Lovely Beasts made its first sale and it's a BIG ONE!

Can you believe it? It's happened! I consigned my refurbished furniture for the first time on Friday and I just made my very first sale. Can you guess which piece sold? Before I tell you right out though, I'll share with you how I became a consignor.

A few months ago, I went into Grace Hart & Co. and mentioned to the owner that I was interested in their consignment process and had a few pieces of furniture that I was working on reupholstering and refinishing. I also told her that if they ever needed help at the store, I would love to work there a couple days each month. The owner briefly went over their contract and told me to contact her once I was ready to consign with them. She also said she could probably set me up with working a few hours in the store and would call me when she had more details. Now I never got a call, but that's okay. I'm too busy these days working on my own projects anyways!

Fast forward to last week, I finally some pieces ready to sell and gave her a call. I told her she probably didn't remember me, but mentioned our previous conversation and said I was interested in becoming a consignor. Surprisingly, she did remember me and said I had perfect timing. They were in need of new furniture at the store. She told me to email her pictures of my items and come up with some prices. A few days later she gave me a call and said she really liked my furniture and to bring them in as soon as possible. She also told me that the prices I provided were right on with what she was thinking. This totally boosted my confidence!

So on Friday morning I brought my furniture in to Grace Hart & Co. and signed a contract to consign my pieces. They mentioned the furniture would likely be set up later in the day or on Saturday morning. Of course I was curious about how the pieces looked in the shop, so I went with my mother-in-law around 4pm on Saturday and immediately saw my Frenchy upholstered chair, mirror, and side table displayed in the front window.

It was so exciting! They did such a great job with the location and the display. We hurried inside to find my other stuff. In the front they had my Frenchy cane chair tucked into a cute matching desk (the desk wasn't mine but it looked good together) and in the back they had my vintage crate scale. I forgot to take pictures of them, but I did take a picture of the dining set that was also in the back. This is actually the first time I got to see the whole set together because I had stored the table and chairs in two different places.

I walked around the dining set to admire it from all angles and took pictures with both my cell phone and my mother-in-law's camera, hence the difference in quality in the two pictures above. After a few minutes of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over it, I noticed this!

Eeeeee! It was on HOLD! It went on hold at 12pm that day. It wasn't even in the shop for more than 12 hours. I was so psyched. Someone liked my restored/refurbished furniture! I was on a high when I left the store, but told myself to not get too excited in case the person decided not to buy it. It was enough for me to know that someone was interested in the set.

Now on to today! I "happened" to be in the area this afternoon and checked the shop again to see if it was still there, and it was gone! My Blue Boy dining set was SOLD! I'm so happy and so relieved. My hard work and intuition on the set (as well as the fabric I used to reupholster the chairs) paid off. Yippee!!! 

I told myself I couldn't buy any more furniture until I successfully sold something, so guess who's out on the prowl for new stuff?! Finally I can buy again! It may take some time though. I dropped by an estate auction this afternoon but walked away empty handed. The starting price on the furniture was just too high. I think it has to do with going to auctions near downtown Houston, I need to go to the outer cities and I'll probably get better deals there. I also stopped in a thrift store and looked around yard sales today, but had no luck. Hopefully this week I'll find a few good deals and get more stuff sold at the store!

Sigh, what a wonderful day!