Shopping in the ATL

Yesterday I took my first day trip down to Atlanta since we’ve lived in Knoxville.  It’s about a 3.5 hour drive, which is about my max limit for one day round-trip journeys. Atlanta is a sprawled mess of a city, and I’m really glad I don’t live there.  As I see it, the only reasons to ever travel there again are to see a Braves game or to go shopping.

The primary purpose of the trip was an IKEA run.  My friend had to quickly furnish a guest bedroom on the cheap, and asked me to ride with her in a borrowed SUV.  Free ride to IKEA?  Sold.

I had a pair of curtains in mind for the living room, Stockholm Blad in blue.  And although the online stock checker still says they have two pieces left, the sassy IKEA team member told me that “they been sol’ out a long time.”  So instead, I bought six yards of the blue floral fabric that caught my eye last September in the DC store.

The plan is to make two large curtain panels for the more prominent window in the living room.  They’ll be hung high and wide on a more substantial rod to make the window seem a little bigger.  I might try to borrow someone’s sewing machine to do the edges, but more likely I’ll just use the no-sew method I used in the dining room.

For the other window next to the fireplace, I was hesitant to do matching panels. There isn’t much room on either side of this window, and I was afraid it would look kind of crammed in there and possibly a pattern overload if half the room was draped in the same bold fabric.  So I thought I’d see how it looks with just a cheapie ($4.99 IKEA Lill) set of gauzy white curtains.

I think it looks pretty great for $5.  You couldn’t even buy 6 yards of cheap fabric for that.  It lets plenty of light through, and just makes the window feel a little more dressed without turning it into a focal point.

I tied it over to the side there with an old metal scrap taped to the wall.  Since that might not quite last forever, I want to get a tie back hook thing to screw into the wall.  That might class it up a little.

These glass block lamps were only $15 for a set of 2, and I was thinking they’d solve the problem we have with lack of light on the built-in side of the room.

Definitely solves the lighting problem, but the 60 watt bulbs I got for each one are WAY WAY WAY too bright.  It’s ridiculous.  So I’ll take a better picture for you when I get some less intense ones.  These lamps are a little boring though, I need to think of something heat-safe I can do to liven them up.

I also picked up a bunch of cheap candles and candle holders and junk.  IKEA’s always good for that.

See that handsome wooden vase?  Guess where that’s from?  West Elm!

Yep, there’s a West Elm store less than 1/2 a mile from the IKEA, so we made a quick stop in there after lunch.  I’d never been to an actual West Elm store, but I’ve been drooling over their stupid catalog and website for the last year and a half.

The store was absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to buy everything in sight.  But I exercised restraint and bought only that wooden vase and the zig zag bath mat.

I didn’t know I was in the market for a bath mat until I saw this one.  It’s making me feel better about our fugly bathroom already.

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