Wallpaper, Dressers, and Craigslist…Oh My!!

I decided on a wallpaper…yay! Thank so much for your input yesterday.

The clear favorite among those who voted was this pretty light brown damask:

And all day long, the second place wallpaper was this one:

(although now I’ve noticed that this one has dropped into third place.)

So yesterday, I took both of these over to the house to see what they looked like in the room. Of course, all of the surfaces in the room will be changed–no more pinkish beige carpet, and no more blue walls. But I still wanted to see how the light in the room affected how these look. So I propped them up against the wall and took a pic–a rather blurry pic because I had my camera set for close-ups and didn’t realize it. Oh well.

The clear winner in my opinion was option 6, the one on the right. I like that it’s a truer brown, whereas the damask on the left looks orange. I also really like the touches of black (or really, really dark brown…whatever it is) that run through it. I think it will look great with the antiqued black dresser that I will be painting for the room. I also like that this wallpaper had the least amount of metallic stuff on it. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but the damask had a slight metallic background. I just have a slight aversion to metallic wallpaper.

So the overall look will be something like this:

Thanks again for the input!! Your help in narrowing down those options was invaluable. Oh, and Alice loved it, too!

Now, speaking of dressers…

If you follow the Addicted 2 Decorating Facebook fan page, you know that I’ve been searching diligently on Craigslist for a dresser to use in this room. The other day, I thought I had found one. I called, asked questions about the dresser, and she assured me it was made of wood, the drawers worked properly, and it was a beautiful dresser. So my mom and I made the 35-minute trip to pick up the dresser.

When we got there, the dresser was sitting outside. Immediately, I could tell it wasn’t exactly what she led me to believe. It was, in fact, particle board with a plasticized paper “veneer” printed to look like wood, the drawers didn’t close properly, and the bun feet were plastic. She wanted $85 for a particle board/paper/plastic dresser!! Needless to say, I said “thanks, but no thanks”.

So yesterday morning, I searched Craigslist again, and came upon this cute little dresser for $60:

I could tell just by looking at the picture that this was, in fact, real wood. So after verifying that all of the drawers worked properly, I told her that I wanted to purchase it, and would come pay and pick it up whenever she would be there.

So about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, she called to say I could come get the dresser. I happened to be sitting in the floor of John and Alice’s bedroom looking at wallpaper at that moment, and couldn’t find a pen to write down the address and directions. So I said, “Well, just tell me the address, and I’ll try to remember it.”

As she started saying the address, I realized that was MY address!! She continued, explaining that it was a gated condo complex, and I would need her to let me in. I said, “I know…that’s where I live!” I told her the number of my condo, and as it turned out, she was RIGHT NEXT DOOR to me!! Oh my…it’s a small world.

She doesn’t actually live there…it’s her fiance who lives there, and they’re about to get married so he’ll be moving out. But the funny thing was, she said, “Oh, so are you the one who’s always outside painting and building things?” lol…I’m sure my neighbors love me. 😀

Anyway, the dresser was perfect. And the cute little louvered drawer in the middle adds a unique touch. I’ve never seen one like that. I can’t wait to get to work transforming this piece. I plan to do an antiqued black finish, something like this:

So many projects, so little time….so I guess I better get started!

Have a great weekend!