Heading into week 5 of the One Room Challenge has been challenging. This week I received my banquette from Ballard Designs. I told you in week 1 the banquette was expected in January, so I was beyond excited to receive it early. Well, it arrived and didn’t look like what I ordered. To say I was disappointed was an under statement. I’ve wanted a banquette for this space for the last 8 years. I finally pull the trigger and treat myself (for my Essence feature) and they mess it up.

The pattern is all kinds of wrong. It was laid incorrectly in the corner. Where was quality control before this left the factory?

The Resolution

I contacted Ballard Designs customer care and they asked me to send in photos of the issue. Within 24 hours they called me and offered to make it right thanks to the help of one of my instagram followers that happens to work for the company. She saw my IG Story and offered to help - thanks Karen! When is the replacement coming you ask? February 2021 - boo. In the meantime, I get to use this one to complete the ORC until the new one is ready. They are also refunding my shipping charges.

So what else could go wrong? Well, I received my pillows for the banquette and guess what? They only sent 3 of the 4 I ordered! Yep, I can’t make this stuff up. At this point I asked them to refund me for the missing pillow. But there is some good news - my rug is back in stock and should ship any day now! This is the last major piece going in the room. Oh and I never mentioned I finally found art for the room. A huge 1980’s oil painting to hang over the banquette.

Let’s look back at what’s been done in the past 5 weeks: