The Great Rule When Buying High-Ticket Items Like Antiques

My Mom has taught me many things throughout my life, and one of my favorites is how to purchase an antique. She shared a ‘great rule’ when buying high-ticket items like antiques for your home. Learn this fool-proof method and how I make decisions when buying antiques.

Her advice: Look at the piece you want and determine what you would pay for it, then look at the price tag. Same, less or reasonable to your ideal price, Go For It! Out of bounds, walk away.

If you use this great rule, give yourself a high five. Within your range, wow, you found what you were looking for at the price you were willing to pay. If it is over budget, wow, my taste is impeccable and expensive, but I must keep looking.

Antiques & Other High-Priced Items

Mom’s gift of having me fall in love with antiques is something I cherish. She has beautiful antiques throughout her home. Her pieces add warmth to every room you enter. Mom is from New Jersey, and her dad was very experienced when shopping for antiques. She learned how to buy them from her astute father and continues to share her dad’s legacy.

I referred to New Jersey because my Mom grew up in the northeast, where she discovered her great and affordable finds. Another antique lover in my family is my sister-in-law, who still lives up north and has incredible antiques. Every time I walk into her home, I want it all! Living in the south, we don’t have quite the inventory at quite the incredible prices. Thanks, Sherman.

Decorating With Antiques in this Day and Age

In this day and age, decorating with antiques seems very difficult. How do we incorporate them in our homes when all we see on Pinterest is white? Decorating shows and blogs boast white wash floors, white paint, white slip-covered furniture, white kitchens, and on and on, right down to the salt and pepper shaker. Tricky.

The best way to incorporate antique pieces is to make them blend. Each room needs a cohesive look (Project Runway, verbiage), meaning use similar tones and styles throughout a room. Also, prepare your husband or whoever does the heavy lifting because it may take a few try’s to get it right.

Trust me, moving from a furnished house two times the size of the fully furnished house we moved back into has been an effort in creativity and muscle. Of course, most of my favorite furniture pieces are antiques or not white. I love them because they are unique with a special place in my heart. However, in the world of white, decorating with dark wood antiques requires me to be a clever girl (Velociraptor reference).

Hutches #1, #2 & #3. Follow the bouncing ball.

Hutch #2

Below are pictures of two Hutches I bought at The Plantation Shop in Buckhead, GA, twenty-plus years ago. That particular store is no longer there and has moved to Amelia Island. I miss that store. I need to go to Amelia Island.

Starting with what I will call Hutch number two, it was the second of two Hutches I purchased. It was a never-ending search for something narrow to fit in the foyer at the lake house, and I needed a dramatic piece to make a statement upon entering our home.

I fell in love with the Hutch pictured below and followed the ‘great rule’ for buying this high-ticket items to immediately come up with a price in my head. I checked the tag, and voila, it was a match.

Images below are pictures of the Hutch in the store, and now I wish I had purchased the trunk below the Hutch. Maybe my sister-in-law has one? Ha.

Dilemma. Seriously?

I purchased the Hutch, a dark wood beauty, loaded it in my Honda Odyssey, and it traveled to its new home, mine. Upon installation, I immediately ran into a problem, NOOOO! Electrically wired wall sconces in the foyer were centered on the wall so the upper portion of the Hutch would interfere with the lights.

There are always options. We could move the electrical or find a secure home for the upper portion of the Hutch and use the base.

I hate to say it, but I did not want to wait for my husband to move the sconces due to the drywall process, and it would not happen quickly. Instead, I used the base and put the top of the Hutch in the basement out of the way until I could figure it out.

SIDE NOTE HERE: One of my best friends is a florist, and she might cringe and break out in hives when she sees the fake greenery below. One of those moments when you want to go back and edit your 30-year-old self. Please imagine there is nothing on top of the hutch base. TIP…lose the clutter.

Once I figured out the Hutch top inclusion when we moved to the Johns Creek house, it was perfection. See the picture below of our spacious Dining Room at the Johns Creek Home.

Hutch #1

Fast forward and the move back to the lake house, dilemma returns, times two, actually times three, wait for it.

Let’s back the truck up to Hutch number one. The image below shows the first Hutch I acquired. Same bat place, same bat love. The year was 1998, and I was building the lake house when I spotted this gorgeous little, not so little, nugget. The five-foot wall in the kitchen between the doors and windows was the perfect fit for this Hutch.

Applying the ‘great rule’ for high-ticket items, I landed on my price, which was close to the price tag. I still love this Hutch, it adds extra storage, offers unique detail, and it served in the location shown below for over 20 years.

Hutch #3

Enter Hutch number 3, actually a sideboard. Where is that going to fit at the lake house? Doh! What is my problem?

Ugh. My only fear was the too much furniture factor, something I just made up, but I’ve seen it. Storage was not an option. I still can’t wrap my head around what is in storage, so not going there.

Our dining room in Johns Creek was large and inviting, with plenty of space for these two pieces of furniture. The nook with the gorgeous moulding fit the sideboard perfectly, and the large wall across from it allowed for the two-piece dark wood Hutch.

The sideboard is not an antique but a great-looking narrow buffet I found years ago at Z-Gallerie. It stood out while navigating the showroom, and I used the great rule. I continue to receive tons of compliments on this, and a bonus is a lot of storage for my way too much china. Ugh.

Back to the lake house, and let’s figure out where my favorite large ticket items are going. Well, I had an idea.

Every once in a while, I can be a lucky duck. The pine Hutch moved to the basement of the lake house. Two-piece Hutch #2 amazingly fits in the nook of my upstairs office at the lake house. And, the narrow sideboard, #3 large piece, works perfectly in our lake house foyer.

Additional Antiques

Another absolute favorite antique of mine is the coffee table in the picture below. For this one, I didn’t have to engage the rule for antique buying because my mom did it for me. Mom found the coffee table at an Antique Show and bought it for me on-site.

No way I was going to question the woman who taught me how to buy an antique. I agreed to buy a piece of furniture sight unseen. Upon seeing it, I told her what I would have paid, and she said it was half that number. I immediately wrote her a check. I was grateful she didn’t keep it for herself.

Always follow the rule for purchasing expensive anything. Decide the price you would pay before you look at the tag.

So, where did all these great antiques end up at the lake house?

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