Pottery Barn rugs at bargain basement prices

One of the cool things about my day job is having a couple of new sisters (sister companies that is) and the opportunity to meet and work with people who, like me, spend a lot of time online. Kristy Pryma is one of those people. When I learned about her amazing rug bargain on Twitter, I asked if she’d write a guest post and share it with you too. So here goes... Kristy’s a writer, the mom of a preschooler and the wife of a man without a stomach. Follow her on Twitter or visit her blog.

The only thing better than getting a great bargain is telling other people about it. Here’s my latest coup, of the home furnishing kind.

Two years ago when we moved our two year old daughter into her big girl bed, we started the hunt for a new rug to tie her room together. After flipping through the gorgeously girly rugs on display at Sherway Garden’s Pottery Barn Kids, we noticed a small sign that said “Ask us about our selection of discontinued rugs not on display.” As true bargain hunters, we asked, and were treated to a visit through the website with a helpful stockroom guy who showed us a dozen options online that they no longer had room to display on the floor. We chose a pattern and drove home with a still sealed $800 rug for $225.

When we needed a new rug for our living room, we were jonesing for a similar experience, so lurked around the city’s Pottery Barns hoping to find a discontinued gem. A few Fridays ago history repeated itself. This scenario was slightly different—Pottery Barn at Yorkdale Mall is in the midst of its floor model sale, so dozens of pieces of furniture, including rugs, have been significantly marked down. My husband spotted a lush 8' x 10' wool rug in the right colour at up to 70% off the original price, so he lured me to the mall after work to take a look. The colour was perfect, the size was right and the price was amazing: it was labelled $249.

When we got to the register, however, it appeared the rug had been mistagged: it came up at $599, which would have made its original price significantly higher than we thought. As soon as the wrong price was revealed, I bristled, preparing myself for an argument, but to my delight the salesperson adjusted it, and we walked away with a mint-condition floor model rug for $249.

Don’t you just love happy endings?