Pre-decorating decorating

So I just graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with my degree in Marine and Freshwater Biology.

I was fortunate enough to bust my butt during my last semester so that I could secure a job post college. So I will be moving from Austin, Texas (population: 800,000) to Moscow, Idaho (population: 25,000) to pursue my career in Marine science working at a laboratory dealing with marine samples. My husband and I lived with his mother while I finished school which was awesome because I was unable to work during that time, but now, in 5 days, we will be moving to start our new life in our new home.

I was born and raised in Austin so you would think that I would be having separation anxiety, but the excitement of moving to a new place and decorating our home has overshadowed those feelings. I have been planning how our home will look by gaining inspiration from home decor google images and blogs so I have a pretty good handle on things. I even made a mood board or whatever you call it...

I wanted to keep a teal, green, yellow, grey kind of palette and I wanted to spend as LITTLE as possible. Doing research before I started decorating really helped to tie together all of the things that I wanted to buy. The apartments that I've had in my early twenties were always a decorating hodge podge of electic pieces that I found at Goodwill that never really had a cohesive appearance. My husband is having a difficult time trusting my vision, but I hope that when he sees the finished product, he will never doubt me again.

Moving to a small town, I wanted to make sure I stocked up on certain decorating necessities due to the fact that the shopping is very limited. Moscow does have a Macy's and a Ross but I believe that is the extent of the home stores. There is no Target but there is a Walmart, and I found out yesterday that there is a TJmaxx about 45 minutes away.

I purchased this Maskros Pendant lamp from Ikea for 59.99 to hang in our dining room similar to this one:

This 4 by 6 ft wave on canvas is something that I REALLY wanted to buy BUT at a 149.00 dollar price tag, I couldn't justify it just yet. I figured I could wait until I started my job and got a few paychecks in until I ordered it online:

I've always been a dark wood kind of girl, but after doing so much decor research, I realized I loved the clean look of white furnishings.

I bought two Ikea lindved side tables. At 19.99 a piece, you can't really beat that. I was a little surprised at the fact that the "white" wasn't as high gloss white as I had envisioned but a little can of spray paint can fix that if I want to brighten them up later.

I found this white TV console on Craigslist for $60 then later realized they sell it at IKEA for 299.00
It is the Ikea Liatorp TV bench.

I found two of these Teal gourd lamps at Big Lots. Normally I would never pay 50 dollars for a lamp BUT I realized that these gourd lamps sell at Pottery Barn and other places for MUCH MUCH more.
Style does come at a bit of a price.

And the pièces de résistance is our couch made by Ashley furniture is called the Freestyle pewter. There is a consignment store near our house that also does catalog orders from Ashley furniture and the guy told me that they would beat any price that Ashley furniture offers, so when this couch went on sale at the Ashley furniture store, I made the consignment store beat their sale price down to $830. This couch has a soft corduroy microfiber feel and has a chaise lounge big enough so that my husband and I don't have to fight over it.

We bought our coffee table from Craigslist for $25 and turned it into a tufted ottoman with a little extra money for supplies. I had gotten the wisdom and the inspiration from other diy decor blogs and it turned out great I think.

***PICTURE COMING SOON ***

I found this FABULOUS Teal tufted wingback chair on Craigslist for $90 that was in awesome shape. My husband could have killed me when I first brought it home, but he has since warmed up to it. This camera phone picture does not do the rich color justice:

I bought some great bold prints and fabrics in blue/green ikats, and yellow and grey chevrons so that I could make pillows, a table runner (yellow chevron), and some curtains (grey chevron). I know chevron was hot for a minute in the interior design world, but I still think it is a great addition to my design schematic.

***PICTURE COMING SOON ***


After jumping on the Chevron bandwagon, I also jumped on the Sunburst mirror bandwagon and purchased this great sunburst mirror from Kohls for $31.99 (originally 149.99)! My husband had no idea why I was being overly obsessive about wrapping it in loads of bubble wrap while we were packing for the move but my mom bought this for me and it was just such a great deal. I already had visions of how it was going to look in my mind that I just didn't want anything to happen to it.

***PICTURE COMING SOON***


Well hopefully next time I blog, I will have finished pictures of the living/dining areas with all of my goodies set up exactly as I have envisioned!