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Wednesday, July 6, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Sensibly designedThrifty but chic decorating and a lifetime of rummagingBy DEBRA D. BASS Barbara Ann Hughes readily admits to having an addiction. I like a lot of stuff the more stuff the better. My philosophy is that you can never have too much stuff, Hughes says, employing a level of unflinching eye contact that leads you to believe that she means business. If her ranch-style house in Town and Country, Mo., is a testament, she will not be content until walking the generous floor plan is difficult. Still, Hughes taste is evident. Her furnishings tend toward items that look like British colonial-era Asian imports. She favors dark carved woods, sophisticated prints and rich fabrics. But youre likely to find a few eclectic surprises thrown into the mix. The only thing youll be hard-pressed to find are items that Hughes bought for the full retail price. She considers retail a last resort, and there are precious few items in her 1,600-square-foot home that would fit into the category. Hughes says she loves the thrill of bargain hunting. Shes so avid that she keeps a running list of annual charity rummage sales at local churches and private schools. She updates the list religiously and keeps contact numbers on file. Her day planner is a whos who of charity rummage sales. If I find out that I missed a good sale, I just feel sick, Hughes said. To augment her passion for shopping, she occasionally mounts a sale of her own at a local flea market. But even on days when shes selling, she cant stop herself from taking off for an hour or so to shop. Interior designer CJ Knapp of CJ Knapp Interiors, based in Pacific, Mo., insists that bargain shopping, bartering and salvaging just makes sense. She gets a designers discount, so she has no qualms about buying new, but she loves a bargain. She says that getting a really good price on an item that normally sells for much more feels like an accomplishment not all her clients can afford a $60,000 kitchen. We call it junking it in the industry, Knapp said. Recently, she put her design credibility where her mouth is by furnishing a show-house room almost exclusively with charity-shop finds. She decked out a fully furnished casual dining room for a show home with just $983, including table, chairs, chandelier, rug, oil painting, drapes and an array of dishware and decorative accessories. She could have easily furnished the room for 10 times the price, but Knapp said that she wanted to do something realistic yet clever and stylish. If you mix it in, who knows whats the good stuff and whats the cheap stuff, Knapp said. Its not what you buy, its the eye you buy with. In the entrance to the room, Knapp included a sheet listing all the thrift shops where she made her purchases and a handout titled 10 Tips for Shopping Cheap & Chic. Knapp advises shoppers to never, ever buy something chipped or broken unless you love it. And, yes, she has fallen in love with more than a few blemished items, but never anything she couldnt repair quickly and easily. Most items just need a coat of paint, such as the $15 chandelier in the show house that she spray-painted white and converted into a candelier with handy attachments that screw into the light sockets to hold tapered candles or tea lights. The table and four chairs cost $125 at Goodwill Industries and also required a thick coat of white paint to transform the scratched pecan finish. She made the drapery from $6-a-yard discontinued fabric and acquired the trim for $1-a-bolt in a discount bin at Michaels. The most expensive items were two stools she included to make the room look more casual and increase seating around the table. The stools were $150 each and attractive enough that Knapp purchased them despite the fact that she didnt receive a designers discount or sale price. Im still a little mad about that, she says. The dishes, teapots and other items that decorated the table, niches and a shelf circling the room ranged from bone china to dollar-store finds. But unlike Hughes, Knapp is a strong proponent of restraint. She advises shoppers not to buy more than they can use. You dont want to crowd your house with so much greatness that it looks like you live in a junk store, Knapp said. Hughes, on the other hand, believes that if she loves it, shell find room for it, even if she has to put something else in storage to accommodate it. Ask to see her garage, second guest room or basement, and she grimaces. The rooms are literally stuffed to the ceiling with items that will be included in future decorating schemes. She has two 18- to 20-foot-long canoes that she plans to hang from the ceiling of a basement game room one day. The canoes are waiting in the garage. The basement has yet to be finished. Hughes says that its never too early to start collecting. Knapp says it is the frequent browser who gets the best finds. She knows its hard, but she advises people not to buy something every time they shop. But she preaches that you should be prepared just in case. She has a system for shopping that includes a bag stocked with house measurements and a measuring tape. Hughes, on the other hand, prefers flea markets and the thrill of haggling. She starts by politely asking if the prices marked are firm before she offers a counterbid. Some sellers respond better to cutting deals if youre buying more than one item, she said. Although Hughes has secured many rock-bottom prices on items, she said shes not overly aggressive about finagling the absolute lowest price. Im not here to insult them, Hughes said. If she really wants it, then shes not going to nickel-and-dime. Ultimately, its worth what youre willing to pay for it. Hughes says that her friends used to tease her relentlessly for going to garage sales. They wanted her to shop at the malls and boutiques. The perception was that she was buying junk. Then they noticed that she was filling her home with beautiful finds for a fraction of the cost that they were paying. Now they all want to ride with me when I go to rummage sales, she said.
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Copyright 2004-Fayette Publishing, Inc. |