Furniture Consignment Gallery Blog

When  my wife, Diana, first passed the NCIDQ exam and began her career in Interior Design armed with a 4 year degree from the fine University of Kentucky, she landed a fantastic customer.  Being young and thrown in the middle of an exciting project,  she was learning on the fly and creating great designs that the customer loved. The clients were buying the best of the best.  They asked Diana to pull together a plan for a guest bathroom as part of the project and Diana obliged.  After reviewing the proposal, the gentleman said, "Diana, I am not sure what a $1,400 toilet paper holder looks like, but I am quite certain that we don't need that."  Lesson learned!  There are times to push a client to spend money on certain aspects of a plan and there are times to bargain hunt.  A good Interior Designer needs access to the finest showrooms, but also needs to know how to find good deals.

Here are 5 ways an Interior Designer can benefit from Furniture Consignment Shopping and Services:

1) Staying in touch with your favorite furniture consignment store's ever changing inventory and popping in alongside your customer demonstrates that you are looking out for their pocketbook.  Saving money for your customer increases your credibility, especially when closing a proposal with high priced items.

2) A furniture consignment store may be able to handle the items that your client plans to replace.  This makes the client feel better about spending new money as the old items will find a good home.

3) When you see something that works for your client in a consignment store, you can have it now!  This is huge as clients want immediate results and are often frustrated by 10 week lead times for custom pieces.  Filtering in some items that have immediate impact can help a client to relax and start to see the benefits of your talents and work.

4) Consignment stores have unique pieces that fit unique corners and spaces.  Sometimes you have to hunt for furniture that fits, and consignment stores are a great place to start.

5) The multitude of unique pieces that populate an upscale furniture consignment showroom can inspire creativity.  Sometimes there are projects that are hard to get excited about, and going into a furniture consignment store can jolt your imagination.

Before you sell your home and punch your ticket to Destination Downsize, it's important to seriously consider hiring an Interior Designer. Having a professional eye by your side as you make critical decisions about what stays and what goes will pay huge dividends down the road.  

Your designer can help you to construct your simpler life before you get there.  They can help you to build your vision of style, functionality, and through this can help you identify which pieces will move with you and which pieces won't.

From there, a designer can help you begin the cleansing process which will in turn help you to sell your home faster.  Removing pieces from your home that will not travel to your next destination helps to eliminate clutter.  This allows potential buyers to better visualize their own pieces in your living space.

Your Interior Designer should not charge an arm and a leg for assisting with this process.  It is simple planning. This also gives you an opportunity to begin sharing your vision so that when your real project begins, your designer will be familiar with your tastes.

Recently, we assisted a client who was late in her process and downsized from a beautiful home in Sudbury, MA to a two bedroom condo in Boston.  In the planning process, the place she purchased had an odd wall that angled in such a way that it does not accommodate her furniture or even a rug very well.  She also is temporarily using a piece of glass on top of containers as a desk and is enduring many other inconveniences.

Had she engaged with an Interior Designer early in her process, she may have realized that the odd shape of the living area, would make it difficult for her to create the room arrangement that she desired. Had a designer been present in the home selection process, she may have saved herself the aggravation and frustration that she now faces.

Hiring an Interior Designer early in your down sizing process can help you to organize your home furnishings, sell your existing home faster and can help you to assess potential living spaces.