Dwell Bedding from Target

Where to start ....

Y'all remember a couple of weeks ago I got a bee in my bonnet about making the master bedroom a more relaxing retreat? And how I came up with a whole mood board around a gray & white color scheme that I could probably do on a $500 budget? Well, I never really got around to doing anything about it. I looked at curtains and they all looked so heavy and dark. As I hung out on Pinterest I realized that all my favorite rooms were light and bright and airy. The heavy, dark gray just wasn't going to work for me, but I didn't know what would. 

I had the day off on Friday so I went to Target, one of my favoritest places on Earth. As I strolled down the bedding aisle in search of new sheets, I saw a Dwell comforter set and fell in love. Best of all it was on sale for $20 off. It complimented our peacock colored walls perfectly *and* it had gray accents. I brought it home with me, opened the packaging and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!

Y'all, it was horrible. The chemical stench coming from the comforter was unbearable. I washed it immediately. And washed it again. And I used my favorite lavender fabric softener that makes everything smell lovely. Finally, the smell subsided. And then I threw it in the dryer. It took six cycles to dry this thing and I've got a pretty decent washer & dryer set. It doesn't take that long to dry my down comforter, but this thing took forever. This has been a three day process just to get the bedding bearable for the bed. I took it out and parts of it still were a bit damp but I didn't care anymore - it could air dry. And then I noticed that at the top right corner some of the dye from the print had run onto the white. I thought maybe it was a burn mark from having to go through the dryer so many damn times, but no. The brown leaf is faded and blotchy while the white area around it is streaked with brown dye. The only upside with this fiasco is that it's where the pillows go so you can't really see it but I know it's there and that makes me twitch. Oh, and the wrinkles. My goodness the wrinkles. They're everywhere, even immediately after being pulled out of the dryer. 

So basically I spent $80 on a bedding set that is cute and in theory I like it, but in practice I'm really disappointed in the quality. I guess I could have spent $300 on a comforter set from Macy's and gotten something that was a whole lot better quality, but the reality is, I probably never would have done that, and I'm not going to do it now. Instead I'm going to live with a badly wrinkled but adorable comforter and hope that in time the wrinkles subside and that it doesn't drive me too agro. All in all, while I like the look of it, I'd give Dwell bedding a big thumbs down. If it had been half the price, I *might* be a bit more lenient, but at nearly $100 I would have expected something a bit better. Maybe those expectations aren't right, but there it is.

You can also see from these pictures that we switched out the black & white patterned curtains for plain white linen ones. I have the shades open on the side windows letting in light, but the window behind the bed is the one with the nasty mold spores growing between the panes (I really need to make a few calls to get that fixed) and I really can't see it or else that will make me twitchy. I also need to do something about the broken wall sconces. We've looked at a couple of different ones and have decided we like the look of the Pottery Barn ones but they're only available online and I'm hesitant to order something I haven't seen in person (strange that I won't order sconces, but I'll completely change my mind about the look & feel of our bedroom as I walk past a comforter in a plastic bag in the middle of the store). 

What you can't see in these pictures is that we've also added an off-white shag rug beneath the bed. It actually added a lot of "finish" to the room that we didn't really know we needed. I feel like this room still has a ways to go before it'll be complete, but we're on our way. I'd like eventually to get some matchstick blinds up where our cheap white plastic ones are to add some additional texture to the windows, and one day get a bed that isn't from Ikea and in every single photo of a staged house, but that takes a bit more of an investment than we're willing to make right now.