As you all know, Sonny-boy furnished his first apartment after college on the cheap. He relied heavily on area consignment stores for nice case goods, but didn’t have any luck locating usable nightstands.
A while back my brother called. He was at a local Antique and Flea Market, and they had released the fleas! All the flea market storage bays were open and the Antique stores had 20% off sales. My brother was enjoying himself tremendously. I asked him if he had seen any nightstands, and his response of “lots” had hubby and I heading over there after lunch.
Now, I am not a fan of flea markets or even yard sales (unless I am the one holding said yard sale). Individuals tend to price their goods based on what they paid for the product 20 years ago in pristine condition, or based on their emotional attachment to the object. Antique stores and consignment stores have little emotional attachment, and are usually motivated to sell, so they price accordingly.
This flea market was no different from my other flea marker encounters. Items laying in the dirt, stains, dents, and dings and priced at least 40% higher than any consignment store I had looked in recently. I was getting discouraged.
Then hubby and I entered one of the “antique” (boy is that term used loosely) stores and spotted a nightstand that I would have been thrilled to have in my house! Note the “a” nightstand? Yup, only one. That is why the chase for nightstands was difficult for Sonny-boy and it frustrated me when I looked on his behalf. It was always one nightstand! Whatever happened to a pair of nightstands!?
Wandering into the last building I was impressed with both the selection and quality. I spotted these:
And even though I suspect they are end tables rather than nightstands, I paid the $200 (total) for them figuring if Sonny-boy didn’t want to repurpose them as nightstands, I’d keep them myself!
So once that purchase was made, we were ready to leave. Hubby was grumbling and groaning about the $200 for nightstands that he knew I would gift to Sonny-boy.
As we were walking out, he spotted this door:
laying on the ground. He had been looking for a few solid doors to replace deeply damaged ones in one of his apartment renovations. He walked over to the flea market bay renter to ask him “how much”.
A few minutes later, hubby came back to me all smiles! The door was free! They were disposing of it, and he could just take it. Oh sure it needed a little TLC, but it is a solid wood door in the style which he was seeking, and he had paid nothing for it.
As we were exiting the flea market he looked at me and said, “I spent $200 and all I got was this door.”
Maybe I should stitch that on a pillow for him?
Do you frequent flea markets? Antique stores? Any great finds?
Note: this post originally appeared on Coupons, Deals and More
Shell says
Yes I love flea markets! I have found tons of stuff over the years either free or priced cheap!
So my question is what is wrong with one night stand for a young single guy? My daughter is about his same age and her apt has been furnished from Goodwill and what she could pick up free off the street or from Craig’s List. She would have been thrilled with one night stand. Actually the stuff in Sonny Boy’s apt is nicer than much of what is in my house and I am over 50 years old!
Ann says
I donno, guess we are used to two nightstands here.
Goodwill isn’t that great here. I found the consignment shops to be less expensive with better quality. I am sure if we had looked more frequently, we could have done better at Goodwill, Salvation Army or Amvets, but I think there is more competition at those stores than the consignment shops, so less available when we looked.
Ann
Patti says
O, I need some nightstands!! I rarely, very rarely, go to flea markets or estate sales or garage sales. But I love consignment stores. Recently needed a large dresser for guest bedroom. Hubby found a beautiful buffet. Obviously meant for the dining room, but works great as a dresser. It was in pristine condition, very well made (my folks owned a furniture store ~ I know how good furniture should be made) and I love it. It’s perfect as a dresser. Perfect. We paid $300 for it. IMO it was worth every nickel.
Sometimes it is hard for me to break out of the box & see the possibilities in using items in a different way. Lots of used formal dining furniture out there. If you can re-purpose it, you may get a beautiful piece for a fraction of new!
Ann says
I think if it was a small, rectangular formal dining room table, it could make a great desk. In Hubby’s office he bought a beautiful desk, but needed something on the side to hold papers, printer, etc. He ended up buying (what I think was supposed to be) a dining room table. It has worked perfectly as a side-table-desk for 7-8 years now.
Ann
Patti says
Great idea!
Liz says
Nice find Ann!! 🙂 Nice Find Ann’s Hubby! 🙂 When you repurpose them, they will be great 🙂
I need everything! From dining table to entire bedroom set. I am thinking that I will buy new only because I have so much fixing to do in the house itself that I don’t want to have to deal with furniture that I need to work on. I will say that solid stuff is hard to find these days – new.
LOL – I was thinking the doors in my house (cause it’s so ridiculously old) are super solid. I’m not sure if I will be able to refinish them so they are actually nice look and have nice new handles on them. I heard that I could probably resell some of our old doors and stuff that we are actually taking out. But we’ll see about that.