The Best of Big D

Each year, D Magazine votes for The Best of Big D. This is a list of the favorite restaurants, shops, bars, etc. in Dallas. The people of Dallas vote for their favorites, and those with the highest amount of votes win the Best of Big D award and proudly display it in their business. It's quite an honor. I'm excited to see that the best home decor shop IMO in Dallas won! The shop is Vintage Living by Lisa Luby Ryan. Her entire store is done in neutrals with a French touch to it. Every time I go in there, I consider refusing to ever leave. The place is amazing and absolutely deserves this award. Here is a glimpse into the store:

D Magazine Online

Don't you just want to curl up in that bed and read a good book? That lush bedding is calling my name. 

Vintage Living

Gorgeous, right? My only complaint is that the store has very limited business hours. You either have to make an appointment or be a stay at home wife to make it there during business hours. If I could just convince Lisa to extend her business hours back, maybe I could make it back in there some time, and hopefully soon!

What I'm Wishing For...

It's been a little over a year since I bought and moved into my first house. I love the house, but am ready to make it look like I didn't just move in add some personal touches. There are a few specific pieces I would LOVE to own and put in the house. I just have to convince my soon-to-be husband he loves them too. :)

1. First, I would love a bed. Everyone should have a bed, right? The master bedroom really doesn't need a whole lot, but a bed would make a big difference. Restoration Hardware has a few beds I would love to own. It's probably a good thing that I can't pick just one. That way, my man can have the final say. It will eventually be his bed too. Here are my favorites:

St. James Bed Without Footboard in Antiqued Natural 

Chesterfield Upholstered Sleigh Bed via Houzz

Keyhole Arch bed 

Adler Tufted Platform Bed

2. I would love to replace the Target clearance bar stools in the kitchen. I have been wanting these bar stools for a year. D hates them, but I am not giving up. Hopefully, he will someday see the beauty in them. I even told him he can pick the color. :)

Madeleine Bar Stool

They can also be found at Ballard Designs:

Constance Bar Stool

3. The chandeliers need updating. I would love this one for the breakfast nook...

Mariestad 6 Light Chandelier

...or I would also take this in the 12 Light version and replace the outdated chandelier in the dining room.

For now, I will just keep dreaming about them.

**UPDATE: Thanks to Shades of Light and Kevin & Layla Palmer of The Lettered Cottage, I have to add another wish to my list!

The Wooden Wine Barrel from Shades of Light 

I love the rope detailing Kevin & Layla added to theirs:

See their post about it here. (Or if you just want to follow their sweet blog and/or look at beautiful pictures of their cottage style home.)

The Thrill of Thrifting

Don't you just wish you could fill your home with beautiful things? Some girls dream of buying cute shoes. Some girls dream of buying nice coats and beautiful clothes. Some girls wish for thick, long eyelashes, or long, healthy nails. Some girls dream of having long, gorgeous hair. Some girls dream of baubles and jewels. While those things would be nice, they are not things I think about often. Those thoughts only enter my head maybe twice a year. It seems like most girls yearn for these things a lot more than I do. What does enter my head on a bazillion-time-a-day basis is home decor. I yearn for upholstered chairs, vintage fainting couches, two-tone case pieces with brass hardware, and the entire catalog of Restoration Hardware. In short, I am obsessed with that place. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but let's just say that if I won the lottery, you would find me at Restoration Hardware for the next three months. Or at least until my entire house is decorated exactly how I want. I yearn to be surrounded by all neutral decor. An ivory couch, gray walls, patina accent pieces, white and clear lamps with linen shades, creamy colored benches at the end of light wood upholstered beds with white, fluffy bedding...I could go on for hours.

Since my bank account does not support this fetish, I have learned the art of thrifting. The definition of thrifting, according to Wikipedia, is "the quality of using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully." I would define it as creatively gaining the beautiful pieces that you love. You can have those things you dream of having. You just have to hunt for them. You have to be willing to put some time and elbow grease into it. 

I read an article recently that states that we are most happy when we are being active or are participating doing some type of hobby. It states that on the weekends, we tend to be lazy and watch TV, but according to studies, these things do not make us happy, or even relaxed. Hobbies and exercise makes us happy and relieve stress. So why not try your hand at creating something you love? Or fixing up something old into something you will love and be proud of. After reading that article, I was inspired to try it, so I went thrifting this weekend. I visited resale furniture stores and found two pieces I am ecstatic to have. I want to share them with you here.

The first piece is an old, upholstered, velvet and wood chair. The velvet is a soft, butter color. The wood is a light color, but needs a little love. I have a love for chairs and have been trying to finish my living room, so I was pretty excited about this chair for $45. 

I plan to paint the wood (once I decide what color) in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I could reupholster it, but I want to have it ready for my Halloween party and am not sure I want to remove the current upholstery. The chair has a lot of potential and saved me from splurging on my first choice:

Restoration Hardware

The second piece I purchased is a very heavy, old dresser mirror. 

Luckily for me, it was already repainted a beautiful grey. The grey reminds me of the grey you often see in Restoration Hardware stores. In fact, I am positive that I have seen this same mirror in a RH catalog before. I cannot find it now, but here is one that is close.

Restoration Hardware

This purchase saved me from my first choice of an Anthropologie mirror with a hefty price tag of $498. I have had my eye on this mirror ever since I moved into my new house. I'm happy with my thrift find though. Here are the above two side by side. 

Pretty close considering the one on the left costs $2,195, and the one on the right was $85. The only difference I notice is one leaves more money in my bank account. :)

New Finds

My favorite store, Gray Living, was having a sale on lighting. I have been wanting to get matching lamps for my nightstands. I had driven to the store three times(!) at the last 30 minutes before the store closes, but could never make up my mind, and couldn't get much input from D on which lamps he liked (they will someday be his too!). Finally, I saw this beauty:

This ties in perfectly with my metal storage trunk, taupe trimmed duvet, and black iron bed. I love lamps. In fact, I could easily get carried away with lamps, but I have been able to keep it under wraps. Here are a few other lamps that caught my eye from Pinterest.

Here are a few from Anthropologie:

And Pottery Barn:

And Horchow:

I love them all! What lamps do you like?

I found a few other items I couldn't leave without while there. I have had some dark wicker baskets for years that I wanted to give some life to by adding labels. I got the idea from Pottery Barn:





One of my finds worked perfectly. I added wire to secure it to the basket.




Lastly, I couldn't leave without this little guy.

Those were my finds of the day! Don't you just love finding cute things?!


P.S. D thinks this stuff is unnecessary and would much rather live without anything. Seriously, anything. His favorite picture of Steve Jobs is one where he is sitting on the floor of his first(?) house, with no furniture (see below). He once told me that we wanted to live that way. His exact quote after I purchased my little artichoke was "That's exactly what I need- more choking." Good thing I have a good sense of humor! ;)

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

The Bad:
I went to West Elm this weekend for their "flea market" and was so very disappointed. They had several employees just standing around chatting, but none of them were willing to help me. In this flea market, they had a few pieces of damaged furniture in the back of their store for sale at "flea market" prices, supposedly. I found a side table I have had my eye on for a while. It was lopsided and basically broken, but I thought I would be able to repair it with a little TLC. Unfortunately, all the tables had three different prices on them! I asked an employee for help, but he made it clear he had no interest in helping me. He reluctantly gave in and tried to tell me that none of the prices were right and he would have to find out. He later said that one of the prices, the highest price of course, was correct and that the others were the prices of the stock pieces that make the finished piece. You cannot buy the pieces individually, so why not put one price on the table and stop confusing your customers. I decided not to get the table because the "sale" price seemed awfully high.
       I continued through the store, only to walk up on the same table, but not damaged and regular price for less than the flea market one! I knew the price had to be wrong on the sale piece, so I searched for a salesperson. I found several chatting away in a circle, and when I approached them and stood awkwardly over their shoulders, they ignored me. I figured I did not want help from that kind of service, so I went searching for someone else.
       I saw a lady walking in my direction, made eye contact with her, and she immediately looked away and looked like she was going to try to avoid me. I then asked her if she was busy. She responded, "Um....well, *big sigh* what do you need?" As if I would need to tell her first and then she would decide if she was busy. The sigh made it clear she was not interested in offering any service. I ignored this and pointed out that the broken table was marked a higher price than the table that was regular price. She responded, "How do you know?" I told I saw the price tag. Doesn't that seem obvious? Even if not, shouldn't she just go check.
       I have worked many years in retail and have those days where you really hate your job and may not have done my best, but I have never given such poor service like this. So the lady takes the tag and walks off to the registers. Great, now there is no tag on the table and I might not ever see her again. She doesn't give me the impression she will be back to help me. Finally, another salesperson sees that I look stranded in the middle of the store, so she asks if she can help me. Relief! I am grateful! I explain that the situation and she says she will help, but she has to ask a manager. No problem. For fear of losing the one chance I seem to have at getting an answer, so I ask her if I can kind of follow her. She tells me that employees get in trouble for asking managers for help in front of customers. What?! Employees are discouraged from helping customers!!! This is insane. If an employee cannot help, they should seek out a manager and let the customer know that they are attempting to get answers. I have been a retail manager for years and would cringe if one of my employees even thought that was the case!
       I sit where I am and wait for her to return. She does, but instead of telling me the price, she asks if I want to carry it out or have them put it in customer pick-up. She says if I want to pick it up she has to write a ticket, then starts writing it. I say that I am not sure I am going to get it because I do not know the price yet. She ignores this and continues to write the ticket, asking me for my information. I repeat that I want to know the price before deciding to buy the table. She then tells me the price, which is $40 less than the regular price! Really, $40 off for the broken version is your "flea market" price?! They had a coffee table there for $80 and a upholstered (ripped) chair for $70, but they wanted to charge me almost $200 for the broken table. I told her that I did not want to buy it for $40 less than regular price since it was lopsided and damaged. She immediately walked off. I left very disappointed in their service. I will not be returning to West Elm.

The Good:
Dallas has a new ladies' clothing store on Henderson! The new Milk & Honey is super cute, eclectic, and basically, a smaller clone of Anthropologie (but cheaper). The store was decorated in a really fun, down-to-earth way using common item in unexpected ways. I was excited to see that one of the light fixtures I have was displayed in their store. It looks like a barrel or apple crate.

Here are some pics from their store from D Magazine, who declared the store as "awesome." I agree.

If you are ever in the area, you should check it out! The store is next to We Are 1976, which is another really fun store to browse.

The Beautiful:
I received an email from Restoration Hardware that had beautiful pictures of -my favorite- neutral tone, all white rooms with their gorgeous furniture and decor. I love all of it! If I could, I would adorn my whole house in this look. Check it out for yourself.

www.restorationhardware.com