Upgrade your bathroom, upgrade your life

Upgrading our bathroom has had some unexpected consequences. Suddenly, our furnishings aren't quite nice enough.

We knew that our existing space saver had to go. Much of it is particle board, and the wood-ish sticker is peeling in some sections. Our new space saver is made of real wood (bamboo), so that upgrade is complete.

But when I was looking at the photos of the new bathroom, a few things stuck out. The first issue was the soap dispenser. A white plastic Dial soap dispenser (probably still has the price sticker on it) is fine on a laminate countertop, but it looks out of place in our posh new digs. And the hand towels--they don't match. They never matched, but now that the rest of the room goes so well together, they have to match, or they'll look out of place.

Last night we went to Home Goods to remedy these issues. We picked up a bronze soap dispenser that matches (mostly) the faucet and also got some beige and green hand towels. We were getting ready to check out when a raging thunderstorm broke out, so we decided to keep shopping.

We kept wandering and discovered some lantern-style lamps that were good candidates for our living room. The current lamps, from Target, are serviceable but have some construction flaws, and we've been on the lookout for replacements.

The storm stopped, and we decided we had done enough damage--B was able to tear me away from the beautiful but enormous patio table that I was swooning over--so we paid and made tracks for home with our new decorating items.

We had only one success--the soap dispenser. The green in the towels clashes terribly with the walls (note to self: bring paint chip the next time we try to decorate our bathroom), and the lamps are wrong, wrong, wrong--too tall, too glarey, and yet not enough light. The lamps and towels are going back.

Let us remember the last time we returned something--a fake plant--to Home Goods. We came home with a sink, and it's been chaos and change ever since! Maybe we should swap the lamps and towels for a fake plant and end this cycle of madness.