Hello from the Turkish bazaar and future projects

In the past five days, I've purchased no fewer than FIVE 5'x7' rugs (whew, that's a lot of fives!). My front room is starting to look like a Turkish bazaar. Yesterday alone I purchased three of the rugs, two from my new favorite store--Lowe's! I bought a clearanced jute boucle rug for $10--seriously! Regular price was $60. Actually, I got it for $9 because of the 10% discount they generously give to military folks. It has actually crossed my mind that maybe I should go back and get the other two $9 rugs and throw them up on Craigslist and see if I can't make a little profit.

The other rug from Lowe's is for the newly-painted aqua room, and was on clearance for $78 (I also bought a clearance floor lamp for $23--see why Lowe's is my new fave?).

I'm going to return the HomeGoods rug I asked you about in the last post. Design- and color-wise, it's actually my favorite, but even with a rug pad I'm just worried that it won't ever lay nice and flat and will drive me crazy forever. So it's headed back to HomeGoods, along with the other jute rug I purchased for the front room, as is the $50 outdoor rug I bought at Target yesterday morning, also purchased for the front room. Whew!

I finally finished the painting yesterday, exactly one week after I started. That'll teach me to be impatient! I am still proud that I did it myself and love how it turned out, and have several more painting projects in mind for the summer. One of them is this cute dresser,

which I bought at a yard sale on Saturday morning. I like the scalloped piece on the back and the turned front legs (which I think would be made even cuter by the addition of some vintage-style casters). It's not the finest piece of furniture, but I think it will work once it's been repainted and had fun new knobs added. I have it in mind to replace this dresser

which I still love, but have finally come to grips with the fact that it is simply too small for the space. I'm not going to get rid of Short Stack here--it needs a trip to rehab and then it will find another place in my house. I need to scrape off the existing (lead, I'm sure) paint, fix the drawers, and rip off the too-large and warped top and replace it with something nice and solid. I think I'll paint the dresser a creamy white and stain the top dark, a la Miss Mustard Seed.

I also purchased a can of bright red paint to paint my little wooden desk chair, another yard sale find that I don't seem to have a picture of. I bought it from a guy who said he meant to refinish it but never got around to it. For several years I've been fine with the shabby white paint that has hints of blue peeking through, but on one of my many trips to Home Depot last week, was seized with the desire to paint it a pretty red to match the remade vintage curtains from my office re-do:

I'm anxious to get started on all of these projects! Now all I need is for the stupid weather to cooperate so I can get going before I lose my painting mojo.