photography by Ted Dayton

Best. Idea. Ever.
You've got to Visit the Home Consignment Center
Expect to feel a tingle of excitement as you step into the Home Consignment Center (702-6952) showroom in Valencia. Featuring home furnishings and accessories, the Home Consignment Center is a must-visit for treasure hunters, especially those looking to buy quality merchandise while saving big money. With truckloads of new items arriving at the stores daily, they are a shopper's paradise.

As the largest and most successful consignment business, Home Consignment Center attracts the best merchandise for its customers, showing off incredible consignments from model homes, showroom samples, factory closeouts, store closures and from Santa Clarita's finest homes. You'll find dining sets, living room furniture, beautiful mirrors, artwork, lamps and more. Fine jewelry is also available, too. You'll discover platinum, gold, diamonds, gems and fine watches, or sell your stash with the help of on-site professional jewelers.

For those interested in consigning, items are accepted daily with no appointment needed. Home Consignment Center sells quickly and pays quickly. With tremendous foot traffic, you don't have to worry about strangers coming into your home. Pick up and delivery are available.

Here's what we love: Since items sell quickly, the store offers free 24-hour holds. They also provide tape measures and even a Polaroid camera, but we think that their "test drive" service is the most helpful. With a simple request, nearly any item can be taken home for a 24-hour trial.

Custom You can Afford
Coordinating Upholstered Furniture
You can achieve perfect coordination by creating your own custom upholstered furniture, drapery and bedding. Sofa Interiors (254-9090) has hundreds of frame styles and thousands of designer fabrics and leathers to choose from. Combining good looks, comfort, easy care and affordability, Sofa Interiors brings you custom-crafted furniture of exceptional quality at unbeatable prices in every style.

One-of-a-kind Consoles
Custom built-in cabinet? Not on your budget. Custom entertainment console that displays beautifully in your niche? Now that, friend, is a perfect fit. Ditch the dated armoire and incorporate your flat screen into a console that can be created to meet your needs - right down to the ideal shelf height for your can't-part-with-it record collection. Suburban Chateau (775-2980) creates custom consoles at a fraction of the cost of built-ins.

The Real Deal
Yes, you can now buy a dining room set in the same store where you procure econo-size quantities of breakfast cereal.

But that doesn't mean you should. And, increasingly, your neighbors agree.

Despite a higher price tag, finely-crafted pieces are in big demand, especially in communities that are drawn to true Spanish colonial or Tuscan looks. The trend of mixing woods and layering styles to create a home that casts a warm, comfortable glow is here to stay - which means your furniture should be, too.

There's an heirloom-quality furniture maker for every need. Environmentally-conscious customers can buy items from companies like Taracea, which builds furniture from reclaimed mahogany harvested from already-fallen trees. Each piece boasts hand cutting and marquetry inlays. Their dining tables, buffets and cocktail tables tell a story of handcrafted techniques from generations ago. Other companies, such as Mackenzie Dow, use black cherry wood from the Appalachian Mountains that is sustainable and prolific. Custom made hand-scraped furniture and gorgeous waxed finishes provide a look that never goes out of style. Both brands are available from Douglas Furniture (255-8366).