Deal of the Century

So I might be a little too proud about this deal that I scored a few weekends back at the Crate and Barrel outlet. I was shopping with my husband, mother in law, and aunt in law and Aaron and I went ahead of the others into Crate and Barrel, where I happened upon a large selection of “final sale” dining tables and various furniture. They had some beauuuutiful wood dining tables at some pretty amazingly deep discounts. I didn’t believe it when I saw the Pranzo II extension dining table, a $1699.00 table, for … yes, $249. That is an 85% discount.

 

What I loved about it:

• Too good of a deal to pass up an 85% discount on a very high quality piece.
• The wood table is so lovely. The black legs go perfectly with our already owned chairs.
• It has THREE extension leaves. Yes, THREE. So that means that it can seat 14 people. How amazing is that?! This gives us an opportunity to host both big and small groups of people without even having a formal dining room.
• It was made in Italy.

Why my husband thought we shouldn’t get it and how I convinced him otherwise:

• We already have a table. Why yes we do. We got it off Craigslist for $60 including chairs and it badly needs another coat of paint. It also collects and shows EVERY speck of dust and dirt and makes cleaning it impossible.
• He didn’t wait to buy new chairs. Well guess what, we don’t have to! The ones we have go perfectly. Just need a coat of fresh paint.
• We pretty much only bought it because his mom and aunt kept telling him it was such a great deal.

After we paid for it and left I remembered that I had a 10% off coupon for Crate and Barrel from changing my address on the catalog when we moved. I examined it and it didn’t list any exclusions for final sale/clearance items. We went back to get $25 back and they said it wouldn’t work on final sale items. After I politely pointed out that it does not say that on the coupon, they said their computer just wouldn’t accept it. I knew that customer service would come to my rescue. Not sure why they didn’t call customer service to ask for support in the first place, but alas, customer service said there shouldn’t have been a problem and promptly refunded $25. So the total was only around $240 with tax!

    

Framed File Folders

Our guest bathroom was missing something…..



Enter some framed file folders from World Market…



I was at World Market today when their display of notecards caught my eye. They have so many beautiful prints! I was about to purchase a box of small notecards to frame when I saw these suzani file folders. I liked that there were six of them, in varying colors, and that they would fit in an 8x10 mat. They were $7.99, and I had a 25% off coupon, making them $5.99!



I already had two frames just waiting to be used. All I did was center the file folder on the mat and tape… no cutting required! I like that if I ever decide to use them for their original purpose, I can.



 

Garage Sale Scores

There was a garage sale down the street from us last Saturday, and we drove by on our way to our church’s Partner’s Brunch. I spotted these white chairs with pretty lines. We decided to see if they were still there on the way back, and they sure were. So- score #1: we got two upholstered dining chairs with great lines for $10 total. Score #2: We met some super sweet neighbors, the ones who were having the sale! (and they told us that one of the neighbors has a built in margarita machine in their backyard- we really want to get invited to one of those parties).
The chairs first made their home as the two head chairs on our dining table. After a few days I wasn’t sold on the combination of four black chairs and two white chairs at a black table. I felt it made our kitchen look too cluttered. Too many finishes going on in there!
So they made their way up to our master bedroom, on each side of the dresser.

Of course, I had to reupholster that red stripe fabric that was stained and in bad shape. But don’t these chairs have great lines and curvatures?

So I turned the chair upside down, and got to work on reupholstering, which took about five minutes and doesn’t really require an explanation here…

I used some fabric I already had.


I like that we can sit on them when we put on socks, shoes, etc. Other than that, they don’t serve much purpose other than looking pretty, but I don’t mind that.
Total cost : $10! Can’t beat that.