Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Check Out The Clearance Aisle?

Damaged Goods?




It pays to look in the clearance and damaged goods section of your favorite stores. I spotted the chair pictured below on the sidewalk of a Pier One Imports store. Retail price originally around $375.00. Sale price as is: $60.00.

So why would Pier One sell this chair for $60 bucks? Well, it had some minor damage to the front legs, the arms and some of the wicker but nothing that could not be fixed with a little work.


This is what I did to make this $60.00 chair look like a $375.oo chair.
  • Sanded lightly all of the wood and concentrated on the damages areas.

  • Sanded the small areas of wicker (very carefully) that were damaged.


  • Found stain that closely matched the color that was previously on it. Then stained the wood and the wicker.


  • Clear coated the entire chair with spray polyurethane to protect it.

Several months later I found the chair pictured below in the very same place as the first one, out on the sidewalk in front of Pier One. This one again was marked $65.00 as is, originally over $400.00.


It basically had all the same issues as the first one. I did exactly the same in terms of repair. I found the ottoman at Target and stained it to match the chair.



Pay attention to items that are on the sidewalk, clearance or sale area. You never know what they want to get rid of cheap and how easily you can fix something with a little work.


I was very lucky. These two chairs are very beautiful and happened to look great with my decor. It didn't take a lot of work to repair them either.
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