The Quest for Deals : Townhome Furnished with Bargains Too Good to Pass
If Bill Ryan had to come up with a word to describe his taste in home decor, it would be contemporientique.
The ocean-view Dana Point townhouse he shares with Briget Barr is filled with a surprisingly well-balanced and uncluttered combination of contemporary leather and canvas furniture, Victorian antiques and Chinese lacquered pieces, including a chest nabbed for $200 and an end table for $100 at a consignment shop.
As a boy on the East Coast, Ryan would comb the city dump for “buried treasure.” Now the former IBM financing specialist says the secret to finding valuable, one-of-a-kind collectibles is shopping the secondhand stores in wealthier or artsy areas, such as Laguna Beach.
To get the best deal, he advises, learn to haggle over price without being obnoxious. The dealers respect that. “It’s a matter of pride to negotiate prices.”
Ryan also hits garage sales, retail liquidations and the “scratch and dent” departments of such chain stores as Ikea and Pier I Imports, where he bought a tortoise stool. (Sandpaper and a little paint can undo almost any damage, he says.) He picked up a pair of discontinued dining chairs, $55 each at Bif Korea, to flank the Chinese chest.
Barr tolerates the constant quest for deals, even finds it amusing--up to a point.
When she finally moved West last year to join Ryan, she knew there would be little room in the house for her furniture. But she didn’t expect Ryan to pick her up at the airport in a car crammed so full with garage-sale goodies--scored along the drive--that there was barely enough space for her.
