For example, a friend of a friend threw a Lia Sophia party a few weeks ago and I was asked to attend. As I am flipping through the magazine and displays, the only thing I considered buying was..... wait for it.... the ONLY $288 item in the magazine. Really, Lauren? Really? It isn't even real gold. I obviously didn't get it.
My husband notices it too. We play this little game when we go shopping. If there is a display of something, he will try to guess which one of the items I like best. He's usually wrong. But, then I will choose the one I like the best and compare the prices to the rest of the display items and it is ALWAYS the most expensive item. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. ALWAYS.
Do you think that this is a disease? It has to at least be a syndrome of some sort.
If you all met my mother, you would certainly know why this is the case. We didn't have a ton of everything growing up, she always tried to buy the absolute best quality item that she could.
Anyway, this becomes a problem for me in my daily life. I was looking at bedroom furniture for our new home (we literally have none right now). We sort of made the decision to try to buy American Made furniture and products whenever we could (and not sacrifice quality or spend like $500 more for something). I priced out some American Made bedroom sets with all of the furniture we would need and really the whole package. Ask me how much the bedroom came to? $10,300. REALLY LAUREN, REALLY?
Given the consideration that I am in fact NOT A BALLER.... I said... ok....it will take us 4 years to save up enough money for bedroom furniture and that is just unacceptable (plus I want a new kitchen ASAP)... so I am going to check Craig's List.
Guess what I found?
(Lady's Dresser)
(Man's dresser/chest)
(Nightstand...actually, there were 2 nightstands...only the picture of 1 though)
I don't know many furniture brands, especially from furniture that was built in 1942. But, I have a coworker who does, so I sent her the link and asked if I should go check it out and her response was running into my office telling me to leave work immediately and go see it. lol. I listened to her.
I made an appointment to look at the furniture and was so happy with it when I got there. The furniture is Drexel furniture. It is solid Mahogany (no veneers) and MAN was it HEAVY. I didn't want our furniture to be too flourishy or girly (for my husband's sake) so this furniture really is perfect!
So, I bought the furniture! Folks, this is for a 4 piece bedroom set. 1 Lady's dresser, 1 Man's chest, 2 nightstands. Solid Mahogany. Solid brass drawer pulls. SOLID!
Ask me what I paid for the whole set... go ahead... ok I'll tell you...
$300.00!!!
I did some price comparisons on Craig's List, and one of the night stands ALONE goes for $300.00. The woman I purchased it from inherited an old friend's estate and really just wanted to get rid of things. WOW, it was a STEAL.
Granted, there are 3 or 4 things that we have to fix. A couple pulls are missing, but we have the entire bag full with extras! We need to re-stain part of the other nightstand. There is also a hole where a drawer pull used to be that will have to be repaired. No bigie though.
Mind you, we still need a bed and I would really like an armoire, but I don't care. We can always find coordinating items, I am sure of it.
This is my second Craig's List deal and I am seriously impressed. My first deal was someone giving away 30-40 used once moving boxes and all of the packing paper FOR FREE! That was amazing, too.
I think that Craig's List might be my method of finding the high quality and high style items that I gravitate towards at the prices I can afford (& not have a heart attack).
I can't wait to clean up all of these pieces and get our bedroom in picture perfect condition to share the photos with you.
Oh wait, we haven't even closed yet, that's right.
Thanks for listening. I am really proud of myself for finding the pieces (clearly, I wrote a whole blog post on it). lol.
xoxo
