Day 928: favorite HomeGoods goodies

Last night I stumbled onto the HomeGoods Openhouse blog that invites HG enthusiasts to share their favorite finds. My love for HomeGoods is well-documented, so it was fun to see what others considered the "find of a lifetime." I have to admit, some of the items were the type of things that make me wonder "who buys this stuff?" when I see it in my local store. But to each his own, right? I'm glad that even the most obscure accessory can find a happy home even if I personally wouldn't want it in mine.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my favorite HomeGoods finds (and TJ Maxx, too). My most prized find is the 8x10 braided seagrass rug in our dining room. It paid under $200 for it (Pottery Barn's version is $249) and was elated! It used to be in the living room until I found a 10x12 version for $20 at a thrift store (by the way, my sister found PB's 9x12 version at a different thrift store for $20 last week!).

The only other HomeGoodies (yes, I just made that up) in this picture are the the platters on the wall. I loved the look of vintage ironstone, but have yet to find any in my price range. For now I fake it with whiteware, and I don't think that these four together cost more than $25.


When we outfitted our guest bedroom from scratch, HG was the first (and really only) place I looked. I bought everything for the bed -- mattress pad, 4 pillows, white sheets, and white quilt -- for just a bit more than $100. The starburst mirror is an old TJ Maxx find (I have three of them, actually) that I paid $7 for on clearance.


For me, the most dangerous aisles are the tableware. Almost all of my "accent" dishes came from HG or TJ, including these blue and white plates, which are my favorites. In the summer three of them hang in the guest bedroom, but I swapped them for these when I changed the room for fall. They are also from Marshall's and I bought them in college. Just this fall I found eight of the same plates in black -- we actually eat off those.


And speaking of faking ironstone, all of my white pitchers hail from HG, too. I have five or six in different sizes and use them all the time for everything from flowers to warm syrup. All were less than $15.

These are the highlights, but I have also bought lamps, a couple of small rugs, books, vases and probably more than Wes would like to know about. I usually steer pretty clear of the decorative accessories area as I prefer to to buy that sort of thing antique or vintage (if you'd like, most of my antiquing adventures are here). I have learned the hard way to snatch things up when I see them -- I'm still sick over losing this rug.

So tell me: Do you love HG as much as I do? What are your favorite HomeGoodies?