The Lowe Price…

As the window corner of the family room began to transform (you can see the curtain progression here and here), we wanted something a bit lighter for the end table. Some time ago, we I started coveting a clear-glassed, open-bottomed lamp to replace the current dark and moody, angular one…

The one I had my sights set on hailed from Target and ticketed in at a solid $44.99.

Granted, $45 is not an unheard of amount of money to spend on a lamp (especially because lamps go for waaaaaaay more these days), BUT we live on a budget around here. $45 was not in the cards for us. Bummer! I really liked the open-based feature (you mean we can put things inside?!?) and the hammered glass look, but decided to do a bit of hunting around before we sunk almost fifty buckaroos into the dream. Good thing too, because before long, Lowes came through with a winner!

Happy dance time (think Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince)! Same-ish lamp, ten bucks cheaper, AND it comes in a pretty blue color. Win, win, win. Here it is, sitting proudly in the family room:We’re loving the “see through” element of the base because it doesn’t completely block out the patterned curtains behind it AND we’ll be able to fill it with all sorts of nick nacks throughout the seasons. Just for kicks, I took a few “fillers” for a test run. To start, I popped a small plant inside (it’s actually a bell pepper!) and the result was better than I expected…The green-blue combo is a great pairing (maybe I’d switch out the fern-y plant for something else if we were to leave the plant inside the lamp) and I like that the texture of the glass distorts the image of what is inside. Next on the list- a bunch of stick/twine balls we had laying around:And for a close up of what they actually look like (that distortion makes it kind of tricky to see what’s going on in there):

Finally, we tried an actual photograph (although, you could really use any type of memento for this look- a postcard, handwritten letter, etc.). This “filler” was the most challenging of the three, due to the distortion from the glass. In the future, I would probably use a photo with more defined and contrasted lines and features so that it would stand out better, but here’s how this one came out:To give you a reference point, here is the actual photo that was in there (I grabbed one that we already had printed from our wedding):

See how much that textured glass neutralizes whatever is in there? Interestingly enough, I kind of like that feature…

And as for the accouterments beside the lovely lamp, I stuck with a grouping of three (lamp, a potted plant, and a stack of coasters topped with a glass containter), allowing the lamp to be the star of the show. PS. Those galvanized buckets are abundant right now at IKEA and you can grab them for just $.99 a piece! The coasters came from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

For now, we’re enjoying the lamp sans any inside additions and we’re especially loving that it ties our blue-green theme over to this side of the room. Yay for progress. Until next time, enjoy all of the “fun” things of your day!

-Leslie