Pillows and Feathers

I suppose you could say ours is a fairly neutral interior except for the Persian carpets and some of the wall art. The carpets are one thing I will not change out because of where my husband is from. It’s just a part of our overall decorating theme. So the rest of the furniture and accessories have to be fairly quiet to tone down the more colorful rugs. The last couple of weeks we have been rearranging pillows. I hate the pillows that are made to match the Ethan Allen sofa. What makes it worse is when the feathers keep sticking you and they end up all over the place. So we decided to unzip those covers and get rid of all the loose irritating feathers, cover the inside pillow with another layer of pillow covers we no longer like, and put the original cover back on top of that. You would have thought we killed two chickens or geese with the bag we filled of feathers. In the mean time there are a couple of very old Restoration Hardware pillows that I love, but the outside covers are beginning to show their wear. So we switched a couple of those out and they are really neutral and to my husband’s liking. It seems every time we “go bold” with prints vs. neutrals we are sorry we did. We still have the original Ethan Allen pillow we picked out so long ago when we lived in the Midwest. It was to become the beginning of a long and lasting relationship with our favorite designer who ended up helping us redo the whole house. I learned a few things from Glenn, but could never live up to his standards. When he put prints together, they looked so much better than ours. 

Restoration Hardware Soap Dispenser Returned

We bought bathroom accessories at Restoration Hardware several years ago that included a soap dispenser. It has been oozing some ugly black sediment for quite some time. So we just kept cleaning it but weren’t happy with the result. We needed another dispenser so I gambled and purchased the same one that was on sale. This time it started oozing the same stuff almost immediately. So I contacted RH to let them know we were having this issue and see if they had other people concerned about the product. They said they hadn’t heard, but would exchange our new dispenser with another one. However, since I couldn’t find the documentation of purchase for the first one, they wouldn’t exchange that one. So the new dispenser arrived yesterday. I printed the UPS label they emailed and repackaged our “broken” one in the box they sent. We also put our other “broken one” in the same box to make a point. So now we have to mail the package back to RH this week. We rarely - if ever - return things. I’m really not sure it’s worth all the hassle. Thank goodness the box is small enough to carry. 

Restoration Hardware Soap Dispenser

We outfitted our studio condo bathroom with Restoration Hardware bathroom accessories about nine years ago. The soap dispenser was giving up the ghost over the last few months. For whatever reason there was an accumulation of some black tinged slimy stuff under the dispenser mechanism. So we decided to replace it with another one and put it in our one bedroom renovated bathroom condo until the new one arrived. In the meantime I put the stainless steel Simple Human dispenser in the bathroom because it matched the decor better. So I looked on line for a Restoration Hardware replacement and found one just like it - except it was a larger size and only came in a shiny tone rather than the brushed nickel we prefer. But since it was on sale and would actually look okay in the renovated bathroom, we got it. The soap dispenser arrived yesterday. We filled it with soft soap and it is sitting pretty next to the sink. It matches the light fixture above the mirror. My husband still thinks he can fix the old one. My vote is to dump it. Let’s see what happens next. 

Restoration Hardware Sheets and Towels

Last year we transformed a closet in to a monk’s room in our studio apartment. It needed a bed cover, so we went to Restoration Hardware to find something we liked. In so doing, we ended up setting up an account to get a certain per cent off. We haven’t purchased anything else from RH since that time. But we needed a set of sheets and towels. So I checked the website and saw that a sale was going on, plus we had our account discount that will expire soon. I found exactly what we were looking for at a good price. The sheets came right away, and the bath towels followed in two weeks. The hand towels were on backorder. Luckily nothing we ordered was a grave necessity. So yesterday I got notice that the last items are finally on their way. What makes RH so unique is the way items are packaged. The sheets come in their own little sheet pouch tied with a ribbon. We always forgo any sort of personalization like initials, but it is an option. Today we finally decided to put the sheets on the bed and they look really good. The test will be tonight when we actually use them. I just hope the towels are soft. I don’t think we will renew our account this year unless there is something out there that makes it worth while. I always hesitate to throw out the old stuff, but the twelve year old torn sheets and stained towels really are garbage can worthy.