Getting Started On The New Space

You may remember from this post that my mom has been working on buying a condo in Madison.  She closed on it last week and we spent the rest of the week shopping like crazy!  We have been to 4 furniture stores, a mattress store, our favorite antique store and the fabric store twice.  I'm exhausted!

The process of shopping for someone else's home is a challenge.  I mean unless they give you their credit card and say I will be back in a week do whatever you want (OMG can you imagine how fun that would be), you are working within someone else's vision and taste.  Which is not a bad thing, my mom should go with her gut rather than mine, she is the one who is going to live there!  But I tend to like more geometric patterns and they only remind her of dresses she wore in the 70's.  She is drawn to blues when I am drawn to greens.  And she selected richer tones when I was thinking more modern and neutral.  But I think (and really hope) I did a good job of letting her take the lead and just adding my opinion along the way.  I also think the space is going to look great!

So here is a little preview of what we have in the works.

My mom has a beautiful rug which she plans to use in the main living space so we set out to find a couch that would work with it.

We found this couch which is the perfect size for the space, very comfy as well as kid friendly.  The red it was displayed in was really red! You know, that red you get on your toes in the summer.  Great for pedicures...a lot for the main piece of furniture in a small space. 

So we decided to go for this more toned down red instead.

(The pic doesn't really show the true color, but it is a more orange & rich red then the one above, I promise!)

We also found a great two tone pedestal table but of course I forgot to take a picture, oops.  But it is from the same line as the bar stools we purchased a few months back.  Remember these?

Well, the table looks just like them...only round :)  The next item on the list was to select fabric for the headboard I will be making for the master bedroom.  This was more of a process.  We were initially leaning toward a light blue / grey fabric with a small pattern of the same color but once we found the couch we had to rethink that.  The condo is small so all the rooms do need to coordinate somewhat and the cool tones of the blues and subdued pattern were not working with the richness of the red.  So we went back to the fabric store and ended up with this.

I LOVE this fabric!  It was slightly outside my mom's comfort zone at first but I subtly talked her into it.  And I can't wait to work with it!  (I'm hoping there will be a little extra fabric for a pillow for me....sshhhh.)


So she still needs a coffee table, big comfy reading chair for the grandaughters' room and a home for the TV.  She is thinking about the this piece from Crate & Barrel for the TV. 


So it is a work in progress, but we are having a great time along the way!

And P.S. if you are following my $250 Challenge none of this is part of it.  Nothing better then getting to enjoy some shopping but not having to fork over the cash :)