bargain hunting

this saturday, my mother-in-law and i headed out to go find some deals on furniture at a few local places.  while we came home empty-handed, it was still lots of fun to see the different places and spend the day together with our dogs (they accompanied us on our outing :)).  i viewed the day as a success because we didn't waste our money on things we didn't absolutely love or need, so we'll have that money to spend later when the right pieces come along. 

the first stop we made was rooms blooms & more in the historic hilton village area of newport news.  this was the best consignment shop we went to all day!  they have a great facebook page, but in person, the store is even better!  their store is completely full of unique, quality pieces, and i wish i needed more furniture or had more money to spend on furniture right now because i could've easily done so there.  plus, it's a dog-friendly store, which we always love :)  i'm excited for my next trip there and will be checking their fb page regularly!

the second stop was not a consignment shop but a higher-end design shop with beautiful and eclectic pieces.  the shop is sisters unique and is located in oyster point city center, conveniently across from a taste unlimited where we stopped for lunch - yum!!  great shop if you have a higher budget than i do :)  they are apparently getting in some new items for the spring that are more modestly priced, so i look forward to checking back then!

the third stop was aladdin consignment, and we found a couple of nice things there but overall still liked rb&m better.  they did have a pretty craftique table (best find in the shop), but neither of us had a real need for it, and the pricetag was still pushing $700. 

just a mile or so down the road from aladdin was the velvet shoestring, which was a good shop but somewhat of a letdown.  their website photo must've been taken on a really good consigning day, as we didn't find a ton we were enamoured with.  there were definitely some very nice, quality pieces, but there wasn't as much furniture, decor, etc. as we thought there would be.  i think it'd be worth going back to sometime, but only if we're in the area, since it's very close to colonial williamsburg, which is a bit of a hike from our house :)

after that, we wandered around the williamsburg at home store and williamsburg craft house, which are also not consignment shops but have very pretty things (and very much out of my price range :)  ha!).  they did have fabric that wasn't too pricey, and i loved a couple of patterns they had, as well as some of their furniture. 

so, it was a good day of looking even though we didn't do any buying.  i'm excited to hopefully find some good deals on a few pieces of furniture we're looking for (mostly small end tables or bedside tables) in the near future!