Mood Board: Pretty. Manly.

Our living room, up to this point, has NOTHING in it. We're starting from scratch, so this was the perfect opportunity to gather my thoughts on how I want to decorate the living room. A couple of these items are not within our budget or no longer available for purchase (like the gold pedestal table that I've longed for forever) but they reflect the feel I'm going for and I decided it was ok to dream a little bit on my board... a girl can dream, right?

The item that I know for sure is happening is the Ektorp sofa from IKEA. EDIT: Once I got to the store I actually ended up going with the Karlstad Sofa. It was bigger and more modern looking. It was a difficult choice, but I love it and am very happy with it. We don't have a budget to spend $9,000 on a sofa, and honestly, I'm not sure it would be the right choice for us even if we did! The Karlstad Sofa sofa may not be as deep and cozy as a more expensive sofa, but, it's affordable, has washable covers and you can buy as many new/different style covers as you'd like. That works for me, and it seems to be a decent quality sofa for the price.

So, on with the design of my mood board here. My husband is a pretty manly man. Yes, he's an artist as well, but he builds muscle cars & loves to fish and play guitar (He'll play any instrument really) and generally speaking, he can fix just about anything. We also have a son who just turned 12... which means, I'm pretty well surrounded by all things BOY! Of course, that doesn't mean I have to live in a man cave (yuck!). So, being the only girl living with these very manly guys, I desperately crave some pretty in my life. However, I don't want to overdo it. On my mood board, there's not a lot of frill, but there is softness & bling. I've mixed those two things with the hard, clean lines, geometric shapes, warm wood, manly metal and simple colors.

I think that this strikes a pretty good balance between pretty & manly. What do you think? 

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Taffeta Curtains: Faux or Real?

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As you know, we've just moved into a new home. Thus far, we do not have curtains up, yikes! In the past, I've always gone with 100% silk dupioni for our curtains. They're gorgeous and pretty affordable. However, while I was packing up the old house, I came upon my specialty ribbon stash. I love luxurious ribbon & the pretty 100% silk taffeta ribbons were always one of my favorites to use back in my wedding invitation design & assembly days. The ribbon prompted a quick google search and in no time, I'd ordered & quickly received fabric swatches. Unfortunately, I've been paralyzed ever since! I simply don't know which fabric to choose! 

Generally, I believe that the real thing is worth any extra expense it incurs. For example, pleather vs. leather... no contest. Leather wins every time. 

My dilemma:
Moving is expensive and the faux taffeta is about half the price of the 100% pure silk taffeta; and with all the curtains needing to be 108" in length, and a whole house to do, windows are getting super expensive, very fast.

The swatches are small, and it is really tough for me to imagine just how great the difference in quality will be. Will the faux taffeta look like a hideous discount wedding dress or will it pull off the look of a luxurious 100% silk designer dress? I'm at such a loss and could really use your advice!