Need Dining Room Help! URGENT

Started looking at dining room furniture for a 10 year anniversary present completely by accident. We were looking for a mattress at Macy's, went out into the mall for the first time in forever and the St. James table caught our eye at Restoration Hardware. Wife really fell in love with the table, and so did I, but I have a really hard time paying that kind of money for something made in Vietnam (especially living in the Detroit metro area). The table is 72 inches and can accommodate two leaves, 6 chairs + 2 arm chairs (french fabric style), a 60 inch china cabinet (the wall space is 73.5 inches so we probably wouldn't want to go much bigger but could probably fit a 3 door (french door on other end)), a 49 inch buffet (perfect size for a 56 inch space). After leaving the mall we went to a major Detroit metro area furniture retailer who has a higher end store connected to it and were surprised to find the same exact stuff, albeit with a different less desirable finish. The person at the store said the company is Curations Furniture and that they are a vendor of Restoration. Surprisingly, the sale price at Restoration (Full set around $8,300 to our door) was cheaper than the local store and we liked the Restoration finish better.

Researching the collection lead me to this site where someone posted a quality a horror story on St James. Then we started looking at hooker, stickley, ethan allen, all the other majors one typically associates with quality but found a lot of their stuff is coming from overseas as well or being too "traditional" or being out of our price range. Then went onto a bunch of different Amish sites and while we found some things that might do, the amount of options got a bit overwhelming and we couldn't quite recreate the table. Seeking help finding a manufacturer or recommendations. Last part is, and I can't believe I'm actually saying this, the Restoration sale ends today..... Thanks in advance!

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A lot of woodworking is done in Pacific Rim countries, the labor rate is very cheap and they do have talented craftspeople with a decent skill set. Is it fine woodworking? No, its not, but its adequate. You can't compare it to American made product, because to make it properly in this country would increase the price dramatically. Sure there are shortcuts taken in the build - while that may seem high in price at $ 8,300, were I do do those pieces for you the right way with no corner cutting we would be looking at $ 40,000. Like in most goods, there are high and low price variants of things and you have to choose what fits your budget and lifestyle. While I don't think those pieces will collapse or fail, neither will they have any resale value down the road. If you like them, buy them - that's my suggestion!

Thanks so much for the advice! Is there something in that range generally speaking that we could get that's American made? Trying to come up with an alternative that may be less ornate but more durable and domestic so to speak. Really appreciate the insight!

That table alone is a monster, to custom-build that in that style out of solid wood (Maple, mahogany, cherry, walnut, curly maple) would make that $ 10K tp $ 15K just by itself and require it to be made with a removable top as it would weight over 350 lb. Typically tables by RH that are made like that are hollow and appear to be solid wood, but are not. That's a real material-eater to do it right and would have close to $ 2,500 in lumber costs before you milled the first piece.

The hutch and console are fairly mainstream.

You can browse my favorite case good maker if you like, this is USA-made, done the right way out of solids, I show a lot of their product in my store and have been using them as a supplier for over 25 years, a nice, family run company out of Ohio.

www.jltreharn.com

Thanks doc! We ended up getting the restoration set for just about 8k after finding a coupon. Figured it was worth a shot. You had posted a picture of a table you guys had done on an earlier post that I liked but you know men don't typically get to make these types of decisions. Another question, we're looking for a tall dresser for my daughters room in a painted rose or dark pink finish. Can't seem to find anything that doesn't look like target furniture. Any suggestions? Nothing fancy but in the market for an immediate purchase.

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Originally Posted by drcollie

That table alone is a monster, to custom-build that in that style out of solid wood (Maple, mahogany, cherry, walnut, curly maple) would make that $ 10K tp $ 15K just by itself and require it to be made with a removable top as it would weight over 350 lb. Typically tables by RH that are made like that are hollow and appear to be solid wood, but are not. That's a real material-eater to do it right and would have close to $ 2,500 in lumber costs before you milled the first piece.

The hutch and console are fairly mainstream.

You can browse my favorite case good maker if you like, this is USA-made, done the right way out of solids, I show a lot of their product in my store and have been using them as a supplier for over 25 years, a nice, family run company out of Ohio.

www.jltreharn.com

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