Decorating and Jumping the Gun

My food and fashion blog is about to turn into a “holy shit I’m decorating my first grown-up home” blog. You excited? YOU READY!? I put in an application on an apartment last week (still waiting to hear back) and in the meantime, I’ve started scouring Craigslist, West Elm, Target, Design Within Reach, Crate & Barrel, and Antique stores for the perfect mix of furniture and accessories with which to decorate my new space.

In Chicago, I didn’t have regular access to a car so when I moved in, I bought all of my furniture at Ikea in a hectic two hour spree then proceeded to panic that I wouldn’t be able to get it all up to the 17th floor where I lived in the tiny 4 hour window we were allotted for moving. I had to make quick decisions and ended up buying more furniture than I needed. I really loved my space in Chicago but due to the TINY college sized budget I had and a lack of time or means to acquire pieces with more personality, my apartment looked a bit like a bachelor pad (not that I’m complaining).

This time around, I want to SLOWLY and thoughtfully furnish my space. I want pieces with stories. I want fixer-uppers that actually get fixed-up. I want to try my hand at building some of my own furniture (thanks in advance for the help, dad). I’ve been GLUED to Emily Henderson’s blog because it’s like inspiration-central over there and as soon as I sign a lease for my new space I’ll be in full decorating mode.

This weekend, I bought my first piece of furniture for my new home. This chair is a fabulous vintage, tufted chair and, oddly enough, is from a thrift shop in Chicago (it’s my chair soul-mate). The sweet lady I purchased it from just happened to be a blogger and I promised her the chair was heading to a good new home. You can check out her fabulous blog right here. And you can see my amazing chair below…

So, as I start on this journey I want to reach out to you. Do you have any sources for decorating that you love? Where do you buy rugs, curtains, couches, kitchen ware, linens, and shelves? Are you a shopper who likes to buy the final project or do you scour garage sales in hopes of finding a diamond in the rough that you can polish? I’d love to hear!