Four Pieces of Furniture, Part II

I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seats. What happened with your furniture shopping? Weren't there four pieces of furniture you wanted to buy?

Well, it turns out it was really FIVE pieces of furniture we purchased over the last month. Making good use of a borrowed SUV and local antique shops, we managed to get this done. Here's the rundown.

First up. We got a desk for our front room, along with an bookshelf my husband was adamant about because WHERE ELSE WOULD WE PUT THE SOUND SYSTEM?  He's responsible for the all caps, not me.

We got the desk at an antique store about an hour away. It was tagged at $225 and I bargained it down to $175, so we paid $183.93 with tax. It's a rolltop which is even better than the secretary I thought we'd have to settle for. The bookshelf came from a different antique shop and was quite pricey, I thought. It was marked at $375, but we told them we'd only pay f$300, so the total was $316.50 when all was said and done.  We still need a rug for this room, but it solves a number of our logistical problems (where to put mail and the sound system) and storage problems (so much book overflow is going to go in that bookshelf).

You might recall that we wanted two trunks, one for mud room and one for the main room right when you walk inside. We obtained these trunks at yet another antique store. I learned that cedar chests in good shape are incredibly easy to find antique stores in southeastern Wisconsin. If we hadn't purchased these, there were honestly lots more out there. We found these at the same store and they were each marked at $175, so we offered $300 for both.

This one stores our my workout gear. Yes, we have tools next to it because OH MY GOD THE FRONT PORCH but that's a saga for later on in the week.

I'm still super confused about what to do with the giant wall space above this trunk, but I am not made of money, so that giant empty wall is going to stay empty for a while, I think. A friend suggested a tapestry and I do think it's a good idea. I might make a quilt and put it up there.

This one is in our mud room and holds bicycling supplies - I thought it would be plenty big enough, but I thought wrong. We still have approximately a million more bicycling accessories that need a home. We also sit on it to take our shoes on and off. And Zelda uses it to stalk rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels.

And, finally, the stupid hall tree. We went to SO MANY PLACES looking for hall trees. We found some at the place we had our bedroom furniture made, but it was so expensive that I couldn't justify it. So we went someplace really close. They managed to have two hall trees, neither of which we loved and neither of which was moveable on price, but we really wanted something before we had to return the borrowed SUV, so we bought one.

On the bright side, there is no mirror, which is great. It will store winter things, I think. I do like that we have a designated place for our bike helmets because neither one of us was going to put our helmets in the trunk. This way we can just hang them and go. It was $606.63, which I personally found a little unreasonable, but I do like its rustic charm.

So that's the tale of the furniture. $1423.56 and approximately a dozen antique stores later and we have these five pieces of wooden furniture. Since I originally spitballed $2000 as a budget for this, I'm actually quite pleased. Also, if anyone wants to know the best antique stores in this corner of Wisconsin, hit me up. I have opinions.