Mel recently moved into a bigger home and needed to buy new living room chairs. She had been eying some slipper chairs at Wiliams-Sonoma Home – at a humdinger of a price tag! Depending on the fabric you ordered them in, they cost between about $900 - $2250 – PER CHAIR, plus shipping!
So, Mel went on a mission to find a similar look for less. After all, what woman in her right mind would pay $4500 for two chairs – especially when she has two kids and multiple cats roaming the premises? Mel's ideal was to find some affordable yet good quality chairs on craigslist and then recover them with unique fabric. An admirable plan -- but was it realistic?
Right off the bat, she came across a pair of chairs posted for $100 each - but that was a little pricey for her plan. A month later, the same chairs were listed again, and this time they were marked down to $50 each! Her patience had paid off. She made her move and drove to the seller's house to pick up her fabulous finds. (Only one chair at a time would fit in her trunk, so she made two trips to pick up the chairs - but saved big on shipping fees - now that's Fab & Fru!)
The chairs were covered in a navy pattern - nice, but not her cup of tea. So, Mel did her homework and found a pattern she loved at a local fabric store. As with even the best laid plans, Mel soon discovered she had a little problem that could put a hitch in her cost saving plan. The fabric she chose had a complicated pattern. She originally needed 8 yards of fabric at $22/yard - but as the reupholstering got underway, they realized they needed more fabric to match up the patterns precisely. An additional 6 yards later, the chairs were perfect. Lesson learned: she could have cut costs even more by going with a solid or simpler pattern. But then again, her butterscotch birds are so fabulous in my opinion it was totally worth the extra money!
Total cost per chair: $500
($50 to buy each chair, $150 for fabric, & $300 for labor)
Granted, her sassy slipper chairs were not
bargain-basement cheap, but for a fraction of the price of one
chair from Williams-Sonoma Home, Mel got two high quality,
one-of-a-kind pieces she will have forever!
Do you have other ideas of how to get living room luxury -- for
less?
Want more Fabulous & Frugal? Check out more articles
& tips at www.fabandfru.com.
