Something Old, Something New, Something Ordered, and Plenty to Do!!

It's time to start decorating!!! Or at least make plans to start decorating. Thanks to my friend, Sarah, who works in interior design, I have a starting point and some fun ideas swirling around in my little head. Here is what I'm thinking so far...  (Caution: long blog post ahead.)

Something Ordered (this is my starting point):
The weekend that we moved into our new house, Brandi and I went to Home Depot and bought blinds for our downstairs windows. While we were waiting, for almost THREE hours, we looked around the store multiple times. While we circled the store over and over I found an area rug for the living room that I liked alot. It was one of those things that I just knew I loved it as soon as I saw it. I'm still not one to be an impulsive buyer, so I just took a mental picture and went home with the blinds and no rug.
After that, I looked at area rugs wherever I went. I didn't like any of them nearly as much as I liked the one in Home Depot. So, I finally decided that the "Home Depot" rug was the one for me. I got Sarah to okay my choice, and we ordered the rug this weekend. It should be here in about 10 days, and I can't wait!!

I love the colors in this rug!! It gives me some great options for decorating downstairs. And yes, this rug is shag and I LOVE it!! I ordered the biggest size, so it's definitely going to bring alot of color into our living room. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the house!!

Something New:
World market is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. They can be a little pricey for me on some items, but I've also found some really reasonable things that make me very happy...take these curtains for example.

Ok, so from the rug above, I have decided to paint the dining room a really dark brown, like dark chocolate brown. It is a very open room with great windows and lighting, so I'm going to be brave and do something bold. I was thinking that I would use either the blue or green from the rug as an accent color in there, but Sarah gave me the idea to accent with red. It had never even crossed my mind to use red, and I loved it right away. We haven't painted the dining room yet, but last weekend I went into World Market just to browse and I spotted these from across the store. This was another case of "I love those and I have to have them!" I love that they are lightweight and almost sheet-like. With such a dark color on the walls, I don't want a thick, heavy window treatment, and I also don't want to make the dining room TOO formal. I am so excited to get these up on the windows!!

Something Old:
When Brad and I were house hunting, we looked at this house and then we looked at the model home for our floor plan to see what the rooms looked like with furniture in them. I thought everything looked great in the model except for their eat in kitchen area. It's a big area between the kitchen and living room, but it's also a high traffic area. It is where the sliding glass door is located that leads to the back patio.  The table that they had there was too big, and blocked much of the walkway...in my humble opinion anyway. So, that's how we came up with a pub table and bar stools idea.
We wanted a table and four stools, but we planned on putting two stools at the table and two stools at the bar. Once again, World Market made me very happy. We found a table and stools that both of us really liked, we just weren't as crazy about the price tag. It's not that it was super-duper expensive, but you have to remember that I am a bargain shopper. I'm not cheap, I just love to find great deals. So, even though we loved the table and stools, we have been putting off buying them. We even thought about buying the table there and the stools somewhere else, just to cut down on the expense.
Well, thank goodness we put it off!! Last night I got on the computer to check my emails, and just as I was about to shut it down, I thought that I would just take a quick peek at Craigslist. I think you know where this story goes from here... Listed within the first ten posts was, "World Market Pub Table and Chairs Set." So of course I clicked on the listing, and TA DA...there was the exact pub table set that we have been looking at....listed at half the price as World Market has it listed as. SCORE!!
I ran downstairs and told Brad. Then I called the girl who listed the set, went and looked at it today, and now it is in our kitchen!!! It has a couple of knicks and dings here and there, but definitely nothing that can't be touched up, and for the price, I just couldn't pass it up. So, here is our (old) new pub table set!!

So, that is where we are with house decor. Oh, but wait, how could I forget Brad's prized possession that he has acquired since we have moved here?? (insert sarcasm) I mean, this WAS the very first thing we bought for our house...and definitely the most important. I don't know how we made it as long as we did without it...

This is his 60 inch LED TV for the "mancave." And yes, that is Candice Olson and her show Devine Design...on the big screen...in the man cave. Hee hee. The ruler of the mancave wasn't home today, so I got to watch girly stuff in the mancave. I have to admit that it's nice, and he claims that he doesn't have to have anything else for the rest of the year. (I was thinking the next few years....) Ha! But, seriously, I AM glad that he got what he wanted, and now I get to have fun with the rest of the house!! :)
We are both really excited about making our new house a home, whether it's pretty curtains, a big TV, or a colorful rug...that's what's going to make it ours!! Here's to many more decorating blog posts!!