And here is what is called the "Adams Craft Table" from Target online. It costs, with the 15% off right now, something like $530, and also, with the furniture sale, shipping is free.
The Target option, at least from the pictures, is a very close knockoff. I have been looking at both these items for months and months. I would like *one* of them to use as a table/island in my kitchen. The shelves/cubbies on the ends for storage of the mail that always ends up all over my kitchen table, for the cookbooks that I use frequently and thus are always out on my counters taking up space, and for various small kitchen items, is irresistible. I don't see why, even though Target and Pottery Barn insist this is a home office item, I could not use it in the kitchen. It'll even fit my space. I've measured.
Now the no-brainer is, Andrea, buy the one that's less than half the price of the other. And I would do that. Except that, reading all the customer reviews on the Target website, for every three or four people who are thrilled with their purchase and think it's a fabulous deal, there's one person who got a craft table that was cracked and damaged in shipping, or that was a real bitch to assemble or even impossible to assemble properly. Do I assume that if I take a chance on the cheap knockoff I will be part of the 80% who are completely satisfied or that I will be part of the 20% whose furniture is fucked? Or do I just keep waiting futilely for the expensive one to be marked down, like I have since like last December, until neither place carries this anymore and I live without it, like I've lived without it up until now?
Oh, yeah, first world problems again.
xoxo
8 comments:
I say buy the Target one and put it in your kitchen.I dont see why it wouldnt work, and yes, those cubbies would be great for kitchen things and mail and such.
I wonder if you could find it in a store and look at it in person, if that would help your decision.
Just a thought...:)
Oh, I forgot to mention that! Unfortunately, both the expensive version and the cheap version are online/catalogue only items, so I can't check out either of them :-(
I hate that. Who wants to buy furniture you've never had a chance to see in person? Things can look and feel so different than a professionally photographed and airbrushed web photo can make them appear.
Some people must do it, or all those places wouldn't continue to still sell furniture that way, but I find it weird.
You should just go to Ikea and find something similar. It'll be chintzy and hard to put together, but you'll know that in advance. And you'll actually be able to see it before you buy... plus it'll be cheaper than either of those options.
Ikea hasn't knocked this item off :-) I think I mentioned this to you before, but Target *always* has pretty much a verbatum cheap translation of anything that you'll find at Pottery Barn, and the same season too. I wonder how they don't get sued--unless they both have the same parent company if you look hard enough.
Oh, like fer instance, the velvet grommet drapes I bought last year. The Target ones I bought for $30 a panel looked pretty much identical to the $100 a panel ones Pottery Barn was selling at the same time, though, yeah, the Pottery Barn velvet was better quality up close and the cheap grommets on the Target ones gave me metal slivers when I was hanging the goddamn things. But for 1/3 the price, it was a trade off I was willing to make.
I'm sure there's a similar difference in quality with these two tables, but with a piece of furniture you're theoretically gonna use every day for at least several years, it's harder to know whether it's worth springing for the better version.
Gardner makes a great day trip for checking out top-notch handmade stuff, too. I even had a piece *custom* made for the kitchen I lost in the divorce that was right around what you're considering for that PB fluff you're ogling. Just call your friendly neighborhood convertible for transportation. (Shipping would be on you, though--no room in the trunk).
I'd shop it some more, too. My first question would be whether the table surface in particular can stand up to the increased level of activity that anything gets in a kitchen.
Lately, I've learnt that one has to take online trash talk about assembly with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that you're hearing from all ability levels. That includes the terminally mechanically challenged, who can't match screwdrivers with appropriate screw heads f'r instance. When they fuck up the assembly, it can't possibly be their fault. That's where shopping helps out, because you can look at the undersides and see for yourself whether it's "EZ to assemble" for you.
It's a cool design for a kitchen.
If the consensus had been "hells, yeah, Andrea, buy the cheap Target piece of furniture quick while it's on sale," I might have done this weekend, but since it wasn't...
You know what I did do kitchen-related? I have this plan in my head of how I want to do mine over on the minuscule budget and miniscule amount of diy talent I possess, and I was outlining it recently to this woman who is like a color expert on one of the decorating boards I read. She suggested that I might want to paint my upper and lower cabinets two diff colors.
Well, I remembered seeing an example of this on RMS last year that looked awesome. So this morning while I was waiting for Benevolent L to arrive at my house and this evening since I've been home, I've been searching for that picture. I'm on page 68 of 3008 and I haven't come across it yet. hahaha This is such a productive use of my time.
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