Spilling on my Splurge

As you know on Friday we had to make a trip out to San Antonio for visa stuff. It's quite a trip to get out there, and well... I wanted to make the most of it, so when we drove past signs declaring the San Marcos Premium outlet stores along the way I begged P to make a pit stop on our way back.

You see, I had secret insider knowledge on the San Marcos outlets... unlike our local Round Rock Premium Outlets - severely lacking in home decor stores - the one in San Marcos had not only Pottery Barn/Williams Sonoma outlet, but also Restoration Hardware AND Crate and Barrel SCORE!!

Of course, given our commitment to saving money and get our debt paid off by August the plan was merely to window shop, and return when the debt was behind us.... but y'all know me better than that!

By the time we got there it was already late in the day and we were hot, sweaty and irritated, so we decided to pick just one store and spend "a little money" as P likes to say.

I ran into Pottery Barn as fast as my legs would carry me. After reading about Katie's fab finds at her local PBO I was certain that here I would get the most bang for my buck.

I must say, I was pretty disappointed. The incredible deals that Katie finds regularly, $16 lamps, $7 placemats were nowhere to be seen. Instead, it looked just like a regular store, only the prices were moderately lower and the selection smaller.

(still need to remove tag from rug. Whoops!)

Determined to find a bargain I headed to shelves with bright red placards announcing 30% + discounts. And that is where I found these little beauties for $6 and $7 respectively.

(Please ignore ugly center piece, it doesn't work.)

I also found this cute table runner (at last the perfect length for our 6 ft table) for just $12 beans. And finally snagged the perfect father's day gift for my father in law from the Williams Sonoma section of the store.

It seems I need to spend more time figuring the place out and learning where to look for the excellent deals Katie Bower finds. But I am up for the challenge and am looking forward to our next trip out there... It's good to have a reason to look forward to a visit to your local immigration office for once! Honestly, I could have easily walked out of that store having spent A LOT more than the $30 I did.

OK. SO you're thinking... GEEZ Ros, $30 does not blown budget make! Ahhh, but there's more...

So on Sunday I was cruising my fave online stores, trying to distract myself from the idea of work the next day, when I decided to take another peek at JCPenney. Now, all in all, JCP is totally not our style and I rarely see anything there that even remotely interests me, but like I said, I was bored and in need of distraction.

As usual, I headed first to the clearance section and that's when I saw these! Yep, that's right, less 50%! After a quick Google of the phrase "JC Penney Coupon" revealed a further 15% discount available for the month of May these were in my cart quicker than Grease Lightning.



Grand total spent on 3 blinds for living room windows: $82
Grand total savings on 3 blinds: $92

Husbands comments? "Are you kidding? It would have cost you more NOT to buy them!" God bless him! :)

So, the blinds are the perfect color to go in the living room and were the perfect price.

Curtains were next on my to-do list, but the ones I wanted from Ikea are $30/pair so those will remain on the list until after my birthday as we renew our commitment to saving... PSYCHE!



Yesterday I receive my weekly Ikea sale email and lo and behold, but are the very same curtains I wanted for the living room not marked down to $9.99 per pair?!?!?! This is a-freeking-mazing! I am NEVER this lucky. I think the big man upstairs is watching over me.

Throw in the free Ikea breakfast and we're there with bells on, (right after we acquaint ourselves with a local church of course. We've much to be thankful for this week!)

Now on to the important question... I need your opinions... grey, white, chocolate or beige?
Remembering that we (currently) have a grey/brown sectional sofa, white accents and will have a combination of blue/grey and brownish paint on the walls. Here's the "color story" again to refresh your memories.... (Gah! I still love that phrase)

Paint

Shades
Table (must still update you on the "finished" look)

I created a poll on the right side -------> I need help!

Yellow?

Is it just me, or do y'all think that this area needs yellow accents? I've seen so much yellow around lately, and I love it, but just can't figure out how it will work with my taste AND I am sure that yellow is just a passing fad so I refuse to spend a fortune on anything yellow... but seeing those bananas in the green bowl on the table made me think... wouldn't a great wire, or otherwise sculptural bowl in a bright glossy yellow look sublime on that table? Or maybe a grouping of yellow candlesticks or something...

Gah! Not sure how that will work the the paint color on the opposite wall though...

This is the "color story" I am playing with... (Don't you love that phrase?)
Do you think yellow in place of the River Bank would look totally out of place in a room edged by Spanish Galleon? Any suggestions as to how I can change things out to suit? (Remembering that the dining area and living area are in one big space together, and my couch is a dark chocolate color (that really looks like a chocolate grey if such a color exists...)

A Bar in the Desert

You know, I find decor blogs sooo inspiring. Lately I've spent WAY too many hours reading through archives of some of my favorites and I've picked up so many great ideas. Also, my Domino Decor book has been incredibly helpful. (TOTALLY love that book, just wish the free year's subscription to the magazine could actually still be honored. :( )

Anyway... we have this odd little corner in the living room. It's sort of in no mans land between the couch and the dining area, but has a prime spot next to the window. I've been wanting to do something with this area, other than plonking a lamp there where it is neither attractive nor necessary. I have admired Katie's bar nook over on BowerPower blog and tucked it away in the revolving to-do list that has taken over my brain. Then I stumbled upon this cute, keyoot idea in the Domino Book and put two and two together. (Bar tray on pg 69 for those of you who own the book).

{photography by Deborah Jaffe for domino}

We happened to be in Pier 1 yesterday for some placemats that I needed for another project -- pictures soon -- when I came across this beautiful little tray and eureka, a plan was hatched. (See those little birds? I am totally bird obsessed lately and don't care if they're passe')


Last night I grabbed one of our TV tables (previously used as guest room nightstands), plonked my little tray on top and grabbed everything I could find that was remotely bar themed. Yes, it's sparse. Yes, we only have one bottle of rum (Yeugh!). No, we still don't drink alochol. But I feel like this once awkward little corner now has a purpose, albeit one rarely used by us.

I've never been a big fan of formal living rooms that are only used for special ocassions and rare guests, and I realize that the bar is just a smaller version of a formal living room for our lifestyle. But I figure what the hell, the corner makes sense now and bridges the gap between the living space and dining space and best of all it's pretty, so there! haha

I love it so much I am almost tempted to crack open a bottle of wine or something just looking at it!

Weekend Project Update!

It's Sunday and finally time to show you the finished coffee table!! I am soooo happy with how this turned out I could seriously cry... I am not kidding.

Here we have the table sans glass in our crappy patio area (yes, I know it's a sty... we're working on it!)



I sanded the whole table lightly to smooth rough spots and create a "key" for the primer and paint to stick to.

Here she is all primed... it was about this time that I posted my feelings about the lattice work and how I hope to never have to deal with it again.

This was the first coat. Don't you love that gorgeous shade of grey/blue? It's Amphibian by Behr. I chose it on a total whim when the Home Depot paint lady looked at me askew after I requested Behr's Dense Shrub... She handed me the paint deck and told me to take it outside to get a better idea of the color in natural light. I am SO glad she did, or I wouldn't have found this gorgeous color!


After 2 coats of Poly, here is the finished product in the living room. I've not set up any table scape as yet.... Want to be totally sure that the Poly has dried before I go setting anything up. The last thing I want is to have things stuck to the surface.


So there you have it! My beautiful $15 coffee table rehab totalling just under $30 all told. Best of all, this color has inspired the whole living/dining color concept. More about that later. For now, behold the beauty....

P.S. Any of you veteran Craigslist furniture rehabbers ever tempted to send a picture of the refinished article to the person you bought it from in the first place? I am sure he thought we were some scrubs buying his beat up old $15 table... little does he know, it looks better now than it did when it was new.

What do you think? Did I make a good choice on the grey? Would you have done the lattice differently? I have some other ideas for ways to fix it, but I am going to live with it like this for a while and see how I like it before I go about changing.

ETA: I forgot to add the final, final pic complete with placemats to distract from the lattice.

New Rugs -- Squeeeeeee!!

I want to give a big shout out to Heather of at home with H for sharing the wealth today. I recently saw this post on Baltimore Rowhouse and lusted after their gorgeous dining area rug because it worked so well between the white chairs and dark wood table which is exactly what we're dealing with. If you read this post you will see that they paid the unbelievably low price of $123 from rugsusa.com - TOTAL steal right?

So I rushed on over to rugsusa.com only to find that this rug was no longer available. This morning in Heather's post about some great Urban Outfitter finds I nearly wet my pants with excitement to find an almost identical gorgeous rug available for just $39.95... you read that right!!


While I was there I picked up a gorgeous grey chenile rug for the living area at $49. Not 100% sure it will work, but for $50 it's worth trying! Otherwise it might end up in the guest room which could use a calming influence color wise.

LOVE me a bargain on a Friday! W00t!

Color Me Bad

Still playing around with ideas for the table. But Lu came up with the genius idea of possibly painting it charcoal grey to help bridge the gap between modern and traditional by giving the traditional table, more of a modern "edge".

I think I really like this idea... but now I am torn on which exact shade of charcoal grey. (You had to know this was coming).

I think that Lu meant something along the lines of this little fella's coloring.

But a quick squizz in the Behr.com paint lab I discovered this little paint chip:
What do you think of the last two? I think that Evergreen Bough (bottom) might be too green. But Dense Shrub could do the trick.

Or should I just stay with the regular dark grey color of the Behr bear?

I shot an email off to that master of makeovers Kate from CentsationalGirl.com to get her advice on color. Will let you know what she thinks!

Craigslist Treasure Hunting

Look what is on it's way home right this minute?

Ok. I know what you're thinking... You're thinking, "WHAT are you thinking?" Am I right?

Ok, hear me out!!

This classic lined, beveled be-glassed beauty was only $15 and I have big plans for her future. We need a new coffee table. I had a few in mind, but they were all too cold and modern for our taste. Now, I know, we have the uber modern sectional couch that we love... but that doesn't mean we can't play a little mix and match does it? The "vision" for the living room is evolving every day and we want something more classic, and perhaps traditional than what we are working with now. My plan is to go with the flow and buy what I find beautiful and edit when we're done. If that means we lose the couch then we will cross that bridge when we get there. For now though,
I think we can make it all work together.

Stay tuned for the mind blowing (I hope) after pics of the table next week.

P.S. Please know that the above pic was taken from the Craigslist listing and is NOT our living room. kthxbai

ETA: Holy Cow!! Table is here and it's GORG! The bottom shelf has woven wicker/rattan-ie stuff on it. Totally chic! Love it! There are some scratches and spots of discoloration, but nothing that some paint or stain couldn't solve. Wouldn't you know it... a quick scan of Craigslist this evening uncovered this little beauty: http://austin.craigslist.org/fuo/1144900821.html I think I like this version more than the one we got!!! Oh well...

Now, my question for you is... white paint or chocolate stain?



In the light of the evening the wood appears darker, and I have to say that I do really like the look of it, but I need to remember that we're going to have lot's of white pieces around the room (living/dining) and I want to keep the balance. Honestly, I think that the lattice work would look much better in chocolate stain than white paint. What say you?