Furniture Consignment Gallery Blog

 "I am looking for two red leather sofas and a matching set of chairs with ottoman,” the caller said to me on the phone. “Do you have anything like that in the store?"

What an amazing coincidence! Our store had just gotten a red leather living room set that fit his description – perfectly. "We have a beautiful set we just put out on the showroom floor," I told him. His excitement equaled mine. "Great!” he said eagerly. “Don't sell it. I'm on my way to check it out."

Soon afterward, the man arrived with a digital camera. I thought he was going to show me the furniture he wanted to sell to make room for this great set. Instead, he pulled up photos of the very same furniture sitting in our store.

"This is my furniture,” he explained. “My wife and I are going through a divorce. She doesn’t have the authority to sell these pieces.” 

“You’ve got to be kidding!” I thought, my mind racing. “What a mess.” His soon-to-be ex-wife had consigned a lot of items – apparently before the court had finalized a plan to split their assets. Thankfully, after the pair made a few hurried phone calls to their lawyers, they were able to agree that selling their furniture on consignment was a fair and equitable way to proceed.

That incident was a lesson for me. From now on, when we know a potential customer is divorcing, we will be careful to make sure that person has the right to sell their furniture.

Divorce is painful. That’s a certainty. What’s less certain is how to handle the task of splitting up the assets acquired in the course of their marriage. For many, the furniture is a particularly excruciating reminder of the hopes and dreams they once shared when setting up house.

That’s why selling furniture on consignment after a divorce can be a good solution. Why? There are several reasons: 

• Less bickering. A third party – namely, the consignment shop – will assess the value of the furniture and price it to sell. No one has to quibble over whether the sectional should have fetched a higher price. The couple – or the court – can decide how to divide the proceeds from the sale.
• Less work. The consignment shop will pick up the furniture and take it to the showroom where a talented team of designers and salespeople will set it up and sell it. No one has to deal with the crazies on Craigslist.
• Less stigma. No buyer wants to know that the most stunning bedroom set on the showroom floor is being sold because of a divorce. Some might see bad karma in your once-treasured triple-mirror dresser. A consignment shop de-personalizes furniture.  

Divorce demands hard decisions. Selling your furniture through a reputable consignment store is one way to make it just a little bit easier.

"Reproduction" is a bad word in the furniture world, but it shouldn't be.

This week, we were graced by the presence of a haughty designer who scoffed at an incredibly gorgeous Bombay Chest on the showroom floor of Furniture Consignment Gallery. "That's a reproduction,” she sniffed, “and it is overpriced.”

An hour later, the chest sold to a buyer who loved it and thought it was a great buy. It was, of course, a reproduction. The original Bombay or "bombe" chests were crafted in France during the Regency Period. These chests have a distinctive bowed shape and are often embellished with colorful designs of flowers, exotic birds or chinoiserie. Every fashionable home in Paris had one in the early 1700s.

We think this incident is worth talking about because many people get caught up in the semantics of furniture "reproductions". I recall a customer who walked around our store, pointing out each piece and demanding to know if it was a reproduction. I saw where this was going and I tried to explain gently that everything in our store is a reproduction. In fact, just about all furniture is a reproduction of something.

  "Reproduction" simply means that an idea, concept or style has been copied and reproduced. Some reproductions are exact replicas of an original piece that you might find in a museum, while others use the concepts of older pieces to create new styles. Large furniture-makers such as Baker and Century are skilled at taking classic styles and giving them a fresh, modern look. Smaller companies such as Eldred Wheeler are renowned for their authentic hand-made reproductions of 18^th Century pieces using native woods of Cherry and Tiger Maple. So prized are some of its pieces that collectors wait months – and pay many thousands of dollars – for its reproductions.  

So the designer who sneered at the Bombay Chest in our showroom was right – and wrong. That piece was a beautifully crafted reproduction and it was a great bargain. And if we ever do manage to find an original bombe chest that’s been hidden for 200 years in some attic in Paris, believe me, we'll let you know.

Dear Newton, Brookline, Wellesley and Weston:

You’ve got a new neighbor - the Furniture Consignment Gallery in Newton!

Less than ten miles from your home you’ll discover some of the best furniture values in New England. Our new store is located on Route 9, westbound, just a quarter-mile west of the Chestnut Hill Mall. This is just what you’ve been waiting for in a furniture store: a big showroom, full of quality product, all at a reasonable price.

Retailers know that you are among the wealthiest residents in New England, and for years, they’ve taken advantage of that fact with higher prices. That’s been particularly true among those who sell furniture. But we’re different.

We know you are savvy shoppers, and that you are tired of over-paying for everything. We respect your insistence on quality – at a fair price. You don’t have to pretend you live in a less tony town to get the best price from Furniture Consignment Gallery. (Yes, we even know that little trick, too.)

If you have great furniture to sell, we will be on your doorstep ready to pick up your items, as promised, on time. Your furniture will be handled carefully, and then displayed beautifully, at our showroom. Whether we take just one item or fill up our big truck with a houseful of furniture, your pick-up fee is very reasonable. 

Of course, selling your furniture at an estate sale is another option – but you should weigh your choices carefully. The folks who run estate sales folks will use your home to showcase your furniture -- and then they want to bring in some of their furniture to "fill in the holes”.  Buyers will be trooping through your house for a weekend. At the end, the estate-sale folks take a handsome cut of the proceeds for using your address and overhead.

When you consign with Furniture Consignment Gallery in Newton, we’ll be showing your furniture in our stylish, air-conditioned showroom. Your identity remains confidential and safe. Our service fee is 45% of the sale, but, all in all, we believe we provide the greater value to sellers.

If you are in the market for furniture, our newest store offers prices at or around wholesale for newer items from upscale brands such as Baker, Henredon and Century.  At Furniture Consignment Gallery, the pricing fits your budget – and the quality meets your high standards.  No wonder we hear so many of our customers murmuring the same thing when they visit our showroom: "Great stuff!"

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Today, a consignor challenged me on a very sensitive topic.

"You know, Jay,” she said, “your competitor pays 5% more to the consignor than you do.”  I thought I was going to get a good ol’ browbeating, but instead she told me why she chose us – despite the difference in fees.

Her reasons were simple and they made sense. For one, she appreciates our marketing. From our website to our magazine advertisements, she said our efforts indicate an appreciation for quality. Our marketing says a lot about the way we run our business, she told me. She said she could tell that we care – a lot – about beautiful furniture. And she believes we also care about the quality of our sales staff, the look of our showroom and, very importantly, the satisfaction of our buyers. Because they are the ones who keep coming back to find those special pieces on our showroom – and they bring their friends.

I know she is right, but I also felt that there are many other ways we justify our service fee of 45%. Our focus is to sell furniture and only furniture.  We don’t accept china, silverware, jewelry, clothing or other small items. Of course, we know how to dress a table with a silver bowl or a floral arrangement so that it will stand out in the showroom, but we don’t do Hummels. We are, first and foremost, specialists in quality furniture. Isn’t it worth the extra 5% to show your beloved mahogany desk in a showroom that isn’t cluttered with figurines from the 1950s?

We take care to merchandise our furniture cleverly so that customers can visualize how an item will look in their home. Our talented stylists place pieces in vignettes, creating a cozy and welcoming atmosphere. We will dress a beautiful bed with a mattress, a fashionable comforter and even pillows and a bed skirt to help buyers imagine re-doing their bedrooms. Our showroom is constantly evolving – like a movie set – but we know this is an enticing draw for buyers. Isn't that worth an extra 5%?

Our furniture is photographed as soon as it arrives and the photos are displayed online. Our website gets over 12,000 unique visitors a week exploring our inventory!  We upload as many as ten different photos taken from every angle to give buyers a close-up of the furniture we are selling.  Our entire staff contributes to the website, which is a hugely effective marketing tool, spurring sales to customers as far away as Wisconsin and Florida. Isn’t this worth an extra 5%?

Our skillful marketing helps us sell furniture that has stalled in other consignment shops. Incredibly, we have picked up furniture that has languished at other consignment shops – and then sold the item within a week, in our store, for a higher price. 

We could lower our fee and offer consignors a higher rate if we eliminated our stylists and our web photographers. We could clutter up the showroom with the small stuff.  But we have made a conscious decision to focus on building a quality consignment business. And here’s the payoff for you: at Furniture Consignment Gallery in Hanover, your furniture sells faster and for a higher price than it would with our competitors. Now, that's worth the extra 5%!

Every home tells a story -- and so, too, does the furniture within it. We recently got a large shipment of Stickley furniture from an estate in New Hampshire, and every piece in the collection spoke of the homeowners' lifelong appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. 

More than a decade ago, he had purchased a waterfront home from a couple who were fanatics for Arts & Crafts. They had built the house to showcase their collection of museum-quality Arts & Crafts furniture, including some original pieces by Stickley. Indeed, the furniture was more valuable than the home itself. When the original owners sold their home and their furniture collection, some of the most valuable tables and chairs landed in mansions owned by Barbara Streisand and Steven Spielberg. Our customer was determined to stay true to the design of his new home, so he decided to invest in his own collection of Stickley.  

Perhaps it is not surprising that he was drawn to Stickley and the practical and simple elegance of Arts & Crafts design, so understated in appearance, but truly exquisite in its craftsmanship. In a way, his furniture was a reflection of his character: honest, unadorned, carefully crafted and solid as oak. Our customer is a quiet, wise and practical man. He believes in simplicity and the old adage that "less is more". Taking his own advice, he is now selling his beloved home and its contents to downsize to a life more manageable and enjoyable. More than 30 pieces of his Stickley's flagship Mission Oak furniture are for sale in our showroom.

Arts & Crafts furniture is also one of my favorites, though it isn't appreciated by everyone. To some, it is too plain and ordinary looking. In our store, the furniture sparks two extremes of reaction. For every person who runs to hug these pieces when they see them in the showroom, another scoffs at the price tag and moves along. Never have we seen furniture that elicits such strong feelings. People either love it or they don’t get it.

As for me, I appreciate the craftsmanship and the quality. When I study the wood and the joints of a particular piece, I can almost hear the whine of the workshop saws and I can almost see the craftsman laboring over every step. This furniture has a special dignity, which makes it so much more appealing to me than the mass-produced, cookie-cutter furniture that fills many a suburban home. It's not that I'm a furniture snob. There's a market for Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. Their furniture is functional -- bright and cheery, even. 

Still, Mission Oak is different. It connects with your soul. It is subtle, but full of substance. These pieces speak not of the factory but of the forest. Every home does tell a story. With Mission Oak, it sounds like pure poetry. 

    ABC World News offered a fascinating look at the problems of globalization last week when it challenged a Dallas family to furnish their home with items made only in America. During the show, a moving crew hauled out everything in the home that was made abroad, including the beds, the couch, the chairs, the lamps, the rugs, the refrigerator, the stove, the silverware, and the children's toys and games. In a dramatic re-do, the house was stripped of virtually everything. All that was left on the living room floor was a tiny vase with a flower in it.

We wanted to offer a few thoughts on the subject, which is stirring controversy already.

  First, you should know that just because these sofas, coffee tables and bedroom sets were foreign-made does not mean that they are bad products.  In fact, there are many skilled craftsmen making fine furniture in other countries. Imported products are sometimes less expensive because manufacturers' costs for labor and materials are cheaper than those of their competitors in the U.S. Other times, imported products are down right skimpy. There are, however, plenty of examples of well-designed and high-quality products made in Europe, South America and Asia. 

  For those who prefer to buy American, there are substantial benefits. For one, American-made furniture typically has a greater resale value. We accepted on consignment a Hitchcock dining room set this week that will command a price only slightly less than the owner paid ten years ago. Our inventory also boasts a Harden Goddard Library Cabinet, an exquisitely designed piece of furniture prized by those who appreciate quality craftsmanship.  Also in our showroom is a Vaughn bedroom set which is 99% manufactured in America. Vaughn and Harden were both featured in the ABC special. Our years of experience tell us that American-made furniture is highly valued on the resale market.

  Still, as pragmatic -- and increasingly budget-conscious -- consumers, we can't ignore the reality of the price tag. American-made products are expensive! Harden and Hitchcock make high-quality furniture, but they are no bargain. Viking kitchen appliances are a stunning addition to any kitchen, but they are also among the priciest on the market. Who can afford to buy items made in America? As patriots, we all wish we could buy many of the products featured on the special report by ABC World News, but we do have to watch our wallets.  Can Americans afford to buy American?

    We have a solution! What could be more American than buying from and selling to your neighbor? Regardless of the country of origin, when you buy on consignment, you support your neighbor. You put money back in your neighbor's wallet when you buy his or her much-beloved furniture. And that simple act of economy keeps our hard-earned dollars right here in America. When you buy at Furniture Consignment Gallery, you get an excellent product for a great price, especially if the furniture is made in America.

   We applaud ABC World News for a series that highlights the challenges and benefits of buying American. But we do have a couple of questions for the producers. Just about everything owned by the family featured in the show was whisked away by a moving van. Was it all destined for a dump in Dallas? Did you donate everything to a local charity? Or did you return every item to its country of origin?  ABC didn't say where the van was headed, but we have a suggestion. Why not consider consignment -- at Furniture Consignment Gallery? Now, that's American ingenuity at work. Give us a call!

Our loveable Boxer is a sweet pet, but, boy, can she slobber! And she has a habit of finding the most comfortable spot in the house and making it her own.  Since I'm a guy with a showroom full of furniture, you might think I let her sleep where she chooses, but no. We gate off our living room so that our upholstery stays clean and free of eau de pet. 

That's one way to protect your furniture, but here are some other suggestions you might consider.

Do use table pads on your dining room table. They are crucial to enjoying family dinners and holiday events. Your tabletop is not designed to handle a hot platter or dripping candle wax. A quality pad offers the protection you need to enjoy entertaining. Throw a tasteful tablecloth over it and relax. Your table is protected from nicks, gouges or spills. McKay Table pads are reasonably priced and can be purchased from most upscale furniture stores.

Don't put custom-cut glass on the tops of desks or tables. Glass detracts from the warm, elegant beauty of the wood.  Every time I see glass on a table top I cringe because, inevitably, the protective circular buffers that hold the glass in place stick to the wood and ruin it. And if moisture gets trapped between the glass and the surface, the wood may be damaged. 

Do use fabric protection on your upholstery. Murphy's Law is in full force when it comes to your upholstered furniture. Serve coffee, red wine or even a kid’s juice box and someone will manage to spill it. Fabric protection really works. Liquids bead up – and don’t soak in. We offer our customers a product manufactured by ForceField. We think it is great, but there are other fabric protectors that also do a good job.

Don't cover your upholstery with plastic. Though it may offer some protection, it looks ridiculous, and it kills the ambiance of a room. Just because Grandma did it doesn’t mean it is a good idea. You don’t want guests to think you're an obsessive-compulsive germ-a-phobe.

Do install window film that will protect furniture and upholstery from the sun's damaging ultraviolet rays. Window film won’t change the view, but it will shield your furniture from powerful rays that could cause fading, drying and cracking. This solution can be pricey, but if you have invested in upscale furnishings and you have sunny windows, you may want to consider it. 3M makes a quality Sun Control Window Film product.

Don't feel badly if your lifestyle does mean a bit of wear-and-tear for your furniture. Relax. If you want to celebrate your big promotion by stretching out on the couch with the family dog in your lap while smoking a fine cigar and sipping a vintage merlot, go for it. You don’t want to live in a museum.

Salespeople are among the highest paid workers in many companies. Why? Selling is not easy! Smart companies know there are few things as valuable as winning new customers and keeping old ones happy. Top salespeople make a good living because they know the art of the sale.

You don’t need a business degree to learn how to sell your furniture, but there are some handy tricks of the trade.  

• Don’t show dirty furniture. Clean it before inviting in prospective buyers. Vacuum the upholstery. Try to remove stains. Nobody wants to see popcorn kernels and puppy hair when they are considering buying your sofa. And few things are as disgusting as gum stuck on the underside of a table.  Trust me, I've seen it!  Dust your furniture, but don’t use a polish that will rub off on buyers’ hands.  Make sure an old gum drop doesn't stick to someone’s pants when he sits on your sofa. Yep, that's happened to me, too.  Yuck!
• Don’t fib about flaws. You didn't notice the giant crack in the middle of the dining table you rated a perfect 10 out of 10? "Wow, I didn't see that!"  I love that little lie. Be honest about your furniture. If there are scratches, run to the hardware store and buy a couple of furniture markers. Minwax  makes markers that costs less than $5. They work like magic.
• Don’t overprice your furniture. If you set too high a price, you are wasting your time. Do a little research. Is your furniture old, worn or out of style? Respect your potential buyers. They are looking for a bargain, but they aren’t fools.
• Don’t have your furniture professionally cleaned. You shouldn’t invest more money in items that you want to sell. And, often, you can do a good job yourself with a bit of elbow grease. 
• Don’t restore furniture before selling. Refinishing and reupholstering is very expensive, and you rarely get your money out of this kind of an investment. Price your furniture based on its current condition. Let the new owner decide whether or not to refinish your piece.

Buying furniture for your home is exciting and fun, but it’s also stressful. You are about to spend your hard-earned money on a major purchase, and you want to make the right decision.

Here are the top five mistakes you should avoid when buying furniture:

• Don’t fight with your spouse in the showroom. Your salesperson is trained in furniture – not marital counseling.  Consider that your spouse may see things differently than you. Usually one person is looking at the functional use of furniture while the other is looking at the decorative side.  Be patient with each other. Polarizing views often lead to a good compromise. 
• Don’t ask other customers in the showroom for their opinions. This can be disastrous. Everyone has an opinion, but you want a qualified opinion. Asking everyone what they think rarely leads to a good decision. Try to find a salesperson you trust. That’s the best way to get the look you want.
• Don’t be lured in by zero-interest financing plans. Borrowing money to buy furniture is not a good idea. For one, these plans are full of penalties if your payment is late. And your monthly payments will soar if the furniture isn’t paid off before the interest kicks in. Unless you are extremely responsible with your finances, avoid these plans.  
• Don’t pay extra for product warranties. If a store asks you to pay an additional fee for a warranty, you should question the quality of the furniture – and the store’s willingness to stand by its products. Warranties aren’t expensive – generally less than $100 – which is why you may be tempted to view them as a kind of cheap insurance. But they’re a waste of money.
• Don’t buy new furniture without stopping by your favorite upscale consignment store. Why? Because it may have exactly what you want – for much less. Shop smart!

     Every time I think I got a bargain, I realize I probably could have done better. 

      I joined a gym a few months ago and after a week or so of intense negotiations I felt like I got a great deal.

   Only a few weeks later, I received a flyer in the mail from my new gym with special offers for new members. Turns out, these newbies are going to get their memberships for even less than me after all my hard work!
      The same, however, is not true for our customers.  Our customers are smart. And they do their homework.  We recently had a customer who fell in love with a beautiful sectional by Ethan Allen. They loved the color, the fabric and the styling of the sectional, but it had a minor tear in the back. They priced a new one at Ethan Allen and it was about $2,000 more than the one in our showroom in Hanover, MA.
     So what did our customers do? They purchased a few yards of the matching fabric and fixed the tear for less than $100. In the end, they got the sectional they always wanted – and saved $1,900. 

      At Furniture Consignment Gallery, we see clever solutions like this all the time. Buying furniture on consignment is so smart that we think everyone should check it out before making a purchase. You never know what treasures you will find. 
     Now, if only they sold gym memberships on consignment…