I think Hubby overdid it on the bargain lighted shelving...

We have been so unbelievably blessed because I stopped in at the Villeroy and Boch store at our nearby outlet store center (in May, I think?) and then overheard one of the salespeople telling a customer that the store was closing and that all of the fixtures were for sale. It's even more remarkable that I stumbled across this because we only get to the outlet center two or three times per year, since it's at the other end of the county. (Besides I'm more of a thrifter and garage sale afficionado than a new stuff type of gal, mostly because of budget, but also because I love to transform things.) Hubby had been asking me to keep my eye open for well-priced shelving while I'm treasure hunting, so I asked another salesperson for details. It turned out that each section of display shelving (about six feet tall, extra-deep glass shelves and wired for lighting) would be sold for 20.00 per section, with the understanding that the buyer would have to come and remove them himself and assume all risk if the units got damaged in the process.

Anyway, I went home, told Hubby about the shelving and persuaded him to at least go and look at them. Hubby works two jobs now that his earnings have been so severely affected by the recession, and he was so dog-tired that he thought about not going. That would have been fine with me, even though they were such a good deal, but I reminded him that he had asked me to be on the lookout and this was a real steal of a deal. It isn't likely I'll come across another like this anytime soon. So we headed south to go have a look-see together.

When we walked into the store with our wall measurements, he took one look at those display units and he was smitten. Off he went to check out the construction of the shelves while Samantha and I browsed the store. After about twenty minutes, he called me over to go over a sketch that he'd drawn out. Since our laundry area is on the rear garage wall, he had an idea to use the back sides of the units as a temporary wall to enclose the laundry area by making an "L" shape with them. We could use the other side of the units for storage. I thought this was a great idea and a thrifty way to give me a separate laundry area that isn't so visible when the garage door is open. He also said that he wanted to buy all of the shorter units (twenty!) to be sure that he had enough to use as he envisioned and not end up regretting it if he bought fewer. He knew we could resell them easily if we decided not to use them all.

He asked if I had any thoughts and I said I'd like to get some units for our living room, one on either side of the fireplace and possibly two more that we could use on either side of a television console on our entertainment wall. Our living room was converted long ago from a two-car garage and is so spacious and the scale of the fireplace so big that I've been struggling with furnishing the wall space on either side of the fireplace. Everything I've tried with the pieces we have looks dinky and just so WRONG because of the length of the wall and the height of the fireplace. And, our media is all in an old Scandinavian Designs wall unit that we bought twenty years ago, before I had any idea what our personal style would be. My idea was to paint the new units going into the living room black, which should bring some needed visual weight to the areas where they would be placed. We also decided to purchase two sections for our eat-in kitchen, so that I could finally display some of my ironstone and other cherished china and ceramic pieces. Those units would be painted in creamy white.

I also saw a square display table that would solve my kitchen-without-an-island problem. I've wanted an island for a while, but two to three hundred dollars just isn't doable right now. The salesperson gave me a price of 10.00 for the table. Score! It'll need paint and casters, but those are such easy fixes.

Hubby went down to the now-closed store on Tuesday and spent the day taking the decorative crown molding off the units, dismantling them from each other and loading them onto the large carrier truck that his employer loaned him. As he brought the units into the kitchen, I could see that those, at least, won't work. The proportion and scale are all wrong, the tops being even with the door opening on that wall and they just look too massive. Sometimes even taking measurements isn't enough - you've got to see the furniture in the space.

The table (now an island) appears to be the right size. We're using it now even though it needs paint. I'm trying to decide if I want to enclose three sides with beadboard panelling. Either way, I'm making a trip on payday to buy Bullseye primer and liquid sandpaper and I'll be getting started on some portion of this project!

The units for the living room are still in the garage, waiting for Hubby to recharge. Spending his day off dismantling these units and moving them twice, on top of his two jobs, has left him totally spent. He's also looking at all of these units in the garage and thinking that he could have saved money and a ton of effort by buying fewer. At least we know they'll sell easily if we decide to let some of them go.

Anyway, I'm pretty shocked at the final cost. I remembered being quoted 20.00 per unit, but hubby says he was told 10.00 when he paid for them and he brought home twenty of them. We did pay 200.00, plus 10.00 for the table. (Talk about a month of juggling funds so that we could pay for these!)

And yes, one of these days I'll actually learn how to post photos! However, the jury's still out on whether or not I can learn to use fewer words to tell a story!

Blessings on your day!