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Virginia Sterling. Has anybody taken a hard look at this brand of furniture?
Duane,
I read in an earlier posting that you sell Canal Dover and I was wondering if you have ever had any dealings with Sterling Virginia. I'm an Ohio boy at heart so I am biased at doing business with both Canal Dover and Sterling Virginia, both Ohio based companies.
Billy
Virginia Sterling bought Canal Dover. I have discontinued Canal Dover in my store, I tried it based on my smooth-talking rep, but its really just ordinary factory-made furniture. OK, but nothing to write home about. I still have a table/chair/buffet and sideboard in the store in white/cherry. Its too boring for me, I like to sell something better than utility grade furniture!
Duane,
Is the style the utility part or the construction? What brands do you recommend for case goods and also USA made? Since I really don't know much about it and I have a friend who has some older Ethan Allen furniture, how does Ethan Allen measure up on your scale? This can give me a base point to start from.
I guess what I liked about the Canal Dover and Virginia Sterling lines were they are American made (especially in Ohio), used traditional time-tested jointery, hardwood construction, and the style is not too ornate. I like craftsman and mission styles. Anything more ornate gets to busy for me.
Billy
I have a pretty critical eye, and I've been selling and carrying benchmade furniture for over 25 years, so it takes a lot to make me like a piece. Imagine working around Ferraris for over two decades and then a Chevy Malibu shows up. That Chevy is not going to impress me much, no matter what!
I don't like production furniture very much because I see the shortcuts instantly - and the vast majority of all of it has design issues as well so that becomes a glaring fault to my eye as well. Therefore I tend to lump most of that into a category I call "Utility Grade" furniture because there is no art in design, and no art in craftsmanship to it. Its not that its bad furniture - because its not - its just totally boring and without much artistic merit.
Ethan Allen, even the older USA-made stuff, was solid back in its day but equally devoid of style and grace. I'm the wrong guy to ask about modern brands in case goods because I really haven't seen anything out there I like enough to buy. I'd rather commission a cabinentmaker to build a design tweaked to where I like it instead. Now you really have something when you do that. But that's just me... and it gives my store a very unique look from run-of-the-mill furniture operations.
Ok, I got it. It's kind of like a custom built '32 Ford hotrod versus a restored '70 Dodge Challenger. The hotrod is a one-off hand-built piece of art, while the Challenger is a cool factory built ride. Both are nice and it just depends what you are into.
Thanks,
Billy