Coral Pods

These are Thika pods. At least that's what the store tag said...but when I googled a Thika pod, I didn't see anything that even remotely resembled these. So...I COULD be lying to you when I say these are Thika pods. Who knows...maybe they really are and Google's never see them before?

Moving on. I may have mentioned this before, but I've begun the process of "building" my bedroom, like I did my living room. I'd recently seen (and been ruined for) ZGallerie's large, red (faux) coral (real coral's endangered, ya know...)...however, if you clicked on that link, you'll see that it comes at a pricy $50. Um...no thank you. It's no longer even remotely pretty to me (OK, maybe a little).

So, bearing in mind that I wanted a RED decor piece with some visual impact and interest, I tried to think of other things I could substitute here. When I couldn't and didn't think of anything, I pushed it off for another time. "Building" takes time, you know--but I like my process of building because each piece usually has meaning to me by the end, as opposed to throwing a room together all at once with non-personal items. Nope, I like to be surrounded by pieces that tell a story and mean something to me.

Flash forward to a couple of weekends ago: I drove up to North KC to visit a sweet little fabric and craft store, Urban Arts & Crafts. (They carry Amy Butler fabric!) I found what I needed (more on that project later) and decided to check out the other stores in that shopping center (Briarcliff Village in case you're wondering).

I walked into a fancy-pants home decor store a few stores down (I went in for inspiration because inspiration is free. OK, that was corny. Sorry, guys...) and found a cool section of natural (read: real) decor like shells, branches and these Thika pods. Expecting it to be overpriced like the majority of the store, my jaw almost dropped when I saw this:

$4.50?! $4.50!! SCORE! And then the best part of all....the ENTIRE store was 30% off.

I walked out with two of these bad boys for $5.70.

$5.70?! $5.70!!

So I went home, spray-painted them red, and voilá...a red accent piece with visual interest and impact.

Doesn't get much better than this.