Furniture Deals Online -- Kiki Clark
Fall makes me feel all nesty, so it’s not surprising I spent yesterday shopping for furniture on the Internet. To those who don’t shop on the Net, I say, “Wha...?” I do 80% of my shopping online, buying pretty much everything but food and clothes. Accessories and supplements, yes. Food and clothes, no – although if one of my health-food stores doesn’t bring back the puffed-millet cereal, that may change. Hey, you don’t think they pack bags of puffed millet in any kind of packing material, do you? Because that would be really redundant.The room that needs furnishing is the sunroom, which used to be called “the rabbit’s room.” The rabbit is no more, but the room remains. Temperature-wise, it's a tricky space. In the summer, we keep the blinds down all the time, because it gets hot in there (the rabbit could leave through a pet door). In the winter it’s a little better, because the cherry trees outside lose their leaves and the sun becomes a benefit instead of a detriment, but the leaky wood windows ensure that the room is never toasty in the cold months. So I pictured how I would be most likely to enjoy the room -- snuggled in some kind of throw, a cup of hot tea in my hand, watching the juncos scratch through the snow in search of…whatever it is they eat. Maybe they eat snow.
Anyway, this scenario did not conjure up images of white, wicker furniture and floral fabrics. The room has a tile floor in shades of rust and wine – colors that will come back in style after the current run of blues, greens and various light shades of taupe. Even if I were a cool-color gal, which I’m not, it’s better to work with colors that can’t be changed, as opposed to trying to overwhelm them. So I shopped for warm-color, wintery stuff.
And where did I look? My two favorite home-décor sites, Home Decorators Catalog and EBay. They did not let me down. First, I wanted a rug, to mitigate that cold tile floor. Specifically, I wanted this rug (in the green), but two things kept me from getting it. One, it would have broken the budget for a room that small, and two, I love that rug so much, I’d rather use it in the living room when we eventually get rid of the wall-to-wall carpet and put in a wood floor. So I went over to the Home Decorators Outlet site and found this rug instead. If you enlarge the photo, you'll see it has some color details, including a little bit of wine that will pick up the color of the chaise I'm going to buy. (If it's sold out on HDCO, this will probably be the only picture available.) Please note, this is a 5’ 3" x 8’ 3" wool rug for a hundred and forty bucks. For that price, I’m willing to forgive its fringe. Maybe I’ll be able to take it off.
Next, we needed something on which to sit. I wanted it to be long enough to accommodate two people, narrow enough not to fill the 54” wide room, and of course, it had to go with the rug. I was very fortunate to find a burgundy leather chaise. Joe is a big fan of leather furniture – it’s one of his few generically male characteristics. So I didn’t anticipate any argument from him, and I was right. He was all over the leather chaise (or will be), especially at that price -- $190 with the extra freight charge. Holy cow – I just looked for the picture, to send you the link, and we must have gotten the last one. Well, here’s a tiny picture from Google.
The room already has a ceiling fan with a light, but I wanted a soft pool of light. I could not get Joe excited about this lamp, which I love. He preferred a floor lamp, and the floor version didn't have such nice proportions. We've wanted a Tiffany-style lamp for a while, but Home Decorators Outlet didn't have one I was crazy about and the main store had them for more than I wanted to pay. So it was off to EBay. I found a nice dragonfly version for $109, including shipping. The base may not be as nice as the ones at Home Decorators. I'm prepared to paint it.
So there you are: $470.06 (including all shipping/handling charges) for a big ol’ wool rug, a leather chaise, and a pretty floor lamp. And I didn’t have to spend any money driving around. I love the Internet.
The one thing I didn't see was a small table I liked for cheap. The room, in addition to being a repository for other junk, contains a metal-framed plant stand/table with a Crayola-green finish and an octagonal glass top – cracked all the way across. I think I’ll make a plywood top to fit, decoupage it with something fab, and paint the base another color, maybe put some metallic highlights on its metal leaves. Or I might find something I like for cheap at Ross for Less or Marshall's. I'll keep my eyes open for a nice throw at those places, as well.
posted by Esri Rose @ 11:32 AM
4 Comments:
I love that first lamp, Kiki!
I KNOW! Maybe I should have put my little foot down. It's way more tasteful/unique than the dragonfly one.
But Joe has a point about floor lamps. They don't take up room on the table, so you can use a smaller table, and it's a small room.
I wondered if anyone would read this post -- I should have known the other fashion addict would also be a furnishings addict. :D
What fun -- it's like shopping vicariously. :)
I love the lamp you got! I have a sunroom that is so hard to decorate because of the dimensions - long and narrow. Plus my son uses it as his TV/game room. It is way too pretty for that.
Aren't you worried Musette will mess with the leather chaise?
But great bargains!
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