Price "less" Pieces

I love to mix high/low in my own home (but at the age of 26, there isn't too much room for the "high" if you know what I mean). I get so excited when I find something unexpected at a lower end store that looks pretty close to something three times its price that I have had my eye on for a while.

And if you are anything like me, you'll understand my need for bargain shopping- the pieces in my home are welcome to stay for about 6 months until I get sick of them and sell them off on Craigs List (and it's quite possible that if you have ever bought anything off Craig's List, I probably sold it to you) so needless to say, I don't like to spend a ton of money on home pieces that are "trendy".

Thought I'd share with you two of my recent bargains...

Exhibit "A"- this medium size Ballard Designs mirror is $199...it was the mirror I thought I wanted for over my bed...


As fate would have it one day, it brought me to Marshalls (the good Marshalls)- I'm sure all of you have one good Marshalls in your town/city...THE Marshalls- the nicer, newer one that you usually have more luck at.

I saw this tiny little mirror and I swear it looks exactly like the Ballard one but smaller so I bought it and found a perfect spot for it...and you want to know how much it set me back? A whopping $19.99! In my entire life I have never seen anything at Marshalls that looked that classy and trendy for $19.

Exhibit "B"- I love the Pottery Barn brass "architect's table lamp" for $149. I must admit, in addition to the style, I'm drawn to this lamp because of the name- with an architect's table lamp on my desk, I would now be "official". I could design great things under that lamp (so I thought)- purely because it was an "architect lamp". Then as fate would have it again...it brought me to Home Goods where I stop in from time to time (located in Irving)...it is TJ Maxx's "sister" (if you want to get technical)

I found this brass lamp very similar to the PB lamp....ok I still like the style of the PB lamp better but is there really that much of a difference? I didn't notice too much of a distinction, but my bank account did! A whole $110 worth a difference! (note: Home Goods lamp is a little more gold/cuter in person)

So this just goes to show you, that if you hold out, you just might have that "bargain story" to tell your friends and not to mention, $290 extra in your pocket for some new fall clothes!