I love lamp

Such an obvious post title, but I had to do it. Ten points for you if you can name the movie.

We needed new lighting for the new family room, so a pair of lights was in order since we don't have any overheads. I wanted something with some color, like in my inspiration board. Since I am a total cheap-o through and through, I just cannot bring myself to pay full price for anything. But shopping at discount stores and in clearance sections means you usually have to visit a few times before you find what you're looking for...if you find it at all. Sometimes I just go with the flow, and even if I had a "vision" for something else in my head, I'll edit it to fit my new really cool find. And really, it usually ends up being even better than what I wanted in the first place. Cue the lamps!

Cute, no? One week while on our way to the close-proximity grocery store, B and I stopped into HomeGoods, which if you live under a rock is the home-centric version of TJ Maxx. I guess you could call me a Maxxinista, haha. We saw these bad boys (or girls?) in the lighting section, and they immediately caught our eyes. 

They kind of have a faceted jewel-like thing going on, which I lurve. And which happens to be kind of popular right now. I just saw a similar lamp at West Elm for $199. Ouch. The shades are turquoise with silver insides, and the white bases have a clear lucite plastic bottom. I wasn't crazy about the clear lucite plastic bases (and finials) at first, but they're growing on me. B probably still hates them. 

One thing I've found since purchasing our no-overhead-lighting house is that lamps are so. expensive. Or maybe I'm just used to estate sale prices. TJ Maxx usually has some great prices on their merch, but I still felt most pieces in the lighting department were a little pricey. If you can't tell from the photo, those lamps were originally $70 each. Each! I would never have paid that, and even at 50% off I was a little hesitant. In real life they feel just a little small to light the entire room on their own...so we left the lamps to live at HomeGoods for another week while we contemplated. 

It sounds silly, but I couldn't get my mind off those lamps! I stopped at a few other stores to compare the wares, and I just kept going back to those lamps. I originally wanted to paint the bases and go with white shades, but for now these are staying just how they are. You can kind of tell in the photo above, but the bottom of the shade was starting to come apart on the inside. I tried to get a little discount, but the girl at the register wasn't having it. She said they don't give a discount when the damage came to them that way. Umm, did you personally unpack the box and see the shade like that? I bet you didn't you liar!! I didn't fight back because I knew it was a battle I wasn't going to win. I was pleasantly surprised when B pointed out how the faceted shapes of the lamp base mimic the chevron pattern of the rug. I mean, I know he's a designer too but he's also a dude. And he was right, which made me love the lamps even more.

To remedy the lamps feeling slightly too small, I stacked some books underneath them to give them a little more height on the back of the sofa table. Helps distribute the light a little more and brings some more color into the room. Win win!

Two weeks later do you think I've cut the tags off yet? 

Black and white and pretty all over

Our new rug is here! I'm a few weeks late on this, but our rug for the living room arrived and I couldn't be more excited about it! I comparison shopped the rug around at multiple different sites, and RugsUSA.com was by far the best price. And with free shipping to boot!

It's pretty loud and bold, but I think it really anchors the room. Even though it's high contrast, it still acts as a neutral for the rest of the bright colors I have planned.

We debated over the sizes quite a bit, going between the 5x7 and the 8x10. There was a pretty big price difference between the two. To better help us visualize the sizes, we taped off both rugs on the floor (just the corners) to get an idea of how they would fit in the room. Ultimately we ended up with the smaller, and I'm glad we did. The larger one would just be too large for the setup we have going on.

The rug is definitely pretty thin and not the greatest quality, but for the price I knew what we were getting into. And since it was relatively cheap, it won't be the end of the world if something gets spilled on it or we decide we don't like chevrons anymore. I'm planning on getting a rug pad for it to make it feel a little more plush and slow the wear on the backing, but it suits us perfectly for now just as it is! 

Note: RugsUSA did not sponsor this post...I just really like my rug!

So many swatches, so little time

I was just itching to get the living-turned-family room painted, so a couple weeks ago I canvased every paint store in the area to pick up the best specimens of light aqua they carry. Is it just me, or do you feel like you're stealing when you walk out with a fistful of swatches too?

Pardon the lighting, but the first two photos are all of the swatches taped up to the walls. We knew some immediately were out, but others it took us a while.

We hemmed and hawed over them for a couple days, and narrowed our choices down to four.

They all look the same in the above photo, but trust me when I say they were very different. Thank goodness for the little sample cans...those colors can look so different from what they look like on a tiny little swatch! The two colors on the ends were too neon, so it was really between the two in the middle. Which were pretty drastically different. In the end we went with (drumroll...) the second from the left, called Mint Whisper by Valspar. It's light but not too light, and not too green or too blue. And not too neon.

After an entire long weekend (thanks, Labor Day!) we had the primer and two coats of Mint Whisper on the walls. As soon as I tidy up the room enough I'll get full shots with the new color AND the other new additions to the room.