Furniture Recommendations

[P_D]

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we bought our sectional at Sofa Land right on Heritage drive. it was reasonably priced and we were able to customize it with different pieces and power reclining. their prices seemed very good and lots of selection.

Sofa Land and Knoto Furniture (same company) have great couches. We recently rebought our couch this time in a different color, the ability to customize them to your taste and style is awesome.

[Perceptionist]

I'll throw another recommendation in for Perfect Home. Lot's of stuff there that's good value and made in Canada. Make sure you negotiate down off the list price though.

[msommers]

We've started looking at furniture and fortunately had a chance to try a few stores on the weekend. One thing that took us both by surprise was how many incredibly firm couches there were!

- Struc-Tube seems on par with Ikea or worse probably
- Revolve has some decent deals right now but it's unclear if they're actually going out of business/rebranding/reducing to a single store = warranty concerns for me. Also the basic couch we asked was going to be 12-16 weeks...parents figured it was coming from China...next
- Showhome Furniture at North Hill Mall = Fucking massive with a dizzing amount of stuff to consider, pros/cons I suppose. The Manager was a really fantastic guy to deal with, some other staff were completely uselss but all knew the intro line of "we're a family run business!"
- Bondars was hilarious for everyone involved
- Perfect Home had some nice stuff and the staff was pretty good, bit more pressure than other stores. Prices seemed reasonable given the quality, Decor-Rest was pretty prevelant throughout but not exclusive to that store
- Ikea is getting more expensive than I remember, a lot of choice at the pricepoints they're creeping into to or firmly at

So far we're seriously considering a couple pieces from the Elite Sofa Designs out in Delta, BC. Has anyone bought anything from this brand? At first glance they seem to have quality construction and the price is reasonable given that, but as we all know the true test is daily use over time.

[ExtraSlow]

Honest and 100% serious: IKEA's better stuff is good quality, and will last decades, which is longer than most people keep furniture these days. I have a leather sectional that I bought ~14 years ago that had been in several houses, and aside from damage from my in-laws cats, it functions like new.

[never]

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...aside from damage from my in-laws cats, it functions like new.

Does that mean you can still sit on it??

[ExtraSlow]

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Does that mean you can still sit on it??

Yup.

[rx7boi]

I heard La-Z-Boy in Northland Mall was closing up shop. Any deals to be had there?

[msommers]

I think I'll will check that today! We did stop at their store on Heritage Drive and found a couple "maybe" items but a bit more than we're realistically able to spend.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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- Revolve has some decent deals right now but it's unclear if they're actually going out of business/rebranding/reducing to a single store = warranty concerns for me. Also the basic couch we asked was going to be 12-16 weeks...parents figured it was coming

We bought a dining room table from Revolve just before the "going out of business" sale, which we still don't have because it's getting built in Quebec, so I called them to see what the deal is and if I was still getting my table. They said it's just a restructure and they aren't going anywhere. Apparently their storage costs are too damn high and they want to transition into a model that passes those onto the manufacturers. If they do end up eventually disappearing, you should still have warranty with the manufacturer.

FWIW we just went through the complete furniture shopping phase again and went into every store in the Deerfoot Meadows area plus a handful of others.

We needed a kitchen table, sectional for the basement, bar stools for the island, and a bed frame.

My impressions:

Structube - Poor quality, and nothing is in stock
Revolve - Mostly great stuff, excellent knowledgeable staff, expensive so you need to find a sale. Made to order in Canada, but long order times (our table is taking 3 months)
Showcase - Enormous like you said, didn't find a single staff member while we were there, not our cup of tea but they sure had a lot of stuff. I got the impression it was overseas quality for made in Canada pricing.
Perfect Home - Annoying salespeople, but seemed to be a decent run place. Overpriced for the quality IMHO. They do have some made in Canada stuff, and the items are marked accordingly, but you can get better furniture for that money IMO.
IKEA - has its place, we buy generic household things from there but most of their furniture is honestly pretty bad after looking at everything else - even the "expensive" stuff was not great IMO. I had it in my head that it was better than it was, but after a second look I no longer think that.
Ashley - Worst salespeople by far, and also the most annoying. We didn't stay long. There was a small pack of high-pressure salespeople following us around constantly badgering us and we couldn't wait to leave.
Home Evolution - Way overpriced and just not our style/taste
Bondars - Maybe in another 30 years
Brick/Leons - Won't even walk in the door, the sales people and horror stories are on par with Gallery of Fine Cars / South Deerfoot Suzuki.
EQ3 - Pretty bad, somewhere between Ikea and Structube
Lay-Z-Boy - Overpriced for the quality IMO. Didn't really have much we liked but it wasn't bad stuff.
Costco - They have a lot of stuff, and a lot of it is made in Canada, however it's almost impossible to see before you buy, and they only carry the really cheap stuff in the warehouse.
Urban Barn - Our favorite for most things, but can sometimes be difficult to find what you want in their small-ish show rooms. Great staff, super helpful. Useful room-planning app. Really high quality full custom made in Canada furniture at reasonable prices (especially with their regular sales).
West Elm - No complaints, just didn't really find anything we liked style-wise


What we ended up getting:

Dining room table - Revolve

Dining room chairs - Still looking, will probably have to wait for the table to actually arrive to see what looks good. Not looking forward to buying 6X chairs which will probably cost more than the table.

Sectional / ottoman - Urban Barn (still my favorite for price/quality, made in Canada, fast turnaround time, and highly customizable). Regular 15% off custom sales make the prices very reasonable compared to what else is out there. We have 3 couches from them in our house and the two that are 5-6 years old still look like new and have zero seat foam degradation (on which there is a lifetime warranty anyway). Everything is still rock solid even after 2 moves.

Bed Frame - Amazon (ended up being the same or better quality than anything I saw under ~$1,500 in the stores and it was $300) https://www.amazon.ca/Zinus-Upholste..._=sb_s_sparkle We will replace it if we find something better but for now price/quality is unbeatable.

Stools - Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/Buschman-Count...2216293&sr=8-9 These things are exactly the same everywhere in this style - Amazon just seemed to have the best looking ones at the best price. Quality is outstanding for the price.

Haven't heard of Elite Sofa Designs but personally I won't buy furniture I can't see/touch in person first.

[msommers]

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Haven't heard of Elite Sofa Designs but personally I won't buy furniture I can't see/touch in person first.

I agree and why the sitting-type furniture won't be from Article or Wayfair. That said, Elite Sofa Designs had a ton of stuff at Showhome Furniture to try so that's a moot point here. The manager we dealt with there was awesome and a shame we had to leave so quickly. He just texted the owner of the company if these features were possible and got an instant reply. They have standard models but can customize anything, anyway was basically the answer we got from the Owner (for a price I'm sure). Plus they're Canadian which I do like.

Will look at Lay-Z-Boy in Northland and maybe Urban Barn, missed that one.

[suntan]

Take a look at Cricklewood. Wait for a sale though.

Also try Furniture Extreme. They're an Ashley reseller at 1/2 the price.

- - - Updated - - -

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Honest and 100% serious: IKEA's better stuff is good quality, and will last decades, which is longer than most people keep furniture these days. I have a leather sectional that I bought ~14 years ago that had been in several houses, and aside from damage from my in-laws cats, it functions like new.

Ikea's stuff ranges from total crap to really good. The Billy bookcases last about 10 years and then all the screws have eroded the particleboard enough that the bookcase starts to sway.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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I agree and why the sitting-type furniture won't be from Article or Wayfair. That said, Elite Sofa Designs had a ton of stuff at Showhome Furniture to try so that's a moot point here. The manager we dealt with there was awesome and a shame we had to leave so quickly. He just texted the owner of the company if these features were possible and got an instant reply. They have standard models but can customize anything, anyway was basically the answer we got from the Owner (for a price I'm sure). Plus they're Canadian which I do like.

Will look at Lay-Z-Boy in Northland and maybe Urban Barn, missed that one.

Oh OK, that sounds pretty good then. I didn't realize that brand was at Showhome Furniture, so at least you can get a sense for the quality in person. That store was so massive I'm sure I missed some stuff too Sometimes I wonder how those places afford the rent as it was an absolute ghost town when we were there, though furniture markup is ridiculous.

There's another Urban Barn in West Hills which might have some different display models than Deerfoot Meadows. Maybe browse a bit online first - my only complaint with them is they have way more furniture than what is in their showrooms. They have a pretty slick app though - you can map out your room and then insert their furniture into it.

[ExtraSlow]

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Ikea's stuff ranges from total crap to really good. The Billy bookcases last about 10 years and then all the screws have eroded the particleboard enough that the bookcase starts to sway.

Agree that there's a range. Some of the realyl cheap stuff is very poor quality, but then again, when you can buy a LACK side table for $12, it might be terrible quality, but it's actually still a great value. The billy bookshelf too, it's $55, so comparing it to a solid wood bookcase that's 4x the price isn't really fair.

They no longer make the model of couch I own, but it's held up great, and I feel like it was a great value. I feel that as long as you think critically about it, ikea is a good value at every price point.

I also would pay more to shop somewhere without commissioned sales staff, but weirdly, you get to pay less for it.

[suntan]

Very true. I find the Lack tables actually hold up really well. Had a few when the kids were young that they absolutely trashed the tops of.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Very true. I find the Lack tables actually hold up really well. Had a few when the kids were young that they absolutely trashed the tops of.

They are fine until they see the slightest bit of moisture, in my experience - however for $12.99 there is absolutely nothing to complain about.

[suntan]

I'm so old I remember when they were like $6 sometimes.

[88CRX]

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Dining room table - Revolve

Dining room chairs - Still looking, will probably have to wait for the table to actually arrive to see what looks good. Not looking forward to buying 6X chairs which will probably cost more than the table.

We had the same dilemma (actually needed 8 chairs) and we ended up with Eames repro chairs from Structube



https://www.structube.com/en/eiffel-...YaAgFzEALw_wcB

We planed on replacing them with something nicer when finances allowed but now that we have them we're keeping them.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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We had the same dilemma (actually needed 8 chairs) and we ended up with Eames repro chairs from Structube

https://www.structube.com/en/eiffel-...YaAgFzEALw_wcB

We planed on replacing them with something nicer when finances allowed but now that we have them we're keeping them.

Yeah chairs are the killer. Tables are pretty easy to find at a reasonable price but nice chairs are like $350 X 6 (or more) which is harder to swallow, especially since it's mostly for show as we rarely have company over haha. We are definitely considering some cheap but stylish chairs in the interim if we don't find anything we love right away that are worth the premium price tag.

$39/ea is a good find, hard to complain at that price!

[A2VR6]

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West Elm - No complaints, just didn't really find anything we liked style-wise

We have a sofabed sectional from west elm and the quality is horrid. The foam cores are sagging pretty badly after a year of use and the couch looks like its 10 years old. Not worth it for a $3000 + sofa.

Got our kitchen stools from Crate and Barrel and them seem pretty decent. I wish nordesign was still around. I have a bed frame and a kitchen table from them for over 10 years and they're still holding up and look like new.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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We have a sofabed sectional from west elm and the quality is horrid. The foam cores are sagging pretty badly after a year of use and the couch looks like its 10 years old. Not worth it for a $3000 + sofa.

Got our kitchen stools from Crate and Barrel and them seem pretty decent. I wish nordesign was still around. I have a bed frame and a kitchen table from them for over 10 years and they're still holding up and look like new.

Good to know - when we were in there we were just looking for coffee/end tables as we had already bought our sectional, so I didn't look closely at any of their couches/chairs. For $3000 I would expect made in Canada and near lifetime quality if well taken care of. We paid ~$3800 for our sectional and ottoman at Urban Barn but it should pretty well last forever as it is made by the same company as my other furniture I have from there. The ottomans are really well made but still overpriced for how simple they are IMO.

I totally forgot about Crate & Barrel, we went there a few times and almost bought a kitchen table from them. For $100 they will send an interior designer to your house, but they can only recommend Crate & Barrel items. The issue I had with most tables was the durability of the surface. Marble, fancy concrete, etc. are all surprisingly not good materials for a table surface. Most of the wood tables we saw had uneven surfaces that looked like a nightmare to clean, and you still need to be super careful about water/liquids. At Revolve we ended up finding a table that had a matte frosted tempered glass top (completely flat, non-porous, easy to clean, and should be almost indestructible) and the rest of it was built like a tank (stained Oak + metal).

We actually found lots of stools we liked, but most were $250-350 each which was too much IMO, so we ended up with the ones I posted above that gave you 4 stools for the price of 1 elsewhere.