Furniture Consignment Gallery Blog

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Now is the time for all good men and women to have a helluva time shopping at FCG.

Thanks to the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we’ve been granted two days of freedom from state taxes: today, August 29th and tomorrow, August 30th. FCG is sweetening the deal with another 10% off, so your total savings add up to a whopping 16¼ %.

With news like that, I feel like I should don a tricorn hat and grab a bell like a colonial town crier.

Tax-free weekend has always been a very big annual event for FCG. Traditionally, it kicked off a busy season of redecorating and refreshing home décor in preparation for the holidays. Now, with the pandemic, our customers are telling us it’s even more important to make home a comfortable and cozy place.

So FCG has gone all-out for this weekend. Our three stores are chockful of the finest pre-owned furniture in all of New England. I promise you, this is going to be one of the best and most fun shopping experiences you’ll ever have at every one of our three stores.

Yes, it’s been a rough six months for all of us. Isn’t it time for some fun? Stop by FCG in Hanover, Plymouth or Natick. We’ve got fun by the truckload.

It’s almost time to surrender summer. Look, and you’ll see the signs everywhere. We’ve sampled all the flavors at the local ice cream shop. The sumac is starting to blush, a hint of the color that will soon blanket New England. And the annual tax free shopping weekend is almost here.

This year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has declared a tax-free shopping holiday for Saturday, Aug. 29th and Sunday, Aug.30th.

At FCG, we’re already in high gear preparing for the event. And, when we throw open the doors of our three stores in Hanover, Natick and Plymouth, they’ll be chock full of New England's finest pre-owned furniture.

Here are five tips for those who might be new to our event:

• Don’t wait until next weekend to start feathering your nest. After all, the best items fly out of our stores quickly. So shop now! Stop by our stores or go online and reserve the furniture and accessories you want. We’ll wait until next weekend to process your payment so you can take advantage of the tax savings.


• You’ve got options for delivery or pick-up. We can schedule your delivery for a small fee after the tax-free weekend. Or you can pick your items up next weekend. Let us know your preference.


• We’re sweetening the deal even more! We’re offering an additional 10% off the current price on any item on the store including our mattresses. The sale starts today and ends September 1. Your savings: 16¼ %.


• Remember: All of the state’s tax-free weekend restrictions apply.


• This is a big annual tradition at FCG, so we’ll be smiling behind our masks. We hope you will be, too.

“Oh, yes!”

I was flipping through emails from folks offering furniture for consignment when a photo caught my eye. Frosted glass! Chrome! That’s exactly what our customers have been looking for in recent months.

From the photo, the cabinet looked like some fancy European contemporary piece, possibly German. My excitement was growing. I emailed the seller for more details but he couldn’t remember much. His other items were quality brands, though, so I figured this piece would be a winner, too.

A few days later, the moving van pulled up to the store. One by one, the movers carefully unloaded our consigner’s furniture, all nice pieces, but I was holding my breath for the grand finale. The Frosted Glass and Chrome was in the back of the truck lavishly swathed in a black shrink-wrap. A priceless masterpiece, for sure!

Like a kid at Christmas, I could hardly contain my eagerness. “I can’t wait to see it!” I said to the mover. He looked at me sourly then offered his opinion in a thick Eastern European accent: “Zis is – how you say—a peaze of sheet.”

Stunned, I thought maybe I didn’t quite understand him. Surely he must be wrong. He shook his head and reiterated plainly, “No, no. You watch. Is a peaze of sheet.”

He tore off the last of the black wrapping. The cabinet of my dreams emerged, then slowly toppled over and crashed on the floor in pieces – on my foot. Apparently, the only thing holding this item together was the black wrapping.

I shook off the fractured pieces and circled the cabinet in a fury. How could I have been so wrong? How had I been bamboozled? This was no exquisite piece of contemporary furniture from Germany. It was, to be blunt, exactly as described by the mover.

It was Ikea.

The mover was looking at me with a smug expression that said “I told you so.” I couldn’t wait to sweep up the rubble and get the cabinet out of the store. Ikea at FCG? Ugh.

Made of particle board and assembled, often ineptly, by customers, Ikea’s stuff is suitable for dorm rooms and first apartments, but it sags and crumbles under pressure. It’s disposable, like a cheap razor. Ikea is the antithesis of FCG.

I wandered off, berating myself angrily. What was I thinking? What a dumb mistake. I should have asked more questions. I should have demanded the sales receipt. Have I lost my touch? I made a vow to myself: never again.

Summer of 2020 is a modern-day limbo.

Medieval Catholic theologians fostered among their flocks the concept of limbo, a temporary underworld for the dead that was just a little less tortured than the fiery Hell of the Damned. For some of the more entrepreneurial clergy, limbo turned out to be a sweet bonanza – at least while they were alive. For a fee, they’d offer to purge the sins of the dead and speed their way to heaven.

Rich or poor, we’re all wondering whether it is possible to buy our way out of the restless pit of Covid this August. Like those lost souls in limbo, we have no idea how long we’re destined to stay in this tortured place.

How long will we have to wear those smothering masks? Will we ever learn to follow the signs when we’re shopping at Walmart? When will our kids go back to school?

Even our leaders don’t know how to advise us. A college student I know was advised by her school to “pack lightly.” In other words, don’t plan on spending a lot of time on campus this fall. Another Covid surge could trigger the panic button and shut down the place.

So here we are stuck in a pandemic rut. How do we plan for the future? I think we should all get ready to hunker down for the fall and winter. Our homes will be our castles with a wide moat between us and the world. Here are a few tips on how to prepare:

• Think about creating a permanent Zoom Room. Video-learning and videoconferencing will be an important part of family life in the future. A Zoom Room needs good lighting, a stable work surface, and a clean or neutral background. So your shopping list should have some lamps, a couple of stylish prints for the wall, a comfy desk chair and sturdy desk.


• Family dinner is undergoing a revival these days. The dining room is also doubling as a craft room, a classroom and a work area. For those reasons, a quality dining set is a good investment. Look for solid wood and durable surfaces that can withstand the wear-and-tear of meals, crafts and homework. Rustic tables have been in vogue but they can be problematic. Homeschooling is hard enough without the kids snapping the tips of their pencils in a rutted surface.


• Comfortable upholstered or leather chairs for the living and family rooms should be on the top of your list, too. No one wants to nestle in for a night of Netflix if the seating is old, lumpy or stiff-backed. Your gamers will appreciate the investment, too.


• Is your house too noisy to for you to work with everyone stomping around all day? Remember that fabric dampens sound. Think about covering your hardwood floors with an attractive area rug.


As we wait here in limbo, you might want to update your home now for Covid, Phase II: more homeschooling, more cooking, more binge-watching television, and more togetherness. Be prepared. FCG is here to help.

Weary and worried are we Americans.

In these dog days of summer, even the smallest of things seem foreboding. The grass is withered. The air conditioner is leaking. The kids are cranky. The mask is suffocating. The virus is spreading. And a dreadful election season is on the horizon.

And yet.

What a remarkably hopeful fragment of a phrase that seems to me. Yes, we are in the midst of economic collapse, a worsening pandemic and a cultural crisis that has set our country on fire. All these things are true, and yet, there is hope.

Our scientists are leading an extraordinary effort to conquer a dangerous and fast-moving foe, the new coronavirus. Our business community is forging ahead to try to revive a faltering economy. Our political leaders are wrestling with big and painful issues. All of us are struggling with unprecedented challenges but we haven’t been stripped of hope.

Enthusiastic hope is a bedrock virtue of America. To quote the philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success… put your whole soul into it … nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

For me, that isn’t just a hackneyed quote. It’s deeply personal. I remember the day, years ago, when we acquired our first store in Hanover. After signing the papers at the lawyer’s office, I drove over to the store, unlocked the door and flung it open like we owned the place, which we did.

In my enthusiasm, though, I’d forgotten to disable the alarms. They started braying incessantly. In a matter of minutes, our parking lot was filled with police cars with their accusing sirens and lights. Oops.

Enthusiasm is part of our culture at FCG, and part of my pep talk this morning with my college-age son as he wearily prepared for a long, sweltering day on the delivery truck. “Try some enthusiasm!” I suggested. “When you show up for your first delivery at Mrs. Carter’s, you might try saying with a big smile, ‘We have a beautiful sofa for you! Where would you like us to put it?’”
Ok, so his response to my pep talk might have been a less than enthusiastic. But I planted a seed. In these dog days of summer, in the middle of a pandemic, that seems like a victory to me.

Hotter’n a blister bug in a pepper patch.

That’s how my Southern-born wife described our house after our air conditioning unit broke down in early July. When we called the repairman, he warned us of a long and sweltering wait. Replacement parts, he said, were in short supply this summer.

The reason: supply-chain disruptions due to the pandemic.

Think of the world’s supply chain as the plumbing of the global economy. It’s a total bore – until there’s a clog somewhere. Right now, there are clogs just about everywhere in the world. Factories are stuttering to a halt for want of some simple nuts and bolts. And we’re sweating it out here at home while our repairman waits for the parts and equipment he needs to fix our AC.

That’s also a big problem for the new furniture business. Sofas, tables and chairs piled up in warehouses this spring after states issued orders closing stores for weeks. Retailers quickly cancelled orders for more furniture. Now that restrictions are lifting, folks who want to furnish their homes are complaining of having to wait twelve weeks or more for something to sit on.

Luckily, that’s not a problem at Furniture Consignment Gallery. In fact, our pipeline is full and our stores are jammed with inventory. Our trucks are racing up and down the streets of New England, picking up furniture from eager consignors and delivering it to grateful buyers.

Feathering the nest is a high priority for folks this summer after months in quarantine. Smart consumers are preparing for the possibility of spending even more time at home this fall and winter. Don’t let clogs in the pipeline stall your home-improvement project . Visit our three stores or shop online. FCG is full of high-quality, stylish furniture that you can take home today.

New York’s divorce lawyers are going to be very busy in the fall. I can say that with complete authority after having spent time in the last few weeks at the public boat launch on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

I’ve been vacationing on this lake since I was a kid . This year, it’s a carnival of catastrophe. I blame the New Yorkers.

Trapped in their apartments for the last four months, New Yorkers are fleeing the city in record numbers. Like a biblical plague of locusts, they are swarming north, taking up residence in New Hampshire. On my lake. Oh, and they bought boats, as in large and powerful watercraft they don’t know how to operate or navigate.

Getting a boat into a lake for the first time requires more skill and daring than you might imagine. Speed and dexterity are essential, too. Here’s why: the new – and typically very nervous – boat owner must back his enormous boat on its trailer down a narrow strip of asphalt onto a concrete ramp that slopes rapidly down into the lake.

All in all, it’s probably like flying a 747 through a storm – backwards. While your wife or girlfriend is shouting instructions from the wing and the passengers are making fun of you.

To make things worse, if that is possible, launching a boat must be accomplished rapidly because there’s usually a long line of watercraft waiting for the ramp, mostly owned by jeering locals who have no patience for some rube from out-of-state. (Attention, hedge-fund honkys: your sizzling quarterly returns don’t earn you any respect in the ‘shire.)

Here’s the scene most mornings at the lake: just before attempting to put his new boat in the water, the visibly shaky owner usually dispatches his wife or girlfriend to stand on the side of the ramp to “help.” That means lots of shouting, arguing, screeching, swearing and crying. Sometimes the trailer veers off the ramp, falling into the water with the new boat tilted precariously atop.

If I was a divorce lawyer looking to pad his roster with some well-heeled clients, I’d make a beeline for the boat ramp at Lake Winnipesaukee. Just sayin’.

Don’t get me wrong. Some marriages will probably survive the boat ramp. Those that do will get to discover the extraordinary joys of summer on a lake in New England. Nothing quite compares with the sublime serenity of dropping anchor in a quiet spot and basking in the sun on a gently rocking boat.

Covid is changing a lot of things this summer and will likely change a lot of things this fall. We’re seeing this not only at the boat ramp but also in our stores. Families are spending a lot of time together now. Formal dining is back in style. That’s one shift I never saw coming.

With limited seating at restaurants, and fears of a resurgence of the coronavirus, big family dinners are suddenly in vogue. Customers are flocking to our stores looking for dining sets that seat eight, ten or even 12. “What’s the largest table you have?” is a question we’re hearing more and more at FCG.

Comical as it may be sometimes, families are trying to create new ways of being together in this new and scary era. Visit FCG or shop our website for inspiration. We promise we’ll make it easy for you to enjoy family time. No navigational skills required.

While our nation continues to squabble over the issue of how long people should stay trapped inside their burrows, one thing is certain. Lots and lots of furniture is being released into the wild.

Chalk it up to yet another of the strange and curious consequences of a national quarantine. At FCG, our e-mailbox is jammed with inquiries from folks who suddenly want to consign their furniture. Much of it is so new the price tags are still attached.

What’s up with that?

Call it furniture fatigue. One woman says she spent four months staring at the new sofa she’d had delivered in February. Stretching across her living room, it was perfectly upholstered in a tasteful neutral color. It was expensive. Heck, it was top-of-the-line Ethan Allen.

And, after months of enduring extreme boredom and stress confined alone in the house, she suddenly had to get that sofa out – now! And, she told FCG, while you’re hauling away the sofa, grab that coffee table, too.

FCG is being flooded with offers to consign furniture. Homeowners are shedding furniture faster than lobsters shed their shells in the Gulf of Maine. (Hey, it’s Fourth of July and a traditional family lobster feast seems like the best way to celebrate America in New England.)

We’re also getting lots of calls because there are fewer outlets for pre-owned furniture this spring and summer. Many traditional charitable donation centers such as Goodwill haven’t been accepting furniture since March. Few families want to do a yard sale or estate sale because of the fear of getting Covid. Nor do they want to take the risk of haggling over a sale with strangers from Craigslist.

So FCG is getting all the hits. We’re consigning furniture in styles, fabrics and brands that are fun, unique, upscale and totally different from what you’d find in your traditional showroom. We’re picky, of course, but we’re enjoying the opportunity to consign the best pre-owned items in New England.

Our eclectic mix of furniture is as diverse as our country. When I walk around our showrooms, I see you, our customers. We’ve got a broad spectrum of color, wood tone, size and styling. In fact, FCG gives you the chance to see how diverse we are as a community based on how we decorate our homes.

All of us at FCG wish you a happy Independence Day. After you’ve polished off that hot dog or – if you’re lucky – that steamed lobster, drop into one of our three stores. Every day, our inventory is fresh and new. We’ll be closed this weekend. Our normal summer hours resume on Monday. Let freedom ring.

“Hmmmm,” the young woman said skeptically.

I’d just explained our strict new furniture pick-up policy to her and apparently it wasn’t quite strict enough for her. “I haven’t had any contact with anyone outside my immediate family since March,” she said. “Covid is scary, and I’m taking every precaution. I’m bleaching the bananas that the grocery store delivers!”

FCG understands – and sympathizes. These are difficult times, and we take our customers’ health concerns seriously. We’re going to great lengths to calm their fears. Sometimes, though, those great lengths just aren’t enough.

Our customer had bought a large and heavy dresser online. She was calling the store to evaluate the clear and present danger of claiming her purchase.

“Let us know when you’re coming and we’ll carry it out of the store and place it by the side door for you,” I offered, though I was a little anxious about the process. I didn’t want the hot sun beating on the dresser’s flawless finish for hours if she got delayed. What if there was a sudden downpour of rain? What about the pollen?

“No!” she snapped at my suggestion. “That doesn’t sound like contact-less service! I don’t want your fingerprints on my dresser!”

Service with a smile is a little more difficult these days. What makes it even harder are the extremes of public opinion. One customer is so germaphobic she doesn’t want to risk a stray fingerprint. Another thinks the pandemic is a hoax, believing with certainty that it is nothing but a minor flu season blown out of proportion by liberals who want to destroy the President.

Such was the case with an older gentleman who wanted to consign a houseful of furniture, circa 1970. (To be blunt, that’s the last stuff we want in our stores.) He charged, mask-less, into the store and shoved his phone at me, ordering me to scroll through his photos. “Sir,” I said, rearing back. “That would put my health at risk.”

Meanwhile, we’ve seen an influx of social-distance cops. You’ve probably run into them. They are the shoppers who seem to think they’ve been deputized by the CDC. They’ll loudly bark at other shoppers for stepping one inch closer than the suggested six-foot rule.

Folks, let’s remember to be kind and forgiving as all of us navigate the new rules of Covid World. At FCG, we’re doing the best we can to customize the shopping experience to all customers’ satisfaction. We care about all of you – even the zealots out there.

Boston’s rich are on the move.

Trapped in their mansions since March, they are now moving en masse to their summer homes. Under Covid confinement, though, they chafed at the deprivations they had to endure. No SoulCycle? We must have a new workout room! No restaurant meals? Renovate the kitchen! No sports for the kids? Add a basketball court and a putting green!

On their way to the ocean or the mountains, Boston’s wealthy homeowners are leaving behind a lengthy list of home improvement projects. That means the area’s plumbers, electricians, landscapers and interior designers are going to be working overtime on tight deadlines this summer. Renovations must be completed before the boughie folks return in September.

Your new word of the day: boughie. Pronounced bou-zhee. Millennial slang for someone or something that is almost offensively wealthy. Comes from the French bourgeoisie.

Anyway, all this renovation is great news for us here at FCG.

Last week, we got a call from an interior designer. “The McMansion family of Brookline wants to consign a truckload of furniture to make way for all new stuff,” she said. “Can you be there at 8 a.m Wednesday?” She gave us the address, and we put it on the schedule.

FCG’s furniture movers showed up precisely on time to extract the furniture. But the family’s kids were still asleep. We waited in the driveway – along with the painters, the cleaners, the carpenters and the decorator – as the family slouched, yawning, out of the house. One by one, they trickled out the front door, wearily dragging their suitcases. They piled into shiny black Range Rovers and off they roared to the Cape.

As soon as they pulled out of the driveway, we all darted into the house and got to work. Painters began taping and draping. The design team whipped out their measuring tapes and made notes on a clipboard. The cleaners darted here and there, wearing vacuums on their backs and probing every corner with their wands. It was barely organized chaos.

A sense of urgency was in the air. Everyone on the property knew they had two months to complete what should have been a five-month project. The large home offered plenty of space for social distancing. Without any ado, everyone got to work. The starting gun had just gone off.

FCG showed up to pick up some fun items that wouldn’t fit the new design. Among other things, we carried out a couple of extravagant rattan canopy sleigh beds and a chests of drawers from Williams Sonoma.

Boston’s wealthy families are enjoying a home-reno spending spree. Furniture Consignment Gallery is at their service. We’re racing from one to posh estate to another these days, bringing loads of top-quality furniture into our three showrooms. We’re back in business. You won’t believe the bargains we’ve got for you.