Finding treasure

The more I look into interiors and styling, the more expensive furnishing our home is going to be! I've come across some industry secrets that have allowed me (and our budget) to make our first purchase for the house. Its the pendant light pictured above that will welcome us home when we walk in.

I have always bought furniture without thinking about important factors like room size, lighting, colour, and the overall look and feel of the room its going in. I have NO background in interior design. I was brought up in a home that had odds and ends, hand-me-downs, and generally "essentials only" which my mum would stretch the budget to buy usually on sale at retail outlets. We would all then marvel at how much money was saved.

I have to fight back the urge to buy things simply because they are on sale. Really fight. To do this, I have started plotting the furniture we own and want to keep on the house floorplan. Painstaking yes I know... it involves measuring every item first. It has allowed me now to immediately picture each room and discount things I come across which I previously may have purchased. And later regretted.

Also, lots of my free time is spent with magazines, books and online trying to figure out what I love. I am closer now... I know what I don't want! I'm onto my second scrapbook and have picked up flooring samples and colour charts and have been inspired walking into a beautiful store. My husband has agreed that my birthday present (next month hooray!) is going to be picking an item from that store. It is going to be the longest day for him.. being with me while I choose ONE thing.

We have a beautiful dining table that I still love even though it's from Ikea. I have found four perfect chairs (low profile with clean lines to not detract from our home's biggest "wow factor") on an online auction and am on the lookout for armchairs that will sit at the head and foot of the table. I will have to reupholster the chairs from the auction and maybe also white wash them.

Now its back to working on my list. Items we have versus what we need. This will help keep me on track to spend on essentials first. The right essentials.

But I have my eye on this beautiful provincial glass canister. Essential? Definitely not. So far, I've talked myself out of buying a couple. Progress? Yes.