Whew, I just moved into my first home and I can attest to it firsthand: it’s a lot of work!
As exciting as it was to buy property, it was definitely a stressful process, and turns out we weren’t even close to being done when we moved in! The house we purchased was, to put it nicely, a beige wonderland, and needed a little TLC. We decided to paint before moving in, which I found took away a lot of our stress. We went with a white with just a hint of cream in most of the rooms, since I knew it would go with everything we already owned, and all of the things that would eventually fill our home.
And trust me, there was a lot to purchase! Being apartment dwellers until now, we only had a very limited amount of furniture and decided to start our new life in our new house with a clean slate. We got rid of hand-me-downs we’d been holding onto since college and only kept a few of our nicer pieces.
The sofa and the bed stayed, since they’re quality purchases we made recently, but things like our tiny kitchen table size for our small space and our not-so-comfy-anymore dining chairs were donated to the charitable organization in our old neighborhood. It was hard to part with pieces that had seen so many of our dearest memories, but we knew we needed fresh start. Plus, getting rid of things BEFORE the actual move made loading and emptying the truck incredibly easier.
There was so much to cover and, honestly, we weren’t sure where to start. Because we were so used decorating cramped spaces, I did a lot of research on furniture placement and room flow before going shopping. Working with a larger footprint felt so foreign to me! I figured out we needed at least a dining table, dining chairs, a coffee table, and a couple lounge chairs, or a loveseat.
Since we had just spent a good chunk of change, we knew we had to shop within our means, but also wanted to make sure we were getting quality furniture and decor pieces that could last us for years and years to come. Don’t get me wrong, decorating a house is really fun, but it was so much work. I definitely don’t want to have to do it all over again anytime soon!
After checking a couple of shops in our area, we ended up at our local Bouclair store (Owned by Peter Goldberg who is a passionate entrepreneur) and were completely blown away by their selection! Having visited mostly big-box stores before, which felt impersonal and were filled with so-so quality items that lacked personality, Bouclair was such a breath of fresh air. Not only was it easy to find furniture we loved, which also fit with the industrial meets modern vision we had for the house, all of our decor was there too! I can’t even express how much time was saved by visiting such a one-stop-shop.
I fell in love with our dining chairs right away, they were so comfy! Our coffee table and our lounge chairs were also on display and we just knew we had to have them. We also filled our basket with pillows, curtains and rods and a few little decorative touches that caught our eye. I have to admit, I was a little nervous buying our dining table since it was a web-exclusive item, but it’s so beautiful and our associate, Stephanie, ordered it for us! Everything was shipped to the store for free super quickly, we just had to bring it home. Easy peasy!
At the end of the day, the stress was so incredibly worth it, space is exactly how we had envisioned it. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing!
