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I just spent $11K there so it better be worth it!! $5K of it on a sofa. I'll say this - this service has been great so far. I was impressed with how they made their sofa and I've been assured everything will be Made in the U.S.A. which means something to me. My husband and I were talking about what great service we got from there because I did read that others have had bad experiences there. Part of me thinks it is because we didn't try to haggle. In retrospect, maybe we should have just a little but I didn't think you could in those kinds of places!! Anyway, I digress. Our furniture is coming in the second week of August. Our designer was great, offered a lot of advice and backed down when she "needed to". We're excited about our furniture and have confidence they will be awesome. If not, lesson learned. It'll be an expensive lesson but a beautifully decorated one.
If you like it, then it is worth it. Our friends love there EA furniture and I will admit it is beautiful. We just can't see spending a lot of money on furniture when you have young kids that will trash it and our friends have young kids. JMHO, Jay
Worth the $$? I would have to say no, especially when you add kids and dogs into the mix. We have friends with EA sofas and after 3 or 4 years they seem very, very worn. They have no kids and the dogs aren't allowed on the furniture. DH and I weren't impressed with it at all. The cushions seems saggy and overall just not very well made. We had a Flexsteel sectional that we loved. Very well made and the sofabed part of it was very comfortable (as far as sofabeds go). It held up very well. Unfortunately, we had to part with it because it didn't fit into our new house. See if you can find a Flexsteel or a Rowe sofa you like.
Ethan Allen used to be to be top notch. I worked for Ethan Allen right out of college. It was the first job as an interior designer I had (back in 1989/90) at that time their items were made right here in the USA. Now; however; their stuff is made overseas like a lot of stream lined furniture companies and the quality is just not what it used to be. They have lasted because of their name. To become more competitive in todays market they had to let the ball drop somewhere and sadly it was quality. I bought a sofa from them over two years ago that was not sewn properly well basically they forgot to attach the attached pillows in an area and they refused to fix it saying that fabric was not warrantied. The fabric is fine the stitching was not finished at the factory. The battle is ongoing and still they refuse to fix it. I will add this though..........much depends on the manager and sales person you get at the store you are using in regards to what they will do for you if there is a problem. They still have a fair amount of pull in the market because their furniture designs are hard to find at a lower price point.
CAKD - We're willing to pay more when it's Made in the U.S.A. so that was one of the reasons we bought our living room and bedroom furniture at EA. Well, that and we went to several stores and just couldn't find anything we liked. Anyway, I asked our sales lady/interior decorator if they make the furniture here and she said yes. In fact, I asked several times and every time she said yes. Was she lying to us? Or, half-truthing it like pieces are made overseas and they bring it back here to build it?
Belated update here . . . ordered the Flexsteel and will hopefully have it by early November. When we went back to the store it was on sale too, so I was able to upgrade the leather for the same price. I think the Ethan Allen sofa was still my favorite style-wise, and it definitely felt well-made too (I was also told by the salesperson and an online customer service rep that the EA sofa was made in the US). But I just couldn't justify the price difference.
I think once the kids and dog get on it, I'll love the Flexsteel sofa even more.
Another happy Room & Board customer here. Their quality is very good for their price point, and I really like that 85% of what they sell is made in the USA.
My general opinion of Ethan Allen is more sizzle than steak, but you will be hard pressed to get a decent sofa for less than $2500. The challenge is not to buy poor quality at a high price. Maybe you don't need the sofa to last a long time? You can find them a lot cheaper which will suit your purposes for a few years and then you can throw it out and get another.
Find a good furniture store and pick the brains of someone who knows how their sofas are made. Once you know this, go to a few other stores and see what they say about theirs.
I would look at Crate & Barrel and several non chain furiture stores until I was happy with the balance of quality/price/style.
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