Target option
2. This $899 Ikea option
3. This $1400 Crate & Barrel option
But the issue that we had with online options were that we couldn’t really lay on them to see how they felt with the mattress all folded out. And of course the $1400 Crate and Barrel option (which we could check out in stores for comfort-factor) was a bit more than we were hoping to spend. Heck the $899 Ikea version felt expensive to two cheap-os like us. And blindly ordering the $689 option (which was only available online and not something we could experience for ourselves to ensure that it was soft and easy to sleep on) felt a bit too risky to super cautious sofa-sissies like us. Besides, that honey wood was a bit too futon-ish for us, so the fact that we’d have to paint it or somehow make it over after paying full price and not being able to try it out felt like a bit much. And we decided we preferred upholstered arms for the higher end look and for the comfort factor when it’s being used as a sofa (for nursing, reading stories to Clara, etc).
So after exhausting our online sleeper sofa search, we decided to hit up our favorite local furniture dealer where we could actually fold out the sleeper sofas and take them for a spin instead of blindly ordering them and hoping for the best. Sofa Design is actually where we got our beloved living room sofa (read how we saved $400 more than our Pottery Barn couch right here) and when we pulled into the parking lot to be greeted by a Floor Clearance Sample sign we couldn’t help but get all hyper and excited that we might just find the deal we were hoping for…
JACKPOT! We scored a full sized sleeper sofa made by Rowe (one of our favorite sofa manufacturers, in fact they made our aforementioned living room sofa) for just $699- thanks to the fact that it was a floor model. So it was just ten dollars steeper than the futon-ish Target version but a lot more plush and posh looking (and feeling! there’s even a comfort guarantee that you can’t feel the bar under the mattress unless you’re over 350 lbs). Like nerds we totally pulled it out in the store and laid on it for a while as we thanked our lucky stars and then popped up to sign on the dotted line. And although we’re usually neutral-sofa-people, we actually really like the subtle blue-green color of the cushions since they work pretty seamlessly with the rest of our whole-house color palette while injecting some fun (and stain hiding durability) into our future office/guest room/playroom.
We placed it right under the higher window which really opened up the room and allowed so much more of our lovely Pottery Barn rug to be seen.
And you know what that means: waaaaay more floor space to accommodate a desk or two along with plenty of Baby P play area to spare.
But that’s just the beginning of our multifunctional office transformation. Stay tuned as we tackle more floor-plan maximization, paperwork and file storage, desks and chairs for two, art and accessories, toy storage, and even a new DIY light fixture makeover. Whew. And feel free to tell us all about any sleeper sofa or murphy bed victories that you guys have experienced. Have you built your own pull down bed? Or stumbled upon a super comfortable sleeper sofa on sale? Spill the beans.
Nursery Progress: A Serious Shopping Blitz
You all remember where we left off when it comes to the big nursery makeover, right? We painted the walls a nice pear color and added a splash of light aqua to the ceiling:
Well… then it was time to go shopping. And not just any kind of shopping. Seriously determined we-have-a-goal-and-we’ll-make-fifty-stops-if-we-have-to shopping. And that goal was a lofty one. We set out on a Saturday morning with the hope of hunting down five distinct items for the recently painted nursery by that very evening:
- Some sort of light fixture, either a big fun patterned pendant lamp or some sort of playful and sweet chandelier
- A plush 5 x 8′ 100% wool rug (without any rubber backing or synthetic materials since we’re trying to keep the nursery as VOC-free as possible)
- Tons and tons of fabric to create three curtain panels (two for the window and one for the now-doorless nursery closet)
- A simple clean-lined curtain rod to hang the aforementioned window panels once they’re made
- A vibrant mirror that will hang across from the window to reflect light around the room, thereby brightening the space)
That’s a pretty specific list, eh? We didn’t even really think it was possible, but we do our best under pressure so we listed all the items that we wanted out loud a few times- just so we had something to strive for. And what do you know… we actually returned home with every single item on our list! Sure it took us almost seven hours of driving around and ducking into nearly eight stores, but we got ‘er done. Plus we did this all on the same morning that we picked up our nursery paint. Yeah, we weren’t kidding when we said it was a serious shopping blitz. Here’s what our back seat looked like after a long (did I mention long?) day of shopping:
We’re actually approaching the transformation of this room just as we did all the other rooms in our house except for the recent basement and full bathroom makeover that we shared. In those instances we whipped up a mood board of sorts beforehand (check out the bathroom one here and the basement one here). But when it came to every other room here at Casa Petersik, we decorated in stages and took a let’s-see-what-we-find-and-go-from-there approach. The funny thing is that both methods are pretty parallel when you think about it.
Making a mood board usually involves us finding an item that we love and drawing inspiration from that single item’s style and/or color (be it a rug or a pillow or even a drawer pull) and building a room around it. So when we whip up mood boards we might start with a graphic patterned rug which leads us to other furnishings and accessories that seem to complement and play up all the things that we liked about the initial piece that started the whole board. Similarly, when we shop around and take a less pre-planned mood-board-ish approach, we usually still find something that gets us thinking in a certain direction, and from there we find other items that complement that initial item. There’s just more of an open plan with the second approach, since it’s not like we hop online and order everything in one fell swoop. Instead we sort of let things happen organically and do some fun pavement pounding over the course of a few weeks (or even months and -gasp- years) to create a room that we love in the end. Of course with a baby girl coming along in less than four months we don’t really have years to devote to this room, but we definitely don’t have to finish it within a week or two either.
So on this particular Saturday we didn’t have any pre-planned mood board to follow, we just had our cheerful pear and aqua walls as a starting point of sorts (tip: always bring your paint chips with you when you shop, so you can hold them up and see how they “play” with new items that you’re eying). The first stop was a local discount fabric store here in Richmond called The Interior Outlet. The first bolt of playful and graphic pattern to catch our eye was this print with a richer and brighter version of both our pear wall color (seen in the flowers) and our light aqua ceiling color (seen in the leaves). But although we liked the bold design, we wondered if there was something a bit less über modern and a smidge more modern-meets-traditional (since we envisioned clean lines and punchy patterns in the room without much stark white- and with a bit more of a charming lived-in look).
And then we saw this beauty. As Carrie on Sex & The City would say: well hello, lover. It really was love at first sight. Everything from the slightly deeper aqua background to the modern yet charming print felt warm and sweet and perfect for our little beanette. Plus when we held up our paint swatches they felt like they would seamlessly create the perfect backdrop for our new favorite fabric in the world. The other amazingly fortuitous thing about this particular fabric is that it’s actually an indoor/outdoor textile made by P Kaufmann/Waverly (which still feels soft and billowy to the touch, but is not only fade resistant but dirt, water, and wear resistant). Um, could it be more perfect for a little girl’s room?
And the $14.99 a yard price was nowhere near where most designer fabrics usually range, but it wasn’t exactly $2 a yard either. Especially because we needed tons of it to make two floor-to-ceiling window curtains plus a third curtain to use in lieu of a closet door. But when we did the math and deduced that each of the three panels that we needed would be around $35 a pop (plus we’d have a few feet of extra fabric to play with when it was all said and done) we decided to make our move. After all, the rest of our home’s breezy white curtains were just $7 each (thanks Ikea!) so we reasoned that splurging just this once for our baby girl was ok- especially because we’re pretty sure these babies will MAKE the room. Well, along with the other baby of course.
Plus we found the perfect clean-lined oil-rubbed bronze curtain rod with little ring hooks (won’t they look so posh for a bambino?) on clearance at Target for a total of $12 (for two packs of rings and the rod!). So we felt further vindicated that our custom made curtains would be well worth it in the end. Spoiler alert: we’ve since made them and they nearly made me cry with joy when we hung them up. Yeah they’re that good (stay tuned for that post early next week).
But back to our Saturday shopping spree. Here I am standing in front of the fabric store proudly showing off our new fabric and my baby bump. Side note: everyone, including fabric vendors, is nicer to you when you’re pregnant. No, we didn’t get a discount or anything but they were all smiles and treated me like a preferred customer. I could get used to this…
Ok, but back to the search. We checked off fabric and a rod but still had three more boxes to tick off: overhead lighting, a rug, and a mirror. So we headed over to a store that we knew could potentially kill at least two birds with one stone (that expression is kind of gross when you think about it). It’s called The Decorating Outlet, and it’s actually a local shop that we hit up from time to time- just to see what they have. And what do you know… they had THE PERFECT CHANDELIER. Everyone knows that I’m a sucker for capiz, and this capiz shell chandelier was aqua! Hello? Can you picture the happy dance that ensued (complete with some belly-holding to make sure not to jostle the beanette more than necessary)?
Yeah, it was kind of epic. And the great thing is that the nursery is actually visible from the master bedroom (and vice versa, they’re right across the hall from each other) so we love that this longer and punchier capiz chandy in the nursery will be visible from the master bedroom which boasts a wider and more subdued white version. It’s like they’re related but not too matchy-matchy. Almost like our master bedroom chandelier had a sweet playful little baby and we adopted it for the nursery across the hall. And I haven’t even told you the best part yet. It was marked down from $125 to $50. Sold!
Here’s a sneak peek of it hanging up with our lighter aqua ceiling and the fun pear wall in the background. We love the texture and the sort of childlike magic that it brings to the space. And we mentioned that it was longer than the one in the bedroom, right? In fact we feared that we might have to snip a few discs off the bottom since John’s a tall guy and we didn’t want him walking into it, but it’s perfect as is! Long and dramatic but totally walk-under-able. Whew.
But the party didn’t stop there. We knew the lighting outlet also had rugs, and thanks to an “end-of-season-clear-out” (which may or may not go on all year round- you know how those signs act like something is special but sometimes it’s always in effect?) all of their in-stock rugs were 50-75% off! As we mentioned we really wanted an 100% wool rug (without any rubber backing or synthetic materials since we’re trying to keep the nursery as VOC-free as possible) and they had a bunch on hand for us to choose from.
Unfortunately many of them had a bit of fun pattern, which was nice but we knew that we wanted our patterned curtains to be the star so we pulled out rug after rug in search of something simple, plush, 100% wool, and not three hundred dollars (even with the 50%- 75% off sale, many rugs were originally $800+ so they were still far beyond our budget). Then we saw a light blue 5 x 8 100% wool rug that was nice and cushy (and swanky- it was actually hand knotted). Our plush light blue find wasn’t exactly as aqua as the ceiling, but it was a soft powder blue and it was marked down from $399 to $99. Uh, yes please! We decided to buy it and see how it looked and if it was a bit too cool (and not aqua-ish enough to work with the ceiling, the chandy, and the curtains) we’d just bring it back. Thank goodness we snagged it because when we got home and put everything into the space it totally worked. And we actually remarked that we were happy it wasn’t light aqua like the ceiling since the more subdued gray undertone will definitely hide a lot more dirt and create some nice layered interest in the room. Score.
Then it was time to mirror hunt so we swung through TJ Maxx and then Marshall’s (which are pretty much our mirror holy grails, along with Home Goods) where we spotted this large and in charge stunner for… wait for it… $39. That’s pretty much unheard of for such a giant and detailed 30″ solid wood mirror. And of course we don’t plan to keep it black so you’ll just have to wait and see what color we’re going to paint it. Hint: it’s not going to be white- I know, we’re just shocking you left and right today.
So that’s how we hit up a slew of stores over the course of about seven hours and returned with a car full of stuff (poor Burger really had to pee by the time we got home to rescue him). We must admit that our shopping trips aren’t usually this fruitful, we just happened to be at the right places at the right time and did our best to see the promise in things that might not always look exactly right for a baby girl’s room (like the dramatic black mirror above). Oh and we devoted seven hours to the cause. Did we mention it was a long day of shopping? Because it was.
It’s also pretty cool that about 70% of our finds hailed from small local businesses (not only did we get our paint from a green boutique here in Richmond, but the rug, chandelier, and fabric all came from local outlets that we found either by driving by them or looking them up in the Yellow Pages. The lesson: don’t forget to check out specialty stores in your area, do some googling, and even ask the neighbors for suggestions when you’re on the hunt for something that you can’t seem to find at Target or Marshall’s. Of course two of our items (the curtain rod and the mirror) came from those big box stores so it really is a pretty balanced bounty. It just goes to show you that you never know where you’ll find your next deal, but if you keep an eye out and set out with a serious mission you just might come home with a packed car and a whittled down to-do list. Now we just need furniture, art, and storage galore…
But what about you guys? Do you have any favorite local haunts where you always score something special? Any big box stores that leave you giddy over the big box deals that they dole your way? Let’s talk about that serendipitous feeling of finding the right thing for the right price. There’s got to be at least one thing in your house that you can’t believe you snagged for such a steal.
Psst- Wanna see the nursery transformation from the very beginning? Here’s our first post about clearing the room and here’s our second one about painting the walls and ceiling.
