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Something Sexy About Mimi

Thursday, December 16, 2010 by Chris

5 Comments

There are always some great looking pieces at Toronto's Elte but it was these wonderful, three-legged Mimi Chairs ($1,795) that captured my eye and imagination while on a shopping trip with friends last weekend. The retailer has done Mimi a disservice by showing her in an all-white bedroom vignette where the tight, white leather chairs get lost, an afterthought instead of an exclamation point. The design is curvy but also chunky, Mimi is a stout girl with short chicken legs, certainly not a candidate for the catwalk. Her seat is low and wide, very comfortable and seemingly well made, which is more than we could say about a lot of what we saw at Elte that day.

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I Can Talk Myself Into Anything

Monday, November 15, 2010 by Chris

7 Comments

I am NOT supposed to be shopping. I'm supposed to be saving; recovering from the veterinary siphon that's been attached to my bank accounts since Punch got sick last spring. But there's nothing like a little retail therapy to salve a wound as deep as the one Judy left this week. Yesterday, while doing some errands in Toronto's Kensington Market, I spied an awesome Sigurd Russel Falcon Chair, above, in the window of Bungalow. It was tagged at $295 which instinct told me was an excellent price. The sales girl wouldn't budge an inch because it had just come on the floor. These chairs are selling anywhere from $1,200 - $3,000 on the high-end sites like Deconet and 1stdibs.com so the Bungalow chair was actually a steal. It's much easier to talk yourself into a purchase you shouldn't be making when you think you're bagging a bargain.

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Discount Standards

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Chris

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Mike and I popped into a swish bedding store on the weekend in search of a sheet set to go with our amazing new crewel-work duvet cover. We found an expensive set of ivory sheets marked down 25 per cent but not even the discount made them affordable. This got me thinking about my discount standards and I came to the conclusion that generally speaking, I need be saving at least 30 per cent off the suggested retail price before I'll reach for my wallet. How about you? How big a price break do you require before your trigger finger gets itchy?

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Dear styleNorth . . .

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 by Chris

13 Comments

I get letters like this frequently enough that I thought I'd make a post out of it since the principles can be applied to nearly any piece of potentially valuable furniture you want to cash in. StyleNorth contributor Susan writes . . . "A friend of mine is looking to sell her mother's Frem Rojle dining set, which is in great shape with original upholstery. She is debating whether to sell it privately (Craigslist or through contacts) or unload it to a dealer. I've seen prices of $1,500 to $2,500 but I don't know if that's reasonable. Thoughts?"

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Craigslist Crackheads

Sunday, October 25, 2009 by Chris

17 Comments

I firmly believe that everything will sell on Craigslist if priced correctly. If I haven't had a bite within a week of posting an item, my price is too high. It really doesn't matter where it came from or how much I paid, the market determines the value of a thing and the only way ascertain that value is to keep dropping your price until someone finally takes the bait. It's a hard lesson, apparently.

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