Remember
this post after I sold my living room chairs to make room for a desk? Well, like most of my projects, as soon as I changed one thing, the project snowballed into changing 2... 3... 7... items and now it's almost a complete redo. Whoops! I'm absolutely loving it, though. Here's my game plan:
I already own half of these pieces, thank goodness. The sofa in the board is not an exact match, but is close to my black velvet sofa I designed when I worked at Bassett Furniture. I've had a love/hate relationship with the fabric but as it's nylon and black it wears like nailes and cleans like a dream! The mirrored end tables I bought at Target years ago, I think for $40 a piece-- such a steal! The nickel and glass coffee table is another memento from my Bassett days (originally it was $1200+, but add in my employee discount on top of the clearance price and I walked out with it for less than $200. Awesome.). The lead crystal floor lamp is from Restoration Hardware and retails at about $600+. I found mine at a scratch-and-dent store (anyone else in UT love DownEast Home?) and it was mis-tagged for only $25. I asked the sale associate about it and she said she's honor the price. CHA-CHING!!! $575 savings for me! And believe me, it's a quality lamp, 'cause that thing is heav-VY.
Here's where the new stuff comes in. I had dove grey velvet curtains in my head for my large picture window but in Texas I visited a Restoration Hardware OUTLET. They accepted my designer discount on top of their prices. I picked up a pair of
charcoal grey Belgium twill grommet panels for less than $100 (they were more than that a piece originally). DONE! If you live anywhere near San Marcos, Texas you must visit the outlets-- Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn/West Elm/William-Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, Tory Burch, Michael Kors, etc. etc. It was a shopping paradise.
Last week I stopped by a different location of the same scratch-and-dent store where I got my lamp. In all honesty, I went shopping for a client but ended up buying something for me. Surprisingly, that doesn't happen as often as you would think. Anyway, I came across a desk that looked a LOT like this:
Be still my heart...
...except the top portion of the DownEast desk is french blue.
Upon a little inquiring, I found out that the polished nickel trestle bases are the real deal from William-Sonoma but the top, though it looks the exact same as the WS original besides for the hardware and ...ahem... blue finish, use to have wooden legs that were freight damaged. With a savings of about $1575, I took the soon-to-be-gorgeous 'Frankenstein-ed' desk (I'm currently in the process of researching who could paint the top white. The blue has got to go.).
Next on my shopping list is this little beauty, as seen from
Pieces Inc:
I didn't spend $1850 on the William-Sonoma desk, so there's no way I'm going to spend that on a chair. The chair is from the late 1960's-70's designed by Anton Lorenz. I have found a few vintage ones on etsy and eBay in pretty good shape but all are in need of some hair-on-hide re-upholstery. Since hair-on-hide can get spendy, I'm holding out until I can find this chair for less than $100. If you see one in your local Craigslist, LET ME KNOW!!!
After my pocket book recovers from there, I will invest in a custom-made credenza for my television (have I ever written about how much I HATE media credenzas these days? I don't mind seeing the TV, but do we have to see the cable box and X Box too?). I'm thinking something that completely closes off the components, in white lacquer, inspired by the 1920's or maybe the 1970's.
As far as the rest of the accessories, well, I think I'm going to save that for tomorrow. I think I may need your help on that part...
Not too bad for a savings of $3850+ and counting!
