Canton: My New Favorite Place

 Now that we are getting down to making decorating choices in the house, my mind has been on overload with all that still has to be decided. There are so many decisions that have to be made within the next month. What paint colors will I use? Which tile do I like? And what tile border do I want, or do I even want to get a border? What will we do our kitchen counter tops in? Granite? Tile? Quartz? I keep changing my mind!!

Fireplace: complete!

Sheetrock, mud and tape is everywhere!

Last week the sheetrock all went up and is taped and mudded. This week our walls and ceilings will all be textured and ready for paint. Then our cabinet and trim guy will get started. The guy that will be tiling our shower is going to start tomorrow, even though I haven't even decided on the tile. I think maybe I should decide that tomorrow before he starts laying something he picks out.

On second thought, maybe I can just let him put in whatever he wants and if I don't like it I can at least say, 'yeah, it's ugly, but I'm not the one that picked it out'. Hmmm...

With all of the decorating decisions I've had going on in my mind, I decided that the First Monday Canton Days was where I needed to be this weekend. So on Friday, Robbie and I dropped the kids off with my parents and headed toward Dallas with lists, measurements, and a u-haul in tow. My intention was to knock out a large part of the house shopping that would need to be done between now and the end of November.

And boy did we make a dent in that list....

My style is very rustic. I like furniture that has been around forever, and is heavy, and been used for different things. I like things made out of old barn wood and tin. I like imperfections in my furniture. And I like for old things to be refurbished into new things.

Here's a sample of my list:

• Rob and I bedroom furniture
• Aaron bedroom furniture
• table for laundry room
• cabinet for mud room
• bench for mud room
• things to hang on walls

Yes, that's just some of the things. I was a woman on a mission Saturday, and it completely paid off. Here are some of my finds:

This is Aaron's headboard and footboard. He is going to have a hunting room. It's made of Aspen wood and we got the tables and dresser to go with it.

LOVE this piece! This cabinet will go in my mud room. It's made of old barn wood and tin.

This is our new headboard and footboard. They are made out of very old, refurbished doors.

My friend, Leah, told me to go in the Paul Michael store just outside of the trade days park, and the place did not disappoint. I fell in love with this chest and it just had to be mine.

I also got this table at Paul Michael. It will go in my scrapbook room. The colors on it are beautiful.

This is a door that I bought thinking it would go in one place, but now I'm thinking about it in a different place. Not sure yet where it will end up, but it will be beautifully hung somewhere.

This is one of the side tables that goes with our bed. Austin took most of these pictures today as we were unloading the u-haul, so this ammature photography was truly done by an ammature!

 One of the things I like so much about buying at Canton is that you actually get to talk to the people that made the piece. They can tell you exactly how it was constructed, what it's made of, where the materials came from, how long it took to build, etc. Nothing against furniture stores, but you just don't get that in a store. These people take pride in what they build and sell, which makes me appreciate it even more. This was only my second time to go to Canton, but it was my first time to go without kids and with very specific purchase goals. Robbie and I literally walked from 7 am to 7 pm Saturday, but it was a beautiful day and when I found something that I loved, it was like finding a hidden treasure. I didn't find it hard at all to make decisions on whether I wanted that piece or not. I either loved it, hated it, or loved it but couldn't use it. We covered a lot of ground and walked a lot of miles, but it was so worth it and so much fun.

Why is it that I can spend one day in a place and make huge furniture decisions within minutes, but I can't seem to settle on things like tile and cabinet tops that I've spent weeks thinking about?