Where to save:
Curtains: My mom tried to talk me out of spending lots of money on curtains when we moved into our Washington house but I didn't listen. While I did get three years of good use out of them, I am left scratching my head with where to use them now since they don't fit.
Books: Hear me out. I LOVE books. We have quite the collection but aside from the books we love and my coffee table books we have tried to lighten the load. Books weigh a ton and really can make your bill for moving skyrocket.
Big Pieces of Furniture: My parents have a lot of big furniture. My mom bought a beautiful armoire for my brothers' bedroom that one time spent a year in our kitchen because the movers couldn't get it up the stairs. We bought a new couch because our very comfortable sectional literally went wall to wall in our townhouse. I am not saying to not get nice furniture, just don't buy anything for a particular space. ( I say this as I sit at our 8ft dining table...)
Picture Frames: Just don't do it. They get scratched, bent, and won't look like you spent 300 dollars on custom framing. The bigger the piece the more likely it is to break.
Where to spend:
west elm rug (obsessed! how cute for a baby's room)/gretchenkellystudio art/jonathan adler salt and pepper shakers.
Art: I LOVE our art. I try to get it up within a week or two of moving in because it makes our house feel like home. I am not saying that we have expensive art but we have a lot of it. Nothing has a particular place so I can mix and match in every house. People also have some hilarious stories about their art. We had a friend in Washington that had us all crowd into her bathroom to tell a story about a piece of art she got in Japan.
Unique decor: I love when something has a story to tell. When we move we are also having to make new friends so it makes the first time you host a dinner party a little easier by having stories to tell. We have salt and pepper shakers from one of our favorite places in Washington which usually leads us into other stories.
Area Rugs: You never know the condition of floors when you move in (especially for a rental) so I like having rugs to add to floors to cover up any trouble spots. We currently have green carpet in our bedroom. Yuck! We have a 8x10 and 9x12 that has fit in every house. Our smaller ones look a little funky sometimes.
Where do you spend and where do you save on home goods?
Hi, I am the Artist of the painting that you posted on your blog. Although you have a link to my gretchenkellystudio Etsy shop, I would appreciate the credit of my name attached to "Etsy Art" - fyi - that is customary when posting another creative person's work - play it forward and in turn it comes back. Thanks for understanding.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry about that! I have corrected the error, thank you for letting me know. Your art is beautiful and you deserve the credit!
DeleteThat is really interesting idea! I have also moved from one house to another a couple times during recent years and I know what does that mean to transfer a lot of useless staff to new place and find out that it does not work for new apartment. Thanks for advice.
ReplyDelete