Wednesday, July 6, 2011

my dining room, take 2

We plan to stay in this house for two years, maybe three, then buy our own house. This house is temporary.  This is not my forever house.  I'm trying to spend money with that in mind--what I would do if this were MY house is not always the same as what I might do for this rental.

So, my first moodboard (haha, see the foreshadowing here?) for the dining room looked like this:


When I viewed the house the first time, it had this lovely, simple colonial-style chandelier in brass (see #3 on the moodboard). It didn't look very contemporary; in fact it looked as if it had been in the house since 1979.  I assumed it came with the house.

On moving day, we found this beauty installed in the dining room, and she's missing two glass panels:

Ugh.

So that's out of the moodboard.  While I consider this skank chandelier hideously ugly, I am reluctant to a) buy another chandelier and b) pay someone to install it and c) pay someone to reinstall the skank chandelier when we leave.  I might someday; it may bother me so much down the road that I absolutely must change it....but that day is not today.

I am still looking for a nice china cabinet to refinish, but I'm also rethinking my choice of curtains.  While I LOVE the Richloom Lucy Eden fabric, its $19 a yard, and I need six panels, so that makes the curtains a significant investment. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm looking for curtains that are less than $35 per panel, ready made, with a large scale floral.

 I'm contemplating just getting some of the Ikea Stockholm Blad curtains in green. I already have two of them, they still go with the majority of the board, and I like them well enough that I will definitely reuse them down the line.
The other possibility is the Tree of Life panel from World Market.  Its large scale floral, the pinks and blues and green would play well with the living room....but I'm sort of put off by the split pea soup-colored  background.  I really wish I could go see these in person, but the nearest World Market is about 300 miles from here.

On the other hand, if I amortize the cost of the curtains I love over two years, they are pennies per day! And I've tried to stop buying stuff that I "like" but don't "love".  I'm trying to buy only things that I really WANT, not junky stuff to fill the space. (I'm having a really difficult time picking curtains for my master bedroom based on this principle, too.)

I think I may have just talked myself into getting the expensive ones.

5 comments:

  1. I think you can always reuse fabric that you like, and I love that they are unique, and don't scream IKEA. Go for the expensive ones!

    Can you take the glass panels off that lovely chandelier? Just wondering if it might be less terrible with just the innards, but without the glass on the sides.

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  2. That is quite the ugly chandelier. Blech.

    I still REALLY love the original curtains, however, the Ikea ones are nice too, just, avoid the split pea curtains. Avoid!

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  3. Go for the expensive ones. That's easy for me to say since it's not my money. I agree though that you really should buy things that you love not things that work for now. You'll actually end up saving money if you just buy what you want now instead of paying for just ok and eventually buying what you want. Trying to help you talk yourself into what you really want anyway:)

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  4. I just had that "save up for the ones I love, skip that which I merely like" epiphany. In my case, it was with clothes & accessories, where I was spending more on little ok stuff than I would have had I just bought the more $$ original I loved, but methinks the same logic applies here. FWIW, I lurrve that original fabric but think those Ikea ones would do the temporary job too if you just can't justify it.

    How's that for Interior Design Enabling - you're welcome!

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  5. the tree of life are really pretty in person!! they didn't have the 96in in store so i didn't get them then totalyl changed my mind and went in another direction. but they're def not split pea color.

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