I Love You, Nate Berkus (P.S. I bought things.)

I know I'm not the only person who experiences great joy from shuffling things around in my house and making the rooms feel fresh and semi-new.  It's not surprising for my husband to arrive home and find the guest room artwork in the living room and different bedding in our room, or for me to dramatically declare that _____ is so boring and I don't like it anymore.

My most recent bout of restlessness is Nate Berkus' fault.  You see, he launched an amazing line of fabrics at Calico Corners and it's basically perfect. 

I stopped in to check it out when I was off work on Friday, and then I had a great idea to bring in more pattern on our sofa, and then I left with an order for 1 yard of each the fabrics below so that I can have some pillow covers made.  

(The ikat dots are from another line, but I loved it and all three were $29/yd before the $20 off coupon came into play)

Then, I found this lamp from Nate's Fall line at Target for $9.99.  It's going somewhere as soon as I procure a cheap-chic shade for it.

I may also move our gold framed Italy photos out into the living room and hang in a row over the flat screen (that sits on a low media cabinet) to create a gallery wall of sorts with the existing sunburst mirror and maybe an abstract piece that I do not own yet.  Kind of like how Sarah Richardson did here.

Now, I need to keep making progress in this room and finally replace my hand me down tables that I don't like.  Unfortunately, I think my best coffee table option is going to be to have something built.  My taste is pretty simple, and I don't have a lot of room in our current (and only feasible) furniture arrangement, so I'm hoping to find a local carpenter who doesn't charge too much for 40"x18"x18" table that looks West Elm-esque.  If you have any recommendations, please pass them along!  I'm hoping to keep it under $400, if possible.

I also need to strip and refinish our god awful clearance dining table (it has great bones, but the finish did NOT hold up well) and procure some new chairs since my 70 year old Craigslist set is officially falling apart.  I went and fell in love with these at West Elm, and am scared to buy others sight unseen.  So, if you also know about a great place in Dallas where I can shop for chairs besides the main chains and some vintage stores,  please share that too.

And that, my friends, is what occupies my mind these days.  Thanks for sticking with this brain dump of a post for so many inches... if you made it this far.  :)