Recently I'v been searching for a few additional pieces for 'the bachelor pad', aka Brian's Condo.  A few little things that weren't in our initial budget but as things progressed and the condo was coming together, we decided there were a few more items he could afford to add to the space now rather than later (ok, mostly 'he' decided, I just happily agreed).

There's this blank wall space beside his kitchen that is in full view from the Living and Dining area, it definitely needed some attention, needed something more than a piece of wall art, but what?  Since this is his first place, he doesn't have a lot of things to display or store, but eventually he will.  His kitchen is a decent size but he could use a bit of extra space for larger items, extra glass ware or seldom used kitchen tools,,,,,and maybe a place to display some of his prized trophies,,,,,,,,or a liquor cabinet perhaps?  We could go with something low and hang some artwork above (of which he doesn't have much at the moment) or a funky clock that I found,,,,,,or,,, we could go with a tall unit and use that for both display and storage.  Either way it would need to be something ready made not custom made or special order.

So with few requirements in mind I started searching,,,,,,our only limitations were size and budget, of which both were small.  Afterall, he just furnished the rest of the condo from scratch and now we were looking to spend more!  As for the style, I had something metal in mind, prefferrably a raw metal with wood shelves, something that evoked a bit of a modern industrial feel.  His kitchen cabinets are wood and the floor is wood too so I'd like to bring in some metal to break-up all that wood going on, but Brian's not a fan of too much shiny polished chrome or nickel.  While searching for this and other things, I've scoured vintage shops, consignment shops, Craigs List and every store front I came across and nothing much fit the bill with regards to this shelving unit.  I did come across a few industrial style cabinets but the prices were more than 4x our budget.  At this point, its time to reassess.  We need to make a selection from the options I did come across that were in our price range, even though it may not be exactly what we had in mind stylewise, or ,,,, adjust the budget - because its pointless to spend any more time looking for something that doesn't exist.  Here are our top picks and purely by coincidence, (?) they're all from the same source.