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Monday

Will You Shop For Me?

Okay, I admit it: I don't like furniture shopping as much as I thought I would.

When we first moved into our home, I was so eager to start furnishing the home.  And then I froze.  Froze out of fear -- fear of making the wrong choices, fear of paying too much or too little, fear of getting the decor totally wrong.  Fear of it looking like a college apartment or a grandmother's house.

Buying a throw pillow or a picture frame -- now that I can do.  Accent chairs, even those are rather easy.  But facing a blank room and having to pick out furniture?  It's harder than I ever thought.  Point in case: our living room, seen here:


It stayed empty for a while because we waited 6 weeks to get in the West Elm furniture we ordered.  But that came in handy, you'll remember, when my mom and I made the table runners for my wedding.


Our furniture has now arrived, and I think I've selected the rug that we'll be using (it's a really cool Oriental rug with an Indian motif ... men in turbans, elephants -- amazing).  I've pulled some of the greens out of the rug and selected accent pillows to match.  But now, I have a large wall to fill, and selecting a piece of furniture gives me a pit in my stomach.  We want this wall to house a TV (possibly mounted although it wouldn't necessarily be our first choice - we'd like it concealed).  Our vintage turntable will sit atop it and records, a cable box, and a receiver will all be housed in the cabinets.  Speakers will sit on either side of it.

What are we using right now?  Oh, that.  Just an ironing board (which I still am using to do some occasional ironing). 


There is an identical armchair flanking the other side of the fireplace that is not visible in this picture, and it has the same throw pillow on it. 

And as you can see, there is a good amount of black in the room, so I already purchased this console table which you see right when you walk in the front door:


So I'm thinking we are looking for a black or antiqued black piece of furniture to go in this spot, and here's my moodboard that sort of gives you an idea of what we're looking for:

The rug is obviously not close to being what we have, but it's the best tonal match I was able to find.  And our walls are not, I repeat, ARE NOT, sponge painted.  We have carpet and not hardwood floors (for now) and I'm not even sold on having a green vase flanking each side of the media center, but it's an option.

I also need a coffee table and probably drapes.  Oh gosh, I think I'm going to lose sleep over this tonight.

Will you help me?  Can I bribe you?  Send me a link to anything you find online that may suit our room well, and if it's the perfect one for us, you're totally getting a $20 credit to my Etsy store. 


So again - specifications - black, something that will have storage space, not insanely expensive but not a cheapie either, and something that fits the style of the room.  And all of you with interior decorating talent - you can be as brutally honest as you'd like.  You are not going to hurt my feelings, so if I've already done something that looks bad, don't hold back!  If you want to email me directly, my email address is april@alizdesigns.com

Help?!?!  Please!

11 comments:

  1. OK. I am SOOO bad at this but think I might have something y'all might like. . .it is a black entertainment center from Target (so it is TOTALLY not "forever" furniture) but it looks a lot nicer than it is (ok, I just looked on targets website and couldn't find it but there is something like it at walmart. here you go. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Canopy-Versatile-Armoire-Mahogany-Finish/13219967 (we have a pretty good sized flat screen and it fits inside ours perfectly. . . this one seems a little small. We normally keep the doors open so that it takes up more space on our wall and we have throws on one side of it matching picture frames on either side of it on the wall and a big potted plant on the other side. ANOTHER thing I saw that might not work but I thought it would look perfect in your room was this. . . http://www.walmart.com/ip/AA-Importing-Entertainment-Center-in-Black/14724480
    When I buy furniture from Target or Walmart (as long as it doesn't look cheap) I just think I'll keep this until it collapses and then I'll probably be at the point in my life to get my interior decorator to just go shopping for me! :-) ANOTHER thing that we LOVE to look at is used furniture. (do y'all have craig's list?) I have a friend who found an INCREDIBLE dining room table normally almost 15000 dollars for something like 9000. AND we got our whole entire bedroom set for next to NOTHING and it is forever furniture and is BEAUTIFUL! :-) Happy SHOPPING!

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  2. I'll poke around the internet a little bit this afternoon on a hunt for what you want :) Hopefully between all of us bloggers we can find you something good!

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  3. Your west elm furniture looks fabulous. You are definitely off to a great start!!! I'll send anything your way I find! :)

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  4. I'm no expert either. I need help in our house now!
    When I had my own place I had my interior design friend help me.

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  5. i've had SUCH issues with West Elm - i don't think i'd ever buy furniture again from them! - i'll totally send u over some links that i think would work!

    Erika
    ~Tiptoe Butterfly~

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  6. I think you are off to a great start!!!

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  7. I think everything looks great thus far! I absolutely ADORE that couch! The print and colors are gorgeous! :)

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  8. You are off to a great start, I love the fabric of your couch, and the way the table looks up against it. It's so much nicer to see that table when you first walk into a home versus a back of a couch.

    You'll get there!

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  9. I am absolutely hopeless at decor, I truly am. I wish I could help you but that would be a disaster (I really need to take a class or something). But, it does look like you're doing pretty darn good so far. Your couch is gorgeous!! And the console table behind it, perfect! Can't wait to see how it turns out, I'm sure it will be fabulous :-)

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  10. I'm the last person in the world to offer any advice on decorating since I can't make a decision to save my life. You're off to a great start, though...I'm loving the couch pattern!

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