This weekend, our bedroom received an unintentional and unplanned makeover.
As I mentioned in my last post, we bought new table lamps for our bedside tables. I think the lamps were the inspiration for the other purchases.
The lamps looked a little off in the room, and not because there was anything wrong with them. B's lamp was about 8 inches shorter than mine because his bedside table was considerably smaller than mine. My bedside table is part of our bedroom set, but an additional table didn't fit on B's side. We found a substitute table (which came from my parents' house and which I have been carting around with me since college), but it is too short and has no drawers or shelving. And it has seen better days. It was time for something new.
Our search for a new table took us all over town and through several websites. There were ok options at target.com, but you never know if your Target furniture is actually going to fit together correctly. Ikea had an ok option but it was more than we wanted to spend (and was technically for a bathroom, not that that would have stopped us). We finally found a fine enough and reasonably priced table at a nearby Marshall's, and it fits great. The color isn't an exact match, but from a distance, you can't tell.
While engaging in the Great Table Search, we found ourselves in our neighborhood TJ Maxx in the bedding department. I have been looking on and off for a new bedspread. Our current spread (whom we call Big Red), while beautiful, is starting to show her age and has a few tears. I saw a divine blue and brown bed-in-a-bag set and asked B what he thought. He liked it, so we bought it and decided that we could always return it if we decided that we wanted to stick with Red.
We got the new spread home, and the idea of even taking Red off the bed was heartbreaking to me! I didn't realize how attached to her I had become. I bought her after using a hand-me-down mattress and not-nice-enough-to-hand-anyone bedspread (from WalMart) for my last year of college and my first year and a half of post-college poverty. Red, along with a new mattress, transformed my bedroom into something that was shockingly adult like.
Red moved with me to several apartments, and she was on my bed when B first saw my bedroom. "Whoa!" was his reaction when he saw her. "That's quite a statement!" She transformed my 8x10 cell-like bedroom into a sanctuary of opulence and warmth. She inspired me to make my bed every day because my room looked sooo much better with a neatly arranged bedspread.
But now, four years after I got her, Red is breaking down, and she can't be working full-time anymore. It doesn't make replacing her any easier, though. While the new spread was attractive in the store, I had daydreams about mailing it off to faraway friends so we could get it out of the house and continue using Red. Irrational, I know. I decided to give the new spread a 3-week trial period. He's starting to grow on me. He's a little puffier than Red, and a little lighter, too, but still as warm. He's more understated, with clean and simple lines. It's hard letting Red go, but I know that she'll just be in our blanket chest and can be brought out at any time.
Rest in peace, Red. You will never be forgotten.
