Just go to Pottery Barn and Ethan Allen and call it a day.

Actually, a lot of the consignment shops here in Seattle have a great deal of deco and contemporary stuff. Mostly stuff from the 1980s that is trendy again. And then they have the more traditional stuff too. But that's here...I don't know if that's true of other places.

Pottery Barn has good quality furniture, though, and they'll replace it if there are defects...they replaced my mom's couch two months after she got it because it started to "creeeeeek."

Ah, got it thanks. We've gotten stuff from both, which would explain the emails.

Pottery Barn's furniture is cheaply made, overpriced particle board. I wouldn't touch their stuff with a ten foot pole.

Consumer Reports gave them a good flogging in a recent article for how poorly made their stuff is.

I am sitting on a 10 y/o couch from Pottery Barn. It is delightful and made from fluffy fabric.

I got my dining room table and chairs from Pottery Barn maybe seven years ago or so and they're super and seem like they'll last forever. I'd love to get more modern furniture, but why spend money when I have something perfectly good blah blah blah.

Exactly. Pottery Barn USED to have decent quality furniture.. if you like that style.. but now they've been using sub-standard material. It's mostly over-priced crap.

Read the Consumer Reports article.

So, once, Consumer Reports did this test on infant carseats and rated a bunch as unsafe or subpar. And then it was discovered that CR outsourced these tests and they were run at a much higher rate of speed than stated, skewing the results and then CR later retracted their findings.

So yeah, I don't have much faith in CR.

And I like PB, they fit well with my Midwestern plebian tastes.

That's the way I feel - I have most of my furniture from local places (Jordan's in the Boston area is really good), but we have some Pottery Barn stuff that has lasted really well.

Whatever happened to a classic leather couch and plush leather chairs. That's what's in my living room, and probably will be for awhile because it's not "trendy" and won't go out of style.

Well, if you like particle board furniture.. what can I say? :rolleyes:

Regarding Consumer Reports... is this what you're talking about?
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/b...7_seats_ov.htm

Personally, I have a lot of faith in CR, because they realized their study was flawed and immediately retracted the story. If they tried to cover it up, THEN I would lose faith.

I also like the fact that they take no advertising so that their results wouldn't be influenced by advertising revenue.

Here is quote from their retraction:

"We withdrew the report immediately upon discovering a substantive issue that may have affected the original test results. The issue came to light based on new information received Tuesday night and Wednesday morning from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concerning the speed at which our side-impact tests were conducted.

The original study, published in the February issue of Consumer Reports, was aimed at discovering how infant seats performed in tests at speeds that match those used in the government’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). This program tests most new vehicles in crashes at speeds of 35 mph for frontal impact and 38 mph for side impact. Child safety seats, in contrast, are currently tested only in front-impact crashes at speeds of 30 mph.

Our tests were intended to simulate side crashes at the NCAP speed of 38 mph. The new information raises a question about whether the tests accurately simulated that speed, however, so we are now reviewing our tests and the resulting article."

I don't think anything happened to it, I just think people have very strong feelings when it comes to furniture (especially since it's one of the first impressions in people's homes). I don't like contemporary stuff, but I know some people who wouldn't be caught dead with a leather chair, or any of the stuff I have, in their home.

Nothing "happened" to it - in fact, the overwhelming majority of sites suggested in this thread have many straightforward leather designs, for just the reason you mentioned (also, that's one of my major issues when shopping for the space I'm in - I don't want it to look like a '70s space station in 5 years).

The couch I bought from a local high-end furniture store three years ago is already wearing out. Meanwhile, my mom's five-year-old PB couch is as good as the first day she got it...it's cushions are like new, no creaking or squeaks. And my five-year-old PB bedside tables are still perfect.

Here's a secret for those who don't know: PB, Crate and Barrel, and I'm sure other stores, all have their furniture made by third party manufacturers in North Carolina. There's probably very little difference between them in terms of quality and how they're made. A saleswoman at C&B told me that when I was looking at furniture there.

I didn't read the CR story, but how can they test something like, say, a sofa, for quality/value? Don't they need to monitor the piece over time? For bookcases, tables, etc. maybe it's different, but for things like sofas, plush chairs it's really hard to tell.

Thanks I was also wondering the same thing as KSigKid, I just started getting their catalogs one day and was wondering how they got my information. They just recently opened a store by my parents house and I've been meaning to go. There were definitely a few things in the catalog that I would like check out in person.