Haggled Chandelier for the Win

Hope you all had a great weekend! I'm back to share the rest of our dining room lighting saga with you! If you missed the first part, you can catch up here. 

As a refresher, this is what we started with--loads of crystal and dark green shades. Not my thing! But, all of my favorite lighting fixtures had significant drawbacks or were way out of my price range. 

After a lot of searching, I finally found a chandelier last month that I liked at Lowe's for $169. I was super excited to find something for a reasonable price, but it was still too much money to spend right now, so it went on the to do list for another day. 

In the meantime, I planned to update our existing chandelier my removing the crystal and adding new lamp shades. Unfortunately, the shades would have been $45, which is a crazy amount to spend on a light I don't even like. Last week at Lowe's, after I had priced the lamp shades and decided to call off my lamp shade update, I decided to just walk past the affordable chandelier that I've had my eye on. 

Guess what?! It was on clearance for $84! I was really excited, but that excitement quickly came crashing down when they told me they had no more in stock. Ugg! The other stores in our area were out as well. The only one I could get was the floor model. 

I hated to pay the same price for a floor model as I would one new in the box, so I requested a discount. The store associate was not budging on the price at all. He kept repeating that he wasn't going to come down on the price since it was in perfect condition and was already on clearance. I did not think that he was being fair and was really torn about what to do. I let him wait a minute while I put on my best stoic face and continued to nicely explain my reasons why I thought he should come down on the price.

Ready for the exciting part?! He must have gotten tired of me, because he asked me how much I wanted to pay. I decided to go big or go home and straight up tell him what I wanted to pay and thought was fair, instead of trying to guess a "safe" price that I thought he would agree with. And it worked! I got the light I wanted for $65! Seriously people, that's $104 off! Crazy town! 

You should know, I am not usually a good haggler. I am fine with requesting a lower price, but when met with a lot of resistance, I usually will just walk away. But, I stuck it out and am SO excited to have a new chandelier to show for it! It has really motivated me to up my haggling game when necessary. ;) I, quite literally, danced in the driveway as we were unloading it. Haha! Aren't you glad you aren't my neighbor?!

Check it out!

I like that it is much simpler, but still formal enough for a dining room. It's traditional enough to go with our home, while being much more modern at the same time. 

The bronze matches perfectly with our kitchen and breakfast nook lighting and hardware.

I love the pillar candle look! The candles are glass and diffuse the light nicely, keeping the light bulbs from being too harsh.

Doesn't it look so much visually lighter in here without that heavy chandelier?!

Have you haggled for good deals lately? What is your best haggling strategy? 

Linking up to Savvy Southern Style and many other great blogs!