January 7, 2013

• What’s a home without home furnishings? (PICTURE HEAVY)

  Sigh.  As we move through the process, I realize just how little we actually have.  Before we moved back in 2010, we basically sold our lives.  Cars, house, etc.  Plus, we had really only lived in our house for a little over a year before we sold it (we closed on it in April 2008, then end of May we moved to Europe for 3 months for work, so really…we lived in our house from September 2008 – Jan 2010).  During that time, we knew in the back of our mind that an expat position was highly likely, so we really didn’t accummulate that much stuff.  We still have our bedroom suite, but about halfway through this assignment, Jamie’s back started acting up really badly, and we realized that the mattress wasn’t really firm enough for him, so that bedroom suite will be moved into the spare room.  I tell you what…whoever comes to visit is going to have an AWESOME bed to sleep it (I love the bed, but it’s bad for Jamie…sigh). 

  So…that brings me to home furnishings.  We’ve been looking, and budgeting, and looking some more…just trying to get a feel of how much things are, what we like, and what would go well with our style and with the potential houses we’re going to look at.  We love IKEA…love it.  Our bedroom suite that we have now has survived an international move and you can’t even tell…it’s been taken apart and put back together so many times, but you’d never know it!  Not everything at IKEA is great quality, but we’ve been really happy with what we’ve purchased so far, so it made sense to look at IKEA for some of the things we’d need.

  Here are our thoughts for the master bedroom:

  
  IKEA Hemnes Bed – Queen

   

  
  IKEA Hemnes Dresser – 8 drawer

   

  
  IKEA Hemnes Bedside Tables

  The best part about this is that we can get the ENTIRE bedroom suite of furniture for under $700.  That’s a queen bed, dresser, and two bedside tables.  I love it!  Plus…they’re wood…not particle board.  We decided to go with a grey stain, because I think it’ll be more neutral in our room, and the color of the flooring will be less of an issue.  However, if it doesn’t look right with the flooring, they set also comes in a really nice black/brown color that’s really rich.  Our last bedroom set was a very light birch color, which was also very lovely, but I’m looking for something with a darker finish. 

  Then, I’m absolutely in love with this bedding from Crate and Barrel.  Normally, I wouldn’t be keen on paying C&B prices, because I think they’re ridiculously overpriced, but I really love this bedding, so I might splurge.  It’s modern, but with lovely colors that would work well with the wood in the bedroom set.  It’s really simple, but I like simple.  The white sort of scares me, especially with the thought of kids…but hell, it’s a duvet.  You just wash it and move on.  And really, if it gets stained, that’s life.

  

   

  Here is another shot of the bedding, from the C&B website. 

  

   

  That takes care of our bedroom, plus the spare room.  We’re looking at 3-bedroom places, so the third will be an office for now, but will turn into a nursery once I get pregnant.  A lot of the places we are looking at have either lofts or finished basements, so we can install an office in either of those places, if we need to.  But honestly, I’m not really in love with a traditional “office” because I think it encourages you to bring your work home with you, and we already work a ridiculous amount of hours in a week to begin with.  So…that’s a toss-up at this point.

  Another thing we’ll need is a couch.  Again…IKEA.  This time, it’s more for practicality than anything.  IKEA couches have removeable, fitted covers, that you can just toss in the wash once they get dirty.  I love that!  Plus…they’re fairly cheap, so if we have kids and the kids completely destroy the couch, we won’t be out a ton of money when we decide to replace it.  Also, this allows me to change my mind about decorations in the house, because you can totally replace the couches every 3-5 years and not be out a lot of money!  Love it!  We’re thinking either dark grey or brown…not sure yet, it will depend on the house we pick, the flooring the house has/flooring we want to install, and the living room area.  The photo here is in the dark brown.

  

  I really like having the chaise bit on the end of the couch.  It’s a great place to sit and read, watch TV, or do my yarn-work.  We’re also planning on having some chairs and this coffee table.

  

   

  Wow…after looking at this post, it looks like the only place we shop is IKEA…not the case, but we do like some of their stuff.  What do you think??  Like what we’ve picked out so far?

   

  XOXOXO,
  K.

  • 5:40 am
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