So far I have shared about how we demo-ed walls and ceilings, removed 40 year old carpets, refinished terrazzo floors, tore out plaster cove moldings, reframed walls, hung drywall, applied new plaster to said walls and ceilings, and painted the walls, ceilings AND closets in the three bedrooms including the connecting hallway. Phew! We were able to get all of this done in about a month which means we were completely worn down to the bone and utterly exhausted both mentally and physically. But we were pretty darn happy about the progress we had made so we definitely weren’t complaining.

At this point were able to thoroughly clean the floors throughout the house which pretty much eliminated the constant kicking up of dust from then on. With the kids’ freshly painted bedrooms as clean as they could possibly be given the circumstances, we were able to unpack some of their toys so they could start to feel more at home. Terrazzo is hard and rather cold so we knew that we would be needing a smattering of area rugs throughout the house, especially for the bedrooms. As luck would have it, West Elm was having a killer 30% off sale right then so we decided to take a break from the nitty gritty and go shopping. Um, yes please. Who doesn’t love West Elm, amiright? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to their website to “window shop” and thanks to the modern marvel that is “browser cookies”, I always have a perpetually filled cart at WestElm.com. I’m so glad that the Tampa Bay area finally got a brick and mortar store! We purchased quite a few rugs to take home and see what would work in our house with the intention of returning what we didn’t want. We decided to keep six (6!!!!) rugs! Oh yeah baby. Christmas in July. Or August or whatever. We bought rug #’s 2 and 4 to use for wall hangings and the rest were for the bedrooms. Check ‘em out.

These were a really fun (and indulgent) purchase for us! It felt comforting to buy something new and particular to this house and it was such a nice break to get out of the “construction” head space and into the “decorating” head space for a minute. But that wasn’t even the best part. The best part was that, on top of getting these beautiful new rugs, we were able to get everything you see below for FREE thanks to a promotion West Elm was running at the time. It was something like if you spend a certain amount, you would get double that amount in credit for “Design Dollars” which you could spend like cash. Say WHAAAAA?!?!

1. I simply adore these gorgeous faceted Bormioli Rocco Cassiopeia glasses. Love love love. They are the most perfect drinking glasses in all the land. We were able to get 12 EACH of the tall cooler glasses and the short double old fashioned glasses. They feel so nice in hand and we couldn’t be happier with them.

2. I love using these cute little Modern Red Wine glasses! I am just not a stemware kind of girl and I’m not really an alcohol kind of girl either actually, but when I want a glass of vino, these casual but classy gems are perfect. Plus, HELLO, dishwasher safe. I avoid hand washing things like the plague and I have to be honest, I have been reaching for my pinot more frequently since I am not rolling my eyes at the thought of washing stemmed wine glasses.

3. We bought two sets of these rustic Olive Wood Coasters and we liked them so much that we bought more and gave some away as Christmas presents. In my opinion, coasters are kind of a necessary evil but I like how these are much more like little pieces of art rather than annoying little pieces of extra clutter.

4. Ok, I had to convince Dave that we needed this Faceted Wood Bulb Lamp but it just spoke so sweetly to my ever geometric-lovin’ heart. (Just like nearly everything else in this whole dang post.)

5. These Glass Bottles with Wood Stoppers are really cute, though not altogether as functional as I thought they’d be. I wanted to maybe store olive oil in one and vinegar in the other but I’ve found that the wooden ball/stopper doesn’t really cover the bottle opening properly, therefore leaving room for dust to get into the contents. ??? Maybe it’s not really a concern but I haven’t put anything in them yet. They are still fun objects to display on my open shelves though!

6. On theme and on trend (oh brother), these Wire Prism Brackets are easily one of my favorite things in our whole house. Except I still haven’t found THE perfect place to put them. I guess since I like them so much I have been very particular about where, how and for what I want to use them. Should they go on a light wall so they stand out or on one of our dark walls so they’re more architectural? Should I use them in the typical 2-brackets-per-shelf kind of way or make individual mini-shelves with one bracket each? (We have have a total of 4 of these.) Should I not put shelves on them at all and use them for some kind of air plant art installation and if so, maybe I should get 4 more of them?. Aye aye aye. Right now you can’t buy the brackets individually but I’m hoping they’ll come back in stock.

7. And now for the “tasty resistance”: This Adjustable Metal Floor lamp is similar to a lamp we had in our living room for years except that is larger, grander and way more stylish and solidly built. I love the classic look of the tripod style and the oversized shade on this one makes such a nice statement. Now that I’ve had it for a while, I am wishing and hoping for an identical one to match it.

By the way, West Elm has nothing to do with this post. I just like them and wanted to share about how we had a stroke of good luck that came at just the right time.