Furniture and Fabric Fun

Written by: Kristy

Last weekend, The White Dress Bridal became more defined, aesthetically speaking.  How did this happen, you wonder?  Well, by taking two very important and much-anticipated planning trips with my mother – one to Ikea and another to Chicago’s own “fabric warehouse”.  Both places helped us scout out what exactly we think we wanted to use to decorate and furbish our lovely little boutique!

The first stop was to Ikea – the motherland of ah-mazingly priced fantastic furniture and home décor.  I must admit that I am a sucker for just about anything in Ikea.  I love the design aesthetic and love that it is priced in a way that you can purchase something, and then modify it to make it your own.  (I am all about making something more personalized or customized, especially when it comes to The White Dress Bridal.)

So, back to the story – my mother had never been to Ikea before, and I was more than excited to show her the ropes.  Being the obsessive person that I am, I had scoped out all of their products online to hunt down the ones I really wanted to see in person to consider for The White Dress.  So, we spent the better part of an afternoon sitting on sofas, considering chairs, browsing through draperies, and perusing the massive amount of shelving options.  We had a blast meandering through the very large store and seeing bits of our TWD vision in real life.  We even made a few purchases, knowing that the bulk of our purchases were going to take place in Michigan in only a few short weeks!

{Mom testing seating options at Ikea}

The next day, we took the long trip to Chicago’s South Side to visit one of my most favorite places (in not one of my most favorite locations) – what I have dubbed the “fabric warehouse”!  Picture this:  a warehouse style building that is situated on an entire city block, three stories high, and so much fabric you can’t even see all of it unless you spent an entire month in the store.  I am not exaggerating – this place is enormous!  And also the reason why I love it so much!  You just never know what you are going to uncover.

{Here I am posing amongst the massive amounts of fabric!}

And uncover fabric we did!  We scoured and hunted and hemmed and hawed over all the yardage of fabric in the warehouse that we hoped would eventually turn into seat cushion covers, pillows, drapes, and other décor accents.  And we ended up with some really, really, really great finds!  I can’t wait to get the sewing party started!

{Look at the lovely fabric – this one definitely made the cut!}

{Getting fabric cut at Chicago’s fabric warehouse.}

 All in all, it was a wonderful weekend that really helped give The White Dress bridal store Michigan, a clear direction in terms of how the finished boutique will turn out!

I know I am keeping very hush-hush about what it will all look like, but I promise some big reveals soon!  (And there are some teaser photos here.)  So, your turn to talk – any other Ikea lovers out there?  Please tell me I am not the only one!