Patience is the Key to Decorating

Happy Wednesday! Hope everyone is having a great week! I am already anxious for the weekend to get here! We are still hanging curtains, pictures, artwork, and blinds! Don’t you worry…unfortunately, we are still unloading boxes. How can two people have so much stuff? At this point if it isn’t unloaded, I just want to throw it away. I hate clutter, and our guest bedrooms are currently giving me anxiety!

Last night when I got home, my bench for my dining room had been delivered. I was so pumped, and Eric was too! When I walked through the door, he was already unpacking it and putting it together! To see my dining room put together is a sigh of relief. I was going to share a recipe today, but I decided I wanted to get off topic and share with you my dining room! I have been working on this since November! I know right, since November?! I have to say if you have patience and time, it will save you a ton of money. So I have to share this story of how my WHOLE (Curtains, rug, table, six chairs and a bench) dining room only cost me $1,325 (sorry, it’s long).

New Dining Room

When Eric and I decided to put our home up for sale, I knew it was time to let go of my beloved dining room table. It was beautiful, but I will admit very girly! Since I was now a married women and have to ‘somewhat’ consider my husband’s opinion on décor, I knew it was time for something new. I had actually found my new table a couple weeks before we put the house up for sale, but Eric told me I could only get it if I sold the other. So as soon he told me that, it was now me on a mission. Thanks to a local online Garage Sale page, I was able to sell my table and chairs for asking price! The new table I found was out of our price range, but I kept watching it online and hoping it would go one sale. Well what do ya know it went on sale for $500 cheaper than when I first saw it! While it was still expensive, I got the go ahead from the Hubs. So I put a $545 deposit down, and they were going to hold it for me until our house was complete. I happened to get online the next day, and I saw that it had gone down another $75. While its only $75, bucks I called up there and see if they would honor the sale price. They told me they would, but they would have to give it to me in store credit! Since I am decorating a new house, I said, deal!

Old Dining Room- This was when we first moved in to our old house.

Art was eventually hung!

Fast forward to December. My table got delivered, and my dad went to pick it up. I noticed on the invoice they sent me that the sale price hadn’t been adjusted, and so I brought it to their attention. They said they would fix it and then run my card for the remaining balance.  It had been a couple business days since they ran my debit card and the charge had not hit, so I called back up there. The lady was so sweet and told me that the manager adjusted the price to the sale price. I said awesome! since I actually knew he was going to do that. She then stated that I do not owe them any more money and that I actually have a store credit for $400. I was extremely confused! She continues saying my new table was discontinued, and the store manager honored the current sale price. Ladies and gentleman, I just got this table for $145. I was speechless, thrilled, and will forever be a loyal client of Erdos. If you haven’t ever heard of Erdos, they recently bought I.O Metro! Eric actually introduced me to this store several years ago when we were dating.

My Rug, I knew I wanted a Jute rug, and on Black Friday, it was my task to find one. My mom, Eric’s mom, and I all piled in the car and off to Target we went! I did some research before we left the house to see where the largest inventory was for this rug. I was worried that everyone else was hunting for a Jute Rug on Black Friday. Trussville had the largest stock, and since we were already going to Trussville for some curtains I found (I will get to this later in the post), going to Trussville was a no brainer. This rug was originally $199.99 for a 7x10. It was marked down 25% off for Black Friday, and if you used the Cartwheel App, rugs were an additional 25% off. Lastly, I LOVE Target and have a Red Card which gives you an additional 5% off all purchases and free 2 day shipping for online purchases. I have this linked to my checking account and have never had an issue. They do offer the credit card but that would get me in huge trouble. So with 25% off from Target, 25% off with the cartwheel app, and an additional 5% off with my Red Card, I walked out paying $89.99 for a 7x10 rug.

My Chairs and Bench! I had been looking months for these chairs but refused to pay $203-$300 A CHAIR. I couldn’t talk myself into spending that amount of money, and I think I would have been put out on the streets by my husband if I did. My good friend Anna Frances let me know that World Market had the chairs for $399.98 for a set of 2. This was the cheapest I had seen these chairs. I had a coupon I received in the mail for 15% off a purchase which made the set $339.99. Since I had gotten a good deal on everything else, I talked myself into splurging. Well what do you know the day I go online to research about the matching bench, I see the store was having their largest furniture sale of the year. The set of chairs had now been marked down to $319.98 and with my 15% off they were now $271.98 a set. SOLD, I need 6 chairs please! Only one problem…they only had two in the store and didn’t know when they would be getting more in. Well I only had one coupon so now this had thrown my whole plan off. Well that was until I looked over at a sign and it said, “Sign up for the World Market Rewards Text and receive 15% off your next purchase.” Not only did I sign up, but Eric did too. Ok, back to the game plan. I thought I will just go to the other World Market and see if they have any. Nope, they were out. So, I go online and while they had unlimited stock, it was a $30 surcharge for each chair. So now I’m at a halt again until last weekend. I walked into the Hoover location, and they had gotten four chairs in, but you see it was Saturday and the sale ended Tuesday. The manager happened to be at the register, and I’m pretty sure he recognized me because I had literally been in World Market every day since we moved into this new house. I asked him if there was any way he would honor the sales price, and that last weekend I had bought him out in the linen chairs. He told me he would honor it! So guess what? I grabbed all four chairs. I’ll be honest, the chair ordeal exhausted me but within 1.5 weeks I had all 6 chairs and saved $384.27 just by being patient. Lastly, the bench could only be ordered online, so I had to bite the bullet and pay the surcharge. The bench was originally $279.99 marked down to $223.99 and with the 15% off + surcharge and shipping, I got it for $242.86 (this was cheaper than a set for chairs), and I saved $37.13.

Lastly, the curtains! Ha, I acted like such a snob, but I should really listen to my mother more often! I had my eye on some curtains from West Elm (love that store), but they were still kind of pricy on sale. My mom told me I really need to go look at Tuesday Morning. I have never really been able to find anything in that store and had written it off. Well what do you know, I find my dining room curtains in 96’ length for $29.99. I couldn’t believe it. In our old house, I spent $600 at JCPenney for four pairs of 108’ curtains. At the time, I thought it was a good deal, but I will forever beat myself up over that.  

I often get caught up that we are in a new house, and by week three I think it has to be fully furnished, staged perfectly, and candles lit. Thank god for my husband who brings me back to reality and reminds me that it is ok if we do a little bit at a time. It took me three months to get my dining room all together, but I’m so thankful that I had patience because it saved us a ton of money!

So the moral of the story is…try new stores, never be afraid to ask, patience can save you money, and your mother is always right. 

Target- 7x10 Jute Rug

Erdos at Home- Howard Dining Table (Zinc Table Top and Rustic Wood Base)

World Market- Paige Dining Chairs and Paige Bench (Linen)

Tuesday Morning- 96' Linen Curtains