Shopping Meant for A Nursury Rug & Curtain Fabric

You all remember where we left off when it comes to the big nursery makeover, right? We painted the walls a pleasant pear color and brought in a splash of light aqua to the ceiling:

Well… then it was time to go shopping. And not simply any kind of shopping. Seriously determined we-have-a-goal-and-we will-make-fifty-stops-if-we-have-to shopping. And that goal was a lofty one. We set out on a Saturday morning with the hope of hunting down five distinct items for the lately painted nursery by that quite evening:

• Some sort of light fixture, either a big lively patterned pendant lamp or some sort of playful and sweet chandelier
• A plush 5 x 8′ 100% wool rug (without any rubber backing or synthetic materials since we are trying to keep the nursery as VOC-free as possible)
• Tons and tons of fabric to create three curtain panels (two for the window and one for the now-doorless nursery closet)
• A plain clean-lined curtain rod to hang the aforementioned window panels once they are made
• A vibrant mirror that will hang across from the window to reflect light around the room, thereby brightening the space)

That is a fairly specific list, eh? We did not even truly think it was possible, but we do our best under pressure so we listed all the items that we hoped out loud a few times- simply so we had something to strive for. And what do you know… we in fact returned home with every single item on our list! Sure it took us nearly seven hours of driving around and ducking into nearly eight stores, but we got ‘er done. Plus we did this all on the same morning that we picked up our nursery paint. Yeah, we were not kidding when we said it was a serious shopping blitz. Here is what our back seat looked like after a long (did I mention long?) day of shopping:

We are in fact approaching the transformation of this room simply as we did all the other rooms in our house except for the recent basement and full bathroom makeover that we shared. In those instances we whipped up a mood board of sorts beforehand (check out the bathroom one here and the basement one here). But when it came to every other room here at Casa Petersik, we decorated in stages and took a let us-see-what-we-find-and-go-from-there approach. The funny thing is that both methods are fairly parallel when you think about it.

Making a mood board typically involves us finding an item that we enjoy and drawing inspiration from that single item’s style and/or color (be it a rug or a pillow or even a drawer pull) and building a room around it. So when we whip up mood boards we might start with a graphic patterned rug which leads us to other furnishings and accessories that seem to complement and play up all the things that we liked about the initial piece that began the whole board. Similarly, when we shop around and take a less pre-planned mood-board-ish approach, we typically still find something that gets us thinking in a certain direction, and from there we find other items that complement that initial item. There is simply more of an open plan with the second approach, since it is not like we hop online and order everything in one fell swoop. Instead we sort of let things happen organically and do some lively pavement pounding over the course of a few weeks (or even months and -gasp- years) to create a room that we enjoy in the end. Of course with a baby girl coming along in less than four months we do not truly have years to devote to this room, but we certainly do not have to finish it within a week or two either.

So on this particular Saturday we did not have any pre-planned mood board to follow, we simply had our cheerful pear and aqua walls as a starting point of sorts (pointer: consistently bring your paint chips with you when you shop, so you can hold them up and see how they “play” with new items that you are eying). The first stop was a local discount fabric store here in Richmond called The Interior Outlet. The first bolt of playful and graphic pattern to catch our eye was this print with a richer and brighter version of both our pear wall color (seen in the flowers) and our light aqua ceiling color (seen in the leaves). But although we liked the bold design, we wondered if there was something a bit less über modern and a smidge more modern-meets-traditional (since we envisioned clean lines and punchy patterns in the room without much stark white- and with a bit more of a charming lived-in look).

And then we saw this beauty. As Carrie on Sex & The City would say: well hello, lover. It truly was enjoy at first sight. Everything from the slightly deeper aqua background to the modern yet charming print felt warm and sweet and ideal for our little beanette. Plus when we held up our paint swatches they felt like they would seamlessly create the ideal backdrop for our new go-to fabric in the world. The other amazingly fortuitous thing about this particular fabric is that it is in fact an indoor/outdoor textile made by P Kaufmann/Waverly (which still feels soft and billowy to the touch, but is not only fade resistant but dirt, water, and wear resistant). Um, could it be more ideal for a little girl’s room?

And the $14.99 a yard price was nowhere near where most designer fabrics typically range, but it was not exactly $2 a yard either. Especially because we needed tons of it to make two floor-to-ceiling window curtains plus a third curtain to use in lieu of a closet door. But when we did the math and deduced that each of the three panels that we needed would be around $35 a pop (plus we’d have a few feet of extra fabric to play with when it was all said and done) we chose to make our move. After all, the rest of our home’s breezy white curtains were simply $7 each (thanks Ikea!) so we reasoned that splurging simply this once for our baby girl was ok- especially because we are fairly sure these babies will MAKE the room. Well, along with the other baby of course.

Plus we found the ideal clean-lined oil-rubbed bronze curtain rod with little ring hooks (will not they look so posh for a bambino?) on clearance at Target for a total of $12 (for two packs of rings and the rod!). So we felt further vindicated that our custom made curtains would be well worth it in the end. Spoiler alert: we have since made them and they nearly made me cry with joy when we hung them up. Yeah they are that good (stay tuned for that post early next week).

But back to our Saturday shopping spree. Here I am standing in front of the fabric store proudly showing off our new fabric and my baby bump. Side note: everyone, including fabric vendors, is nicer to you when you are pregnant. No, we did not get a discount or anything but they were all smiles and treated me like a preferred customer. I could get used to this…

Ok, but back to the search. We checked off fabric and a rod but still had three more boxes to tick off: overhead lighting, a rug, and a mirror. So we headed over to a store that we knew could potentially kill at least two birds with one stone (that expression is kind of gross when you think about it). It is called The Decorating Outlet, and it is in fact a local shop that we hit up from time to time- simply to see what they have. And what do you know… they had THE IDEAL CHANDELIER. Everyone knows that I am a sucker for capiz, and this capiz shell chandelier was aqua! Hello? Can you picture the glad dance that ensued (complete with some belly-holding to make sure not to jostle the beanette more than necessary)?

Yeah, it was kind of epic. And the strong thing is that the nursery is in fact visible from our bedroom (and vice versa, they are right across the hall from each other) so we enjoy that this longer and punchier capiz chandy in the nursery will be visible from our room which boasts a wider and more subdued white version. It is like they are related but not too matchy-matchy. Nearly like our bedroom chandelier had a sweet playful little baby and we adopted it for the nursery across the hall. And I have not even told you the best part yet. It was marked down from $125 to $50. Sold!

Here is a sneak peek of it hanging up with our lighter aqua ceiling and the lively pear wall in the background. We enjoy the texture and the sort of childlike magic that it brings to the space. And we mentioned that it was longer than the one in the bedroom, right? In fact we feared that we might have to snip a few discs off the bottom since John’s a tall guy and we did not want him walking into it, but it is ideal as is! Long and dramatic but totally walk-under-able. Whew.

But the party did not stop there. We knew the lighting outlet also had rugs, and thanks to an “end-of-season-clear-out” (which may or may not go on all year round- you know how those signs act like something is special but sometimes it is consistently in effect?) all of their in-stock rugs were 50-75% off! As we mentioned we truly hoped an 100% wool rug (without any rubber backing or synthetic materials since we are trying to keep the nursery as VOC-free as possible) and they had a bunch on hand for us to choose from.

Unfortunately many of them had a bit of lively pattern, which was pleasant but we knew that we hoped our patterned curtains to be the star so we pulled out rug after rug in search of something plain, plush, 100% wool, and not three hundred dollars (even with the 50%- 75% off sale, many rugs were originally $800+ so they were still far beyond our budget). Then we saw a light blue 5 x 8 100% wool rug that was pleasant and cushy (and swanky- it was in fact hand knotted). Our plush light blue find was not exactly as aqua as the ceiling, but it was a soft powder blue and it was marked down from $399 to $99. Uh, yes please! We chose to buy it and see how it looked and if it was a bit too cool (and not aqua-ish sufficient to work with the ceiling, the chandy, and the curtains) we’d simply bring it back. Thank goodness we snagged it because when we got home and put everything into the space it totally worked. And we in fact remarked that we were glad it was not light aqua like the ceiling since the more subdued gray undertone will certainly hide a lot more dirt and create some pleasant layered interest in the room. Score.

Then it was time to mirror hunt so we swung through TJ Maxx and then Marshall’s (which are fairly much our mirror holy grails, along with Home Goods) where we spotted this large and in charge stunner for… wait for it… $39. That is fairly much unheard of for such a giant and detailed 30″ solid wood mirror. And of course we do not plan to keep it black so you will simply have to wait and see what color we are going to paint it. Hint: it is not going to be white- I know, we are simply shocking you left and right today.

So that is how we hit up a slew of stores over the course of about seven hours and returned with a car full of stuff (poor Burger truly had to pee by the time we got home to rescue him). We must admit that our shopping trips are not typically this fruitful, we simply happened to be at the right places at the right time and did our best to see the promise in things that might not consistently look exactly right for a baby girl’s room (like the dramatic black mirror above). Oh and we devoted seven hours to the cause. Did we mention it was a long day of shopping? Because it was.

It is also fairly cool that about 70% of our finds hailed from small local businesses (not only did we get our paint from a green boutique here in Richmond, but the rug, chandelier, and fabric all came from local outlets that we found either by driving by them or looking them up in the Yellow Pages. The lesson: do not forget to check out specialty stores in your area, do some googling, and even ask the neighbors for suggestions when you are on the hunt for something that you cannot seem to find at Target or Marshall’s. Of course two of our items (the curtain rod and the mirror) came from those big box stores so it truly is a fairly balanced bounty. It simply goes to show you that you never know where you will find your next deal, but if you keep an eye out and set out with a serious mission you simply might come home with a packed car and a whittled down to-do list. Now we simply need furniture, art, and storage galore…

But what about you folks? Do you have any go-to local haunts where you consistently score something special? Any big box stores that leave you giddy over the big box deals that they dole your way? Let us talk about that serendipitous feeling of finding the right thing for the right price. There is got to be at least one thing in your house that you cannot believe you snagged for such a steal.

Psst- Wanna see the nursery transformation from the quite beginning? Here is our first post about clearing the room and here is our second one about painting the walls and ceiling.