After an exhausting yet thrilling weekend, Monday morning has found me slightly sluggish yet in a much happier place than did Friday. The much anticipated Harry Potter premiere left me feeling depressed the following day. Not even the prospect of furniture shopping over the weekend could lift my spirits, although I awoke on Saturday a totally new person.
In fewer than 3 weeks, I will be schlepping a boat load of furniture up to Gainesville for my first ever move into an unfurnished apartment. I have spent countless hours searching the internet for inspiration and steals with which to furnish the new place. Unfortunately, all of my “inspiration” is far from a steal. What can I say, I have expensive taste.
Anyone who has spent even 10 minutes with me in the past 3 months knows how much I’ve put into making this new condo a place I’ll be proud of. Mom and I have visited almost every furniture store in the Bay area looking for “just the thing” to make it a place to call home. Because this past weekend was the last I can spend in Tampa this summer, we worked really hard to cram all our shopping into a mere two days. Needless to say, that wasn’t possible. But we did manage to knock a few “biggies” out of the way without sacrificing style or budget.
My advice for the wallet conscious when it comes to designing a place you’ll want to show off- pick your battles! Everyone has a “hot button”. Don’t compromise on the one or two things that really make you happy just to save a buck. For example, I love light blue and coral pink together. For months now, mom and I have searched and searched for inexpensive bedding with these colors. We would find a coral bed skirt here and a light blue throw there, but when you put it all together, it would have simply looked like, well to put it bluntly, like shit. Finally we found our “just the thing” we had been looking for! But at a price… So what did we do? We splurged a bit and bought the duvet and shams, but kept it at that. With our 20% off coupon at BB&B, it was totally affordable. Now had we purchased every little throw pillow in the set, we would have spent a small fortune, but we managed to walk out of there feeling great about spending and styling my new room! Not to mention, I think it’s better to only buy a few items from a set to avoid the whole bed-in-a-bag look.
To go along with the new bedding, I obviously needed a bed. I decided to go with an upholstered headboard in off-white twill from Ballard Designs (pictured below). This will be a timeless piece I can use for years to come.
The remainder of our bedroom/bathroom hunting included a shower curtain to match the duvet and a vintage looking nightstand. I’m in the process of collecting some mix-matched frames to adorn the wall around my bed to give it a more thrown-together feel. Since I already own a great dresser, all I need to do for that is find some fun knobs that match those on the nightstand to tie it all together nicely!
I’ll save the living room chatter for another day considering we haven’t actually purchased the couch yet!
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