It was the rug all along

I follow a simple philosophy when decorating:  if you don't love it, don't bring it home.  I don't change my decor very often because every piece in my home means something to me or is perfect just where it is and how it is.  That's why I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I moved in with Drew - I lived in my apartment for four years and it had become my sanctuary, filled with things I loved and I couldn't bear to part with them.  Drew flew my mother down to Dallas to help me move out of my apartment because I was such a mess - I wanted to simply lock the door and walk away because I didn't want to go through boxes and decide what goes and what stays - it was too traumatic for me.  It was where I returned to after long nights waiting tables and where I sat at my dining room table many a late night while I put myself through school.  It was where I healed when I lost my first baby.  It was mine.  My apartment was the backdrop for so many life changing events for me and it had taken on a comforting sort of persona - it was my home.


Now I have a new home - one I share with my husband and dog and will soon share with our daughter.  In the year and a half we've been here, this place has become the stage for our life and I love our house.  All of the ups and downs these four walls have seen bring a little smile of nostalgia to my face.  From finding our dining room table to learning how to recover a chair seat, I've spent lots of time making it ours and I love the process.  Each thrift store or craigslist or Target find that simply jumps into my arms and demands to have its place in our home makes me so happy.


So if I can get that mushy over an apartment and a house in general, imagine the mushiness I felt when contemplating decorating the nursery!  The place where I will bring home our daughter, my rainbow baby.  The place where she will sleep, her sanctuary.  And yes, I know that she won't care one bit about her room until she's old enough to hate everything I've picked out and she'll probably force me to wallpaper it with Dora the Explorer or Yo Gabba Gabba or whatever other crap is out there when she gets older.  


The nursery is for me - I understand and freely admit that.  So it had to be perfect - to me.  Nothing could go in that room that I didn't absolutely love and I was determined to find it.


I started with the glider.  I searched high and low, finally finding the glider of my dreams.  Saturday morning I went to Pottery Barn to see it live.  They had both models and I sat in them, gliding back and forth.  I envisioned nursing my new baby in the smaller chair.  I saw Drew rocking her in the larger, Dad-sized chair.  I saw myself one day reading stories to her while I held her baby brother or sister, the three of us cozy in the big chair.  I saw getting a more grown-up slipcover for it and moving it to another spot in the house but keeping the chair forever.  


And before you roll your eyes and go jesus, it's just a chair I know that.  But I'm pregnant and I'm daydreaming about my children, so get off me.


I felt like a hole had been punched in my beautiful fantasy when I asked the lady to price out the big chair with tax, delivery and a second slipcover and the total came out to be way the hell more than the red sale numbers I saw online.  It was already expensive - the final price took it completely out of my reach.  I couldn't stomach paying that much for a chair, knowing that Drew would pop a blood vessel at the mere mention of the price.  After all, we have no baby stuff remember?  Dropping that kind of cash on a chair was just out of the question and I knew that - probably before I walked into the store but I still did it.  I entertained my daydream - it is what it is.


I finished my errands but I was heartbroken and combined with a serious case of pregnant brain, my trip to the grocery store was disastrous.  I forgot so many things, bought unneeded extras, thought they had overcharged me and realized they didn't only after I'd turned around so then I had to turn back around to go home, and I promptly burst into tears as soon as I saw Drew's face.  


I cried and cried, convinced that I was going to have to make do with a lesser chair, that I was going to have to settle and I hate settling.  I mourned my daydream because it had to be that chair, not some makeshift ghetto-ass Craigslist chair.  Drew comforted me and put away the groceries while I dried my tears and finished the evening with minimal dramatics.  The chair was out of the question and that was all there was to it.  I understood that but I was still so sad.  


Sunday I got up early, eager to start my mural - that was still within my reach!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to it but it's more than okay because we got so much done for the nursery!  


Drew and I ran errands and on a whim we stopped in World Market.  I love that store and they were having some great Christmas sales so we thought we'd poke around and see what they had.  And that's when I saw it.  Well, Drew actually was the one who saw it.  It.  The rug.  The perfect rug.  It was the perfect combination of colors and design and I knew that it was the one.  And then I lost my mind.

I love this rug so much

We rounded the corner and this time, I saw it.  A chair.  A gorgeous chair in a fabulous color that would be perfect in a baby's room.  It didn't rock but I knew it was the one because I didn't care.  And there were no extras that would drive the price up $400 - this was the price and it was beautiful.

The best chair ever

Then we rounded the corner only to see another chair, completely different but still absolutely fabulous.  I was torn - can we have two chairs in the baby's room?  Is that dumb?  Is it too much? Will they go together?  But I love them both!  What should we do?

We got them both - because that's my other philosophy.  If you love it and you can afford it, get it right then.  It's much easier to get a refund than it is to cry bitter tears of regret when you return to the store and it's no longer on sale or worse, it's discontinued.

We have nothing like it, but it's perfect and I love it.

 It's a fun color that'll be great in the baby's room.

THEN, we found a bookcase/etagere that we both loved.  It was the last one and it was being discontinued - see what I mean?  They only had the floor model left and it was scratched and dinged but that's nothing my little DIY fingers couldn't handle.  It was marked down but since it was scratched up, the manager took off another $50 and that came home with us too.  It turned out to be too big for the baby's room but it has a new home in the living room and it's just perfect.  Am I saying perfect too much?  I don't care - I'm in love, I'm happy and I firmly believe that it was not a coincidence that we walked into World Market yesterday.

We also played around with furniture placement.  Combined with our perfect nursery purchases and your suggestions, I played around with floorplanner.com and found a placement that Drew and I could agree on, while accommodating our new furniture.  Also, the rug turned out to be too small for the room (it's surprisingly big - it doesn't even feel cramped with the crib, dresser, queen size bed and two chairs) so we bought another one and layered it and I love it!  Once we got things situated Drew and I just sat in the room, each of us on a chair.  I couldn't stop smiling and I kept saying I love this rug over and over again - when I wasn't saying I love this chair.

How does it all look in the room?  Well, that's where I plead the fifth.  Or plead life - however you want to call it.  It took forever at World Market, engineering ways to fit the two chairs and rugs and wall stuff in the car, driving home slowly, assembling the chairs, moving the furniture one-handed (I figure if I can pick stuff up one-handed it's not too heavy), laying the rug, realizing it's too small, going back to get the etagere and another rug, returning the pillow I thought would work, tripping out that the leather chairs were practically sold out in the short time we were gone, wedging the etagere in the trunk, driving home slowly, seeing that it didn't work in the baby's room, moving it to the living room, liking that much better, realizing that we're starving, me peeling off to start dinner, AND I had to teach yoga this morning.

I suppose I could have just said we ran out of time.  

I'll have pictures of everything tomorrow, but for now I'll show you what we started with.

The wall where the mural will go - this weekend.

The chandelier that came with the house that's

perfect for a little girl's room.

The two windows that need curtains but it will be much easier

now that we have a rug.

The messy bed, in its old spot.

Maya looks especially puppy-like here - she's so cute.

Laying the rugs - the bed is now on top of them so the seam isn't 

nearly as obvious.

I love how I now have several colors to pull from!

I'm not sure what I did with my camera to make it seem brighter.

I don't have pictures of the chairs and the new placement but that will be tomorrow's post, first thing. Even with furniture, we have a ways to go but I'm so pleased that we have a starting point.  Now I will look for fabric for the curtains and crib skirt that will complement the rug, using the same soft colors.  I still need bedding for the big bed and I'm presently in love with this idea.  I love the texture and simplicity and with some pretty throw pillows, it could be, dare I say...perfect.  I'm not settled on it but I'm very encouraged.  

I still need wall art, shelves and something to replace the blinds over the door.  However, right now I'm super content with our beautiful rug(s) and our fabulous chairs.  I love them and they're perfect!