Some recent purchases

I've been doing some buying for the red brick building this week.  First of all, I ordered a bed for our master bedroom.  This was huge as I really haven't had a proper bed since childhood and for some reason choosing one feels like a huge commitment.  Also, the one I'd been eying (and which I finally bought) is non-returnable, so there's no easy out if I change my mind.  Plus there's a 6-8 week wait between ordering it and receiving it, which feels like an eternity for furniture.  The bed I settled on is the Chesterfield Upholstered Bed with no footboard from Restoration Hardware:

I got it in the color shown, "Natural", and chose their antique velvet fabric.  Since I like to read in bed, an upholstered headboard really seemed like the way to go, though I love the look of antique wood or even patinated metal headboards.  Can't stand footboards because they make me feel hemmed in and I'm always banging into them.  Love tufting.  Plus I think the Chesterfield style reads a little masculine and our bedroom needs a few "guy" elements so it doesn't degenerate into a girly princess space and make my fiance feel less than totally manly.

My next buy was a chandelier, also for the bedroom.  It's fully returnable with no restocking fee (unlike on almost *all* lighting websites) so if it looks cheap in person, back it goes! 

I like that it keeps the intricate brass theme going.  (The walk-in closet has a brass and crystal chandelier and the entryway to the master suite has a brass flush mount.)  It seems like the right size, which was unbelievably difficult to find, since our room is longer than the average bedroom but with a  9 foot ceiling that most wider chandeliers won't accommodate.  Plus it will give off a lot of light: 6 bulbs, up to 60 watts each.  I also like the idea of the pleated shade, which softens the hardness of the metal, warming things up for a bedroom.  It's less expensive than many of the other chandelier options I'd been considering, too, so the price doesn't feel bad.

My old oriental rug that's currently in our dining room is too small for the space and I think the colors will look better in our bedroom, so I'll be moving it upstairs and replacing it with a natural fiber rug.  Since I first saw photos of them on the floors of English country estates, I've loved the look of traditional English apple rush rugs.  Unfortunately they're really expensive for natural fiber rugs and since we're splurging in a lot of other places (the rug in the living room, for starters) I want to try to get the look for less.  So I found this flat braided jute rug, with has extremely good reviews and is fully returnable if I don't like the look or quality when it arrives:

And I'm not complaining that it's 2/3 the price of a similar Pottery Barn item.  I think it might be a nice bridge between the rustic feel of the kitchen and the fancier look I'd like for the living room and dining room.

The last purchase was the numbers for the outside of the RBB:

I bought them in the zinc finish and plan to spray paint them black and affix them to the brickwork above the entry buzzer/intercom plaque.  The font isn't anything to write home about but I like the scale (6" tall and looks deep) and I really needed to pick something because the fire department made us put up temporary numbers and they look super sad.

I also found some mailboxes for the front entryway:

Getting the right dimensions and finding something with character was very challenging.  Everything that was close was 5 or 6 inches deep and we can only have up to 4 inches, since I'm planning to hang them under the handrail that's just inside the front door, and I don't want them to stick out past the railing.  These are 3 inches deep.  They're out of stock but expect to have more within a couple of weeks, so I plan to order them then.

Lastly, not a purchase but we're getting close: When we were in New Orleans last weekend we visited dozens of antique stores in search of chandeliers, especially for the living room and dining room.  One store had several we liked, though they're expensive.  Maybe we'll be able to settle on something from there.  It would be really great to have some lighting in those rooms when we move in.