Su Casa: The Shopping Experience - Baltimore, MD - April 2012

OUR ASSIGNMENT

"We want you to experience exactly what every customer experiences, so sorry, no special treatment!" -Su Casa

Ten weeks ago (a week after our little MJ arrived and just 4 days after we were released from the hospital) The Hub, The Monkey, MJ, and I braved a beautiful, cold, and WINDY day (I'm talking blow your skin off windy!) and headed into town to find our table.

Although we would have loved to venture down to the Inner Harbor location, parking, and the gale force winds weren't the best environment for milling about with a newborn, so we were pretty pumped to find that there were 4 locations to choose from (Baltimore in Fells Point, Ellicott City, Kenilworth in Towson, and Dewey in Dewey Beach, DE). We were even more excited to find out that all of the locations have pretty much the same merchandise on the floor.

I have to be honest, I've always been a little skeptical of furniture stores in shopping malls.  I think it's because it just feels too "Big Box" and trendy for my taste but because parking close and keeping the baby out of the cold as much as possible was at the top of our list this location fit the bill. So, with just a little reluctance we chose to do our shopping at Su Casa - Kenilworth. 

THE PROS

Upon our arrival we met Pat V. who was extremely non intrusive. She let us know she was there if we needed her and was always close enough for us to ask a question, but really let us wander around without making us feel like she was hovering. It was a good balance of what I like (to have my best girl friend with me while I shop) and what the Hub likes (don't mess with me I'm on a mission).

(This is Pat on the left, super sweet and cute!  I on the other hand, 7 days post major surgery and running on less than 2 hours sleep, am not super sweet and definitely not super cute!  ha ha!)

First of all, even though it's not at the top of everyone's list of important things, it was pretty stroller friendly.  The store was set up in a way that made you feel like you were really walking through someone's home. SUPER comfy and uniquely eclectic. Sort of like how you feel when you walk into a nice antique store.     Somehow, even though they were in a mall, Su Casa made me feel like the furniture I picked would be one of a kind. I know that may sound silly, but it's a feeling that a lot of people, especially women, have while shopping and even if you aren't consciously aware of it, how you feel while you're shopping plays a key role in deciding if shopping turns to buying.

THE CONS

In looking back on the experience there's only one thing I keep coming back to as a source of a small amount of trepidation. We never really discussed our space. No measurements, no questions about how this table and chairs was going to "fit" in our home. In hind sight that could have been because we seamed to know what we were doing, but in reality, that couldn't have been further from the truth. This is our first REAL furniture purchase! Now, over 10 weeks later, I'm holding my breath, biting my finger nails, and waiting on the call. I truly have NO idea if this table is going to look ridiculously huge in our space! Oops!

THE BEST PARTS

I think the best part so far about my Su Casa shopping experience is that this store helps you imagine the possibilities. As I meandered around the store, I had no trouble putting one of these pretty rugs underneath our beautiful new table.

And setting our table for dinner with these dishes.

 And kicking back after our bellies are full on a couch that looks a little something like this.

 

Be it an entire house, your favorite room, or one piece at a time like us. Oh the possibilities!

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

Have A Seat... Or Two! - Baltimore, MD. - April 2012

I have to be honest, I'm a simple girl and can count on two hands the number of items we own that were over $500.00.  So, when we first started window shopping on line for chairs I thought that the price must have been either a misprint or that it was for a set of chairs. There was no way one chair could cost between $145.00 and $525.00 (these prices were the least and most expensive chairs listed on the Su Casa website). However, after doing a little digging I found that chairs in general are pretty expensive, and a custom, solid wood, upholstered chair for under $250.00 isn't a bad price at all.

(I hope this doesn't come out badly, I'm still not sure why just one of these chairs is $525.00.)

Okay down to business. When I received the email notifying me I'd been selected as a finalist blogger for the Test it. Blog it. Win it. Contest for Su Casa Baltimore the instructions were very clear. Shop as you normally would, "no red carpet treatment" and don't reveal you are a blogger until it's time to pay. So that's exactly what we did.

Upon entering the store we were informed that there was a special if you bought a table and 4 chairs you got 2 additional chairs free. So after choosing a table and keeping the special offer in mind we quickly had a short list of favorite potential spots to park our cabooses (or is it cabeese? I never know with this sort of thing.). Anyway, after about an hour of rearranging the furniture at Su Casa - Kenilworth (you know this table, that chair... This chair, that table...) we finally decided on....

The Valencia Chair - Leather

Their Stats: L18” X 24” X H39” 

Just like with the tables, there were a few really close contenders.

Stiles series Chairs both with and without arms 

These were simple clasic chairs that sort of remind me of king and queen thrones. I think with our choice of table, they would have just been a little too matchy matchy. Like many of the tables we saw, they were beautiful, but just not for us.

The Texas Chair

This chair was such a close second that I actually almost changed my mind after hearing all of your reader comments. I really had the phone in hand and had dialed all but the last number when I caught a glimpse of my toddlers place at the table immediately after a meal. The Texas chair has these 9 beautiful buttons on the chair back and I just couldn't imagine cleaning smashed Cheerios out from underneath all 9 of those buttons at least once a day, sometimes twice. I still LOVE this chair and daily second guess not choosing it but every time I come back to the one we ended up choosing

OUR CHAIR

The Valencia Chair - Leather

Extremely simple but in a color, wasabi, that makes you say "WOW!"

(The Hub made the final decision for color because I really wanted him to like what we got and I have to say, I LOVE it!)

The Valencia is our clean and sophisticated choice. for us, it was the perfect marriage of comfort, like our old chairs, and the classic style we're hoping to grow into. It's a chair that I'm not worried about spilling something on. These chairs will look great for every day and will be so easy to clean and will look beautiful when we have company as well.

The back legs have this cute little flair that makes them just a little bit less ordimnary. It's like a little wink that makes me smile.

If wasabi isn't your color...

there are 8 other color options.

Oh and in case you were wondering, the deal for buying a table and 4 chairs and getting 2 additional chairs free is still going on so definitely check it out! it could save you several hundred dollars (especially if you have expensive taste in chairs).

So those are the choices and our order has been placed.  Like I mentioned here, we're just waiting on the call.  In the mean time, the next thing we'll need to talk about, and some would argue the most important thing, is our shopping experience.  Stay tuned and keep the comments coming.  You might want to let me know if you've posted about this little project of mine and link it on your Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest pages.  I'd love to see what you're saying!  Next time you'll get to meet Pat and the ducks, and if your leaving comments and linking people back to my blog posts, you just might get the chance to take a little piece of Su Casa home to your Casa! 

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

Old Table vs. New Table - Baltumore, MD - May 2012

I'm sure this will be the first of many posts like it, but for the record, I just want to say, THIS is something I will not miss!!!

At least twice a day I find these on the floor...

And have to track down their location of origin.

Yep there's a pipe cap on the end of each of these swanky tubes.

My new table, The Buster Dining Table: Straight Leg, has NO pipe caps

In fact, it doesn't have any pipes at all!!! Woo Hoo!!!

Monday marked 8 weeks from our order date so we should be getting the call from Su Casa any day now.  We can't WAIT!!!

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

TENNESSEE - April and May 2012

T

E

Double N

E

Double S

Double E

TENNESSEE!

Our Tennessee vacation is at an end. We had a wonderful time with family and friends! We miss you all so very much!

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

Table Talk: Our Block "Buster" Pick - Baltimore, MD. - April 2012

So, lets chat for a moment.

First, after getting it all down I realized I had a lot to say. So I decided to break the selection and ordering process into a few smaller posts to make it a little easier to digest.

If you're just joining us, you can get the full scoop HERE.

But, to make a long story short,we're in the midst of a blog contest to win a dining table from Su Casa. It's a Baltimore based furniture store that sells and delivers their furniture and other products up and down the east coast and also ships across the country.

Second, I find it really amusing that NOBODY chose the dining table and chairs we ended up picking. so for the last week I've had SUPER buyers remorse but following our original path of logic I eventually circled back around to our "picks".

So without further delay, I give you...

The Buster Dining Table: Straight Legs
Her Stats: L7"' (+24" center leaf) x D42" x H30")
(yes it's a her, and you'll have to stay tuned to find out this pretty lady's name)

We gave a lot of consideration to three other tables

The Boulder Dining Table:

As I mentioned before, we are currently in a small space, but we needed the table to be able to grow with us into our next (hopefully larger) space, so we wanted a table with a leaf or two. and at 84" without and no leaf it was too big for today and not quite big enough for the future.

The Dover Dining Table:

I LOVE this table top and how you can feel the grain of the wood. However, after seeing and feeling it in the store we realized that it wasn't going to be easy to get peanut butter and jelly sandwich remnants out of those rustic grooves. It does had the ability to extend with leaves placed at each end, which in theory was great, but when we saw it in the store it sort of looked like an airplane with these giant awkward wings. it's more of a table that will normally, 90% of the time, be in a small space, like an apartment or row home, that you'd occasionally want to expand for guests. It is a BEAUTIFUL table! At 70" would be great for our "right now table", but just isn't our "forever table".

The Hido Dining Table:

This was one that surprised us, On line, it looked way too modern for our taste, but while milling around the store it was the first one we were both drawn to. It truly is a FANTASTIC piece of furniture, but the Hub and I agree that bench seating isn't what wee wanted for our "dining room". When we kick back with a glass of wine at the end of a great meal with friends there needs to be something to kick back to. The Hido Bench has no back, so you'd basically fall on the floor, and although that's pretty memorable, it isn't what we want for our dining room. We both LOVED this table, and agree that it will more than likely have a place in our home as a breakfast table; perfect for doing homework and zooming toy cars on, but again, just not our "forever dining table".

Our Forever Table

The Buster Dining Table: Straight Legs really was a great marriage of the traditional look that we both like with a little bit of the rustic look we wanted in the "distressed" top...

And the modern style with the straight leg

In case the straight leg isn't your style, there's also the option for the turned leg.

As a total side note, I also LOVE LOVE LOVE that side board in this photo!

It's the Dover Sideboard and depending on the space and budget available, they make a small and large version.

Okay, that's it for now. What do you think?  Leave your comments below.  Stay tuned for CHAIRS and the EXPERIENCE!!!

Till next time,
Bon Voyage!

Pie...? - Baltimore, MD. - April 2012

Notice anything odd about this scene from our little lady's kitchen?

A closer look....?

Yes, those are people baking in that pie...

Hmmmmmm...?

I guess that's all I have to say about that.

Till next time,

Bon Voyage!

A Table for the Wanderers - Baltimore, MD. - April 2012

Many of you know that because of my husband’s career, we’re over 1100 miles from almost all of our closest family and friends, so it’s worth mentioning that our little wandering family and the time we spend together is the center of our world. We spend a lot of that "together time" at our dining room table.  It's figuratively and literally the center of our home. You can see almost every inch of Its 1300 square feet from that table; a 70s model, clad in pealing, wood grain Formica...

with metal piped legs...

and brown, cracked vinyl chairs.

It's the centerpiece of that room.  We eat, play games, celebrate special occasions, and make some of our biggest life decisions around it.

 It’s not the prettiest, but we love it for the role it plays in our home.

As we've been window shopping on Su Casa's website for THE NEW TABLE for this wandering family, it's funny that I find myself comparing our "new table" to our old one (in a good way).

It's small and intimate (even with the leaf in), which I LOVE, but this makes it difficult to have more than one other couple over for dinner at a time, so we definitely want something that can seat at least 6 adults comfortably. but will also be able to grow with us.  These are some of the tables we've got our eye on. 

(click the name and it will link you to an image)

The Dover

The Buster - straight leg

The Buster - round

The Boulder

The Hido

This may sound funny but those old beat up chairs are so comfortable ans easy to clean. Because of this, we're both leaning in the direction of a leather upholstered chair, but we also can't resist being drawn to a classic sturdy wooden chair.  Here are some of the chairs we're thinking about.

(click the name and it will link you to an image)

The Texas Chair

The Valencia Chair - Leather

Stiles Chairs - with arms

Stiles Chairs - without

I also like the chairs pictured with the Dover Dining Table,

but can't find them on their site.

What do you think? Any favorites in the crowd? Let me know if there are any contenders we missed.

Til next time,

Bon Voyage!