We have a wall in our dining room that’s waiting for a sideboard.  For a while, we were thinking we’d go for an Asian piece.  Forgive my cultural insensitivity, I meant to say chinoiserie piece. You know the ones all over ABC Carpet & Home that are insanely priced and gloriously seductive?  Anuj is partial to the red lacquered ones.

High end ($5,000+)

Just browsing, thank you:

Mid-range ($1,000-2000)

I’ve loved this japonais piece by Room & Board for like, eva:

Crate & Barrel:

Low end (<$500)

Not surprisingly, the retail options grow sparse when your budget is <$500.  If you can manage to walk into your local Pier 1 without being hit by a migraine from their tropical-holiday-fruit cocktail-scented candles, you might see this:

Eh.

Times being what they are, our budget is more like <$250.  So a new sideboard, even a knockoff from Pier 1, was shelved (apologies pun-haters), until such time as a better option presented itself.

That time was Saturday, when I visited a local used furniture store and fell in love with a piece priced to move at $125.  Forget the chinoiserie fantasy, why not spruce it up with some paint and new hardware and call it day?

Barb from Knack Studios turned this:

into this:

Who says I can’t turn this:

Into this:

Anuj likes the idea – but not the hi-gloss.  I’ll work on him.  In the meantime, here’s the black sideboard in action at Aero (stickie that chandelier):

This one’s hiding in back, but love the red chairs and top-aligned art (desiretoinspire.com)