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Here's a fun little game for today: What is your favorite purchase for your home? Was it an impulse or planned? It can be anything, from a vase you thrifted for $1 to a swimming pool you added for $50,000+. Are you the only one in your home who enjoys it, or do others too?
My Favorite Purchases for My Home
Hmmmn… a few things come to mind right away, although I'm sure the commenters will inspire more thoughts…
Blue vases. A while ago I saw an estate auction for a lot that included a ton of small blue vases. I really like blue so I bid on and bought the lot for about $30, figuring it would be a win if I kept a few of the vases and then Goodwill'd the rest. But instead I really like all of them and have them scattered around Casa Griffin, often displayed on windows or in groupings.
There was even a blue glass mantlepiece clock that I didn't even focus on while purchasing it that turns out to look absolutely gorgeous when the sun reflects through it.
(I did have to buy a new clockpiece for it on Amazon for about $20 because the older clock didn't work, but it was worth it!)
Paint. This is going to sound weird but in recent years I've never regretted painting walls, even though I still feel like my baseline is white walls. We even painted the ceiling in one room a medium blue and it makes me so happy!
It wasn't always thus — in my very first apartment after college, my roommate and I put up a fake wall to create a second bedroom, and we decided to paint the fake wall a “bright, cheerful yellow” so it didn't feel too dark in the kitchen/shared area. Let me tell you: Finding the right yellow is very difficult, and it still makes me wince to think of what a yuck yellow it was.
I'm always incredibly wary of wallpaper, having grown up in homes with peeling and/or gross wallpaper, but we're going to try to wallpaper our powder room soon — I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
Top down, bottom up window shades. We got these for a number of windows and I really love them — they bring privacy but a ton of natural light. I keep the ones in our bedroom entirely closed but for the top quarter or so of the window, and I love it because I can wake up with gentle natural light. (I also like that I can sometimes see the moon.)
Smart lights. I've always thought that overhead lights aren't great — they're just way too bright in the evening — but walking around and turning on a bunch of lamps can be a pain in the butt. (Yes, I am incredibly lazy.) So I really love being able to put smart lights in, set up automations so they go on just before sunset and mostly turn off before my youngest's bedtime. It makes our home feel intentionally lit but cozy also.
I mostly buy Hue these days, but I've tried a bunch of different lights — they all work well but it's a bit like food storage containers in that you should pick one brand and stick with it. (Otherwise you'll end up with a billion apps that need updates and maintenance.)
Plug-in sconces for above our bedside tables. I'm one of those people who keeps way too much stuff on my bedside table, and it eventually felt really crowded to have a lamp on the table. So we bought some gorgeous plug-in sconces from Rejuvenation a few years ago, and they still make me happy. (As do the warm Edison lights we have in the sconces.)
Readers, how about you — what have been your favorite purchases for your home?
Anonymous
Interior shutters for our main road home. They were expensive so we put them off. We got them after 6 years in the house and wished we had done it earlier- but because it was so spendy we wouldn’t have done the whole house and I’m really glad we waited and did it.
Anonymous
1. Bed – very comfy mattress enhances quality of life
2. Washing machine – laudry is miserable without access to a good machine
3. Art
Anon
Leather Eathan Allen Couch.
anon
small solar installation + home battery system. it kicks in automatically if there’s a power outage. medical need prompted spending the not insignificant time and money on the system, but it’s such a wonderful luxury to not have to worry about food in the fridge when there’s a power outage.
Anon
We also got a home generator – also in light of a family member with a medical issue – and it has surprisingly helpful and useful.
My dream is solar + heat pump.
Anon
My piano. It was an obsession shopping for it, and more of a splurge than I expected. It’s a 1911 Steinway O, which is a “parlor grand”, bigger than a baby grand, smaller than a concert grand, and it’s the original deep mahogany color. It’s gorgeous to look at, and more importantly, gorgeous to play.
Anon
Do you, essentially, have a whole room devoted to it?
I would love to have a music room….
Anon
I do! It’s my living room. The TV is in a spare bedroom we call “the TV room”
:)
Anon
I should probably add – the living room still has a couch and all of that. It’s a weirdly long room, so the piano is at one end and the traditional living room furniture is at the other end.
Anonymous
Uzbek Kilim
Antique Tibetan painted wooden chest
Bone inlay tables
Antique carved teak coffee table
Beds and mattresses
Everything sparks joy.
Mpls
New full-screen storm windows that open from the top and bottom for the double hung windows that are original to my 1940s house. And updating the lift mechanism for the windows so that they are air-tight and tilt-out for cleaning.
The previous edition were only 1/2 screen and both panes opened from the bottom. Meant you couldn’t full utilize the double hung nature of the windows.
Laura
A custom built planter box. We didn’t have a lot of space for gardening in our postage stamp sized yard, so this was a delight.
Anonymous
So many things!
Most recently, though, is the silent butler I found at a second-hand store. I know technically it’s a man’s thing, but I love setting out my next day’s outfit on it.
Anon
Love this post. I live in NC and my favorite purchase for this seventy year old house is a Karastan rug I bought in new-with-tags condition from a woman who had worked at the Karastan factory in Eden.
Anonymous
I also love the top-down bottom-up shades! We have a huge, gorgeous front window, but I’ve made eye contact with too many passers by through it. Now we keep the top down about a quarter of the way to let in natural light, raise the bottom a few inches to allow the pets to birdwatch, and the rest of the shade gives us more privacy.
I also am so happy to finally upgrade to a king size bed. It takes up most of the bedroom, but we each have an office so we really only sleep and keep clothes in the bedroom anyways. With a partner and pets, having more space really improved my quality of sleep. I no longer wake up at 3 am rolling off the side.