*This series is made in collaboration with Chase Freedom Unlimited. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I’m back with the next stage of our kitchen decor project. Last month was all about purchasing our lights, sink faucet and cabinet pulls. It’s so exciting and fun to really start seeing my vision come together, especially as my pieces come in. But y’all sometimes excitement masquerades as frustration initially. Fortunately for us, we had a plan and used our Chase’s Freedom Unlimited cash back credit card, so those moments of frustration were a minor hurdle that turned into great learning points. I want to share three of these learning points with you since our last project check-in.
You Don’t Have to Pay Someone to Manage YOUR Vision
Back in my first post, I mentioned that one of our key steps of this kitchen decor project was establishing a budget, which we did and have largely stuck by it. Actually we’ve been beating our budget and one of the major areas that I’ve been able to trim was a consultation with a local designer. Now don’t get me wrong, eventually, I want to work with this woman, as her work is amazing! But once I started really getting in a mental place to plan and budget and started shopping, I realized that I could save that $500 dollar (consultation fee) and reinvest it back into our home. Again, I’m not knocking any designers but I really knew what I wanted and I thought I needed someone to validate me. When in reality all I needed was a little design inspiration and a challenge. I’m so happy to be enjoying this challenge and actually looking at it as an opportunity to flex my DIY/crafting muscles. Maybe my husband will finally agree to letting me lay the wood floors upstairs. Yeah, I’m already thinking ahead with confidence and of course, my Chase Freedom Unlimited card which gets me 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
Small Mistakes Don’t Mean Your Vision Itself is a Mistake
As my own personal home designer, I had to learn a quick lesson that was fortunately not too costly: that item that you think is “it” may not actually be it when you see it in your home and in your space. An example of this was when we received the original cabinet pulls they just didn’t pop enough, not one bit. We have dark cabinets and the dark brushed bronze with copper edging on top of our cabinets just got lost in a sea of brown. So we had to go back to square one on the cabinet pulls. This is what home decor projects are all about. Make a plan, make a budget, and then change it all as you actually start sourcing and purchasing. This was a minor setback that cost me a few dollars, but hey I saved a heck of a lot more by hiring myself ????.
One Woman’s Old Stuff is Another Woman’s New Find
My husband calls me the local Facebook Marketplace Queen because I enjoy selling stuff in order to make room and create a budget surplus for new things I really want, and I’m pretty good at it too. Since our last post, I sold several items and we used that toward upgrading our table—that I also found on sale. You see when you’re motivated to complete a project you’ll get real creative on how you go about getting things you want. All my husband could do was chuckle and load cars as happy buyers came to secure their new items. So that puts me up another $250, winning!
Be Patient, But Be Persistent
I’m not going to share names but we’ve had one vendor that has been hard to work with. It’s been driving me nuts so much so I’ve handed the task of working with them to my husband as my Assistant Project Manager since he’s more patient. I want my items, they said one thing and it didn’t happen. Then they said another thing and it still hasn’t happened. I wanted my items and I was going to get my items. Period. So while they’re late, the shipment is on its way and thankfully hasn’t stopped the show. I just get aggravated when I think about how those missing pieces aren’t here yet. But I’m not going to waste too much time dwelling over it because in the end I got what I wanted and that’s all that matters.
See, what did I tell you. I got this designer thing down pat. What things have you learned while working on your kitchen decor project? Share with me in the comments below.
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