Curtain Shuffle

I was anxious to get some curtains up in our main living space almost as soon as we moved in. It would give the appearance of being finished and "grown-up",I rationalized, even if it wasn't!

We inherited all the window trimmings from our homes previous owners. Here is a shot of our waaay BEFORE living room view...


Although we knew the hand-made, pull-cord curtains wouldn't make the cut, Spencer wanted to salvage the existing curtain rod if possible. I picked up these long, white satin panels at Super Linens for $12 a pop. It was too simple. The rod was also too big and made pulling the curtains open and shut with ease an impossibility. Plus, I couldn't help think that the tie back look was more "country living" than the "modern comfort" look I was hoping for...


So I moved those pearly whites into the master bedroom and hung 'em high and wide to make our corner windows look more...awesome.


So back to the drawing board. Erna had given me the heads up that Wal-mart had a nice and affordable curtain selection. After about 45minutes of going back and forth on my opinion, I settled on 2 french blue satin floor panels from Better Homes and Gardens and 4 beige textured sheer panels. I also nabbed up-not one, BUT TWO new curtain rods for the LR. One no-fuss, no-see for the sheer panels and another decorative rod for the Lined blue curtains. TK came over to help us install, and while relived to get them off the back off the couch...I was less than impressed.


The beige just seemed dirty, or washed out. I packed 'em up and trucked it back to WM the next day (gotta love a no questions return policy!) I bought the same sheers in a pure white. Third times a charm, because this combo certainly charmed me enough to pronounce this project DONE!


We have a few more things to hang in the Living/Dining space (and thanks to TK, another turn of touch up painting-more on that later) before I'm ready to turn my focus on to the master bedroom and bathroom...

Scratch me, dent me, just please don't pay full price

If you are paying full retail price for something you are either
1.) Rich enough you just don't care (mafia)
2.) Lazy
3.) Unaware of the big, beautiful world of discounted goods in the world!

I pretty much never pay full price for anything. I scour thrift stores and flea markets. I walk straight back to the sale aisles in every store and I am not too good for some good ole, darn the little guy Wal-mart speed shopping.

The day we moved in we knew we were missing some things. Some we wanted ASAP (like a dining room table), others could wait(like guest bedroom furniture). After hours of back n forth moving we headed over to Gardiner's Furniture to look for some must-halves. Now, Gardiner's is in no way a discount store. They have high end furniture and accessories with an occasional "Buy 7 things at once and we'll throw in a magazine rack" sale now and then.

We walked in. Said hello politely in our paint covered rags and headed straight to the basement. Past the cushy sectionals and the clearance aisle. We didn't even look around us until we were in the chilly warehouse by the loading dock. Scratch and dent.

It's where furniture comes to die. Something beautiful and expensive got hurt on the way in. Or wobbles a little, or their matching nightstand brother got sent to Laos by accident. It is a GREAT place to scour deals. I'm not saying it's smart to spend ANY amount of money on something that is busted...but if you can live with a little scratch...you can make out like a bandit. Plus, it takes the pressure off YOU being the first to tarnish it's beautiful and pricy exterior.


Our first and most exciting (for me) find was this coffee table. I was looking for a rectangular table with a glass top and shelf. I had found one at Ikea I liked but they had stopped making. Their new substitute was wrought iron, which I thought would be too cold feeling and outdoorsy. I laid eyes on this baby and immediately slapped it with a red "MINE" tag. Originally $650...marked down to $250...some haggle action with the manager and we paid....wait for it...$100!!! (what was wrong with it? it's matching side table was badly damaged. this baby was perfect!)

Next up was a dining room table. Our DR is a little small (about 10x9) so we needed something that could shrink and expand to accommodate our guest list.

This 2 tone chestnut/black wood oval piece fit the bill. It had a scratch on the surface (which Gardiner's buffed out for us) and a small piece of wood was missing from UNDER the table. Without chairs it was marked down from $875 to $300. We found SIX!!! well matching chairs (their matching table had gone missing during shipment) and negotiated a group sales price of $300. FREE STUFF!

Finally we needed a place to rest our little heads. We had a bed, but it was tight with the 2 or us and lumpy so we were looking for a reason to upgrade. We spotted a returned King mattress for $300. 2 box springs, one frame and some negotiating landed us the whole kitten caboodle for $300. And Damn. King sized beds are flippin' awesome. Just ask Lily. She hardly ever gets kicked out now.


So, get out there and hunt. Gardiner's gets new scratch n dent deliveries every Wednesday...I know we'll be back!

*nice long post for you Ms. LuAnn!