Furniture Consignment Gallery Blog

Hope Chests: How To Make Them Child Safe

Posted by Jay Frucci on Tue, February 04, 2014 @ 09: 47 AM

lane

 

In my home, we have a new puppy! After mourning the loss of our beloved dog a few weeks ago, we just adopted Roxie, a reverse brindle boxer with white socks on her feet. Nine weeks old, she's playful and inquisitive, exactly what we needed.

 

Having a puppy in the house brings out the mischief in all of us. Roxie is going to be a big dog, so we bought a big crate for her. A couple of times this week, I've come home to find our five-year-old locked in the crate. "Dad," he would plead with a sheepish half-grin, "get me outta here!" When he'd crawled into the crate to cuddle the puppy, his two older brothers pounced on the chance to bolt the door.

 

Kids love to tease each other and hide in secret places. Like puppies, they have an irresistible urge to play - but they are often unaware of the risks. That's why we want to alert you to a potential danger you may have in your home: the hope chest.

 

From the 1920s until the late 1960s, hope chests were a treasured gift. In it, young women would store needlework, linens and even baby clothing in anticipation of marriage. Lane's hope chests were among the most popular. They were airtight with robust locks, perfect for preserving heirloom items.

 

But that meant they also were the most dangerous. Two children recently suffocated to death in a Lane Hope Chest in Franklin, MA. Once the lid closes on these well-made chests, they cannot be opened from the inside. Since 2003, seven children have died in accidents involving hope chests.

 

Most antique and consignment stores are aware of the dangers and have removed the locks, but there are millions of old hope chests still in use in homes with locks intact. Removing the lock is easy. As a public service, we've created a "how to" video to show you how to do it. Lane also is offering safer replacement locks for free.

 

So please, watch the video and spread the word. If you have a hope chest or know of someone who does - even if it is tucked away in a corner of the attic - remove the lock. You could save a life.

 

Lane Form to order new Child Safe Lock: Here

2 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: home, 1980s, life, tutorial, lane, hope chest, death, consignment, boston, Furniture Consignment Hanover, Furniture Consignment Newton, chestnut hill, Furniture Consignment, Furniture, Hanover, customers, 1980s Furniture, plymouth, 1940s Furniture, children, kids, cedar chest, safety, suffication, precaution, how to

It's Your Move, but Arrange to Sell

Posted by Jay Frucci on Sat, January 25, 2014 @ 11: 59 AM

uIMG 5561Despite the arctic cold, we're starting to see a predictable harbinger of spring. Realtors and home-staging professionals are flocking to our showrooms. They're hunting for furniture and accessories to update the homes they hope to sell in the next few months.

 

Some 40% of home sales occur between March and June. Homeowners are busy prepping for that brief window of opportunity. The smartest ones know that clever staging can boost the selling price significantly.

 

Staging is an art. And since we work with some of the best in Boston, I can offer some of their secrets:  

 

First, update your lighting. Cheap fixtures and lamps from the 1970s are a big turn-off for buyers. So are cracked or stained lampshades. New lamps and shades bring immediate warmth and style into a home - and that's a purchase that won't put a big dent in your wallet. Our showrooms offer lots of choices from classic to trendy.

 

Put things in scale. Homeowners often roll out a rug that is too small for the room. Maybe it was a quality hand-me-down from a relative or they got a bargain at the rug store, and they figured that something on a bare floor was better than nothing. News flash: a small rug in a big room is like a postage stamp on a lawn. It shrinks the room visually. We have rugs in all sizes. If you don't find what you need in our stores, then softly gleaming hardwood floors are a better bet.

 

De-clutter. Pack up the dust-collecting tchotchkes. Nothing says Grandma like an army of Hummels. That could be a turn-off to the thirtysomethings looking for a chic nest in which to start their families. Also, take a hard look at your furniture. If potential buyers have to hold their breath to squeeze around a king-size mattress in the master bedroom, you've got a problem. Get rid of furniture that overpowers a room.

 

One last tip: beware the curse of IKEA. We've all committed a few sins in the name of frugality. Say you bought some particleboard furniture a few years ago. You hauled the box home and assembled it yourself. Now, you're selling your house. Keep in mind that nothing depreciates an upscale home faster than cheap furniture. Just a few quality pieces -- bought on consignment - would reinforce the concept of quality in your home.

1 Comment Click here to read/write comments

Topics: real estate, home, delivery, change, life, staging, lamps, lamp, consignment, boston, Interior Design, Antique furniture, chestnut hill, pick up, Furniture, Hanover, customers, plymouth, children, audience, target, kids, moving, spring break, designers, rug

Unexpected Places

Posted by Jay Frucci on Tue, September 10, 2013 @ 01: 28 PM

homeClipboard in hand, I watched our four guys in blue shirts extract a big haul of furniture from a home in Scituate, a picturesque seaport town on the south shore of Boston. Like powerful ants, they raced up and down stairs for hours carrying six rooms of heavy pieces out of the house and into our truck.

 

Not so long ago, I was doing the hoisting myself with the help of a part-time high-school kid. Back then, all we had was a trailer hitched to the back of a pretty battered SUV. Now, I'm the guy with the clipboard. We've got two decent trucks and blue polo shirts with our company logo.

 

We've come a long way in eight years.     

 

Our consignors are moving back to London.  He'd moved here back in the 1980s to manage a project for Gillette. Originally, the assignment was to last for no more than sixteen months. He and his wife stayed 27 years in Boston.

 

Their children and grandchildren are firmly planted now in American soil, but this recent retiree and his wife are going back to England. They know they'll be crossing the pond a lot in years to come, but even after decades, home has a powerful pull.  

 

They'd bought new furniture three years ago after a flood, and most of it is in perfect condition. On a hot afternoon in mid-August, we packed it up and brought it all to our store in Plymouth.

 

Life takes us to unexpected places by indirect routes. Most of the time, we are traveling without a map. All we really have is an internal compass. What is next for you? For us at FCG? For the ex-pats going back to England?   

 

Stop by one of our three stores this weekend. There are countless family histories written in the furniture in our showroom. Imagine yours coming to life with some of these beautiful pieces.

1 Comment Click here to read/write comments

Topics: home, delivery, change, life, consignment, boston, chestnut hill, pick up, Furniture, Hanover, customers, plymouth, children, audience, target, kids, moving, spring break

A Warming Trend

Posted by Jay Frucci on Tue, April 09, 2013 @ 03: 20 PM

 under reno"The contractor is going to be here in an hour," she said casually. "He's ripping out the kitchen island."

I stopped dead in my tracks. "Why?" I blurted, without thinking. "It's beautiful." She had a kitchen that would be the envy of any serious cook. Hers was an island just made for kids' afternoon snacks and homework or wine-and-pizza with friends. Distressed black with red undertones, it had a rich cherry wood top.

 

"Don't worry," she assured me. "We're going green. We're going to re-purpose the island as a work bench in the barn." She started detailing the master plan for the new kitchen to me, excited about the cabinetry and the new stainless-steel appliances that were on order. All I could think about were the paint brushes, wrenches and nails that would be strewn across that polished island top once it was dispatched to the barn.

 

describe the imageRenovations are good for the economy, and hers was one of many signs that things are picking up after a four-year housing slump. In another home we visited this week, an expanded master suite had hardwood floors so vast and gleaming they would have made a great bowling alley for my three boys. This home owner realized they made the room too big and was ready to begin additional alterations to further complicate or correct the problem. 

 

As a furniture consignment guy, I get to see a lot of homes here in Boston and its suburbs. Rarely do the new - or newly done - mansions command my attention. In a way, some of them seem as cold and lifeless as mausoleums. What gets me is something that no contractor or architect in the world can give a home: warmth.

 

You can't draw warmth on a blueprint. Warmth comes from a home that tells the story of the lives lived within: the kids' art framed and hung in the family room like an Old Master, the embroidered pillow you made the winter of the big snowstorm, the tiny nicks on the legs of the breakfront, a reminder of the toy trucks that got rammed into them when your son was three. You can't buy warmth, but you can achieve it.

 

Visit one of our three showrooms this weekend. We have a lot of beautiful furniture, once loved, that came from my kind of homes. Let us help you build some warmth in your home so that you can live a good life in it.

0 Comments Click here to read/write comments

Topics: home, delivery, family, warmth, reconstruction, Furniture Consignment Boston, Furniture Consignment Gallery, American Made, chestnut hill, pick up, Furniture Consignment, Hanover, plymouth Furniture, customers, renovation

Inching Forward

Posted by Jay Frucci on Fri, December 28, 2012 @ 11: 45 AM

His big hand had been toughened by years of hard work. He was in construction, and he'd seen his fair share of hard times. A homebuilder on the South Shore, he was hoping to sell off the furniture that had graced a model home in a development he'd started in 2007.

 

Back then, he had big ambitions. His houses were lavished with granite, marble and exotic woods. Like most everyone else in the boom years, his buyers were giddy on easy money. They borrowed big to buy, and his upscale community was abuzz with all the signs of new wealth. Landscapers tended tidy lawns, and driveways were filled with shiny SUVs.

 

Then came the crash.

 

Almost overnight, a number of homeowners lost their jobs - and their ability to make payments on those big mortgages. Realtors' signs popped up all over the development. Desperate, owners were selling their homes for less than they paid. reality

 

With the market in tatters, the builder walked away from the development. He finally sold the model home and stored its furniture in a half-empty office building he owned not far away.

 

Recovery starts with a glimmer of hope. Business is picking up for one of the tenants in his building, and the fellow wants to expand. So the furniture has to go to make room for the growing company, the builder explained to me.  

 

We were happy to help. There were some nice pieces with nary a scratch on them. Even more encouraging is the thought that the economy may be inching out of the hole it's been in since 2009. Let's hope my new friend and his expanding tenant are leading indicators.

1 Comment Click here to read/write comments

Topics: real estate, home, consignment, Luxury Furniture, Furniture, future, crash, business, homeowners

All posts