Looking for Bedroom Furniture

[Briant73]

One thing I failed to ask was which collection you were looking at from Stanley. Most of Stanley is still domestically made. They do import a little bit. That is mostly their youth beds and dining room chairs. Some of their groups do have more in them than others so that does matter. Just so you know, solid wood does not always mean the best quality. Keep in mindy, wood shrinks and swells. If that happens, it could alter a piece of furniture by an 1/8 of an inch. Manufacturers use veneers for design features and because it just a better way of making a piece stronger and more durable. You just want to make sure they are using 5 ply when using veneers. I could talk about this, but I don't have enough room. I know Duane could explain this as well because some high end product. When it comes to Durham, when we were considering carrying them it was manufactured in Canada. I believe that is still true. I am not pushing Stanley on you. I really could care less. I don't like selling it from a profit standpoint because everybody and their mother carries it. Because of this, most dealers will sell it for a very small mark up. That is why if you marked these three lines at the same mark, Stanley would probably price out higher. The new group that I told you to look at I know will price out higher. It is one of their premium groups for Stanley. Overall, I feel Stanley is a great value for the money.

I was just trying to look at what Stanley offers compared to other brands near it's price point. I didn't feel you were pushing Stanley but admit curiousty why you thought Stanley is better than the others.

I see that Durham is manufactured in Canada, I'm not sure how Canadian manufacturing holds up compared to USA and overseas. Anyone?

I did read on Durham's website they have this feature in case the wood expands/contracts http://www.durhamfurniture.com/durhamdiff.php?diff=9
I think Mobel does too though can't find a weblink.

As to veneer's I didn't mean to make it sound like they are a negative more that they could be a negative. I have read veneers like anything else when they are done right can be very nice.

Overall I wanted to give you my thoughts and wondered what differences you noticed in Stanley to the others that I should look at and compare that maybe I overlooked.

Thanks for the response.

[Briant73]

Just an update, went shopping some more and really liked the Durham Saville Row Park Lane set but have been told by one source Durham is in Chapter 11, they have new investors but all orders are on hold. Can anyone tell me if they heard something like this?

[Briant73]

Ok figured I'd update this old thread with the latest news. Durham is in business and we finally made a decision on bedroom furniture after a year of looking. A quick synopsis of the quest for bedroom furniture -

A year ago after moving into our new house and getting it settled nicely we came to the realization we needed new bedroom furniture. We wanted to get a new bed, dresser, chests/night stands that would fit our tastes, hold up well and look good. Having seen many advertisements for Bedroom sets in the $699 to $1499 range I decided to budget $1200-$2000 grand and off we went furniture shopping.

We went looking at small local stores, chain stores, mega stores, travelled to dealers an hour or more away, internet shopped and even thought about custom made furniture. During our travels we quickly realized that we would have to increase our budget or buy used to find anything that fit our criteria. I was amazed how many stores had displays setup where things were nicked, wobbly, drawers were stuck shut or wouldn't close shut, and just poor quality even when we went to the stores high end sets. Finally we narrowed the field down to three brands, Mobel, Durham and an in house brand at a local higher end store. All these brands shared common traits - solid wood, traditional construction, good fit and finish, made in North America, and cost all about 2-3 times our initial budget. I will go over them in the order from last to first how we liked them -

Mobel - Found a few sets we liked but one thing I felt was the drawers seemed smaller in depth and width compared to the other two brands though I never measured. Also I kept noticing anytime I pulled a drawer open it felt like it was going to fall out after only pulling it a bit. Now smooth operation is a great thing but I kept worrying I'd accidentally dump a drawer. Very nice overall and I think anyone who buys this will be happy.

Store Brand - Very nice stuff and might of been our top choice but for two things - No idea where support will come from if store or manufacturer goes under. Secondly maybe it was the stores lighting but the pieces seemed a little darker than what we wanted.

Durham - Soon as we saw it we knew it was a top choice. The finish was great, the drawers operated smoothly and felt big enough, the stores that carried it highly recommended it and overall we just liked the design of a few sets more than anything else we had seen. I liked that even if I just grabbed a handle on one side of the largest drawer and pulled how the drawer opened correctly and easily.

To be honest we would of been happy with any of these three but one Durham set we saw in a store stayed in our thoughts more than any other. The Durham Saville Row Park Lane set in person just felt right it had the style, finish, size we wanted. The only issue I had with this set is the promotional materials I got back then and Durham website photos do this set an injustice on how the finish looks. More than once I had to go back to the store to remind myself how good it looks.

So after deciding on Durham we then are told the company is going through a re-organization and orders are on hold. Deciding to see how things turned out we held off on the purchase and then a home repair took precedence. Finally about the second week in November of 2009 we ordered the Durham Saville Row Park Lane set and was told should expect it four to five weeks so I was hoping to see it by Christmas and called the dealer the week before and was told it was in production and I'm looking at early January. I'll admit the second week of January I started to get anxious but a quick check with the dealer and the set was there and they were ready to setup delivery.

Delivery went great, the hardest part was calling in my credit card to get it processed due to a power outage. I had some questions on the finish which talking to both the dealer and Durham assurred me was normal that it is a bit distressed and being real wood they allow for some things. I had no problem with the look of the finish mind you which I felt was excellent I just wanted to make sure it was normal and was not going to be an issue down the road.

So after this long post I just want to say thank you to everyone who gave me advice, made recomendations and listened. I might try posting a mini review and pictures of the set sometime in the future.

[Ci2Eye]

I went through a similar quest looking for some guest bedroom furniture and I also settled on Durham.

I purchased their Orville & Meade Brookline collection wihich is essentially the same of the Saville Row but with a different finish and different hardware. It is now marketed as simply Durham Brookline. The Orville & Meade sub-brand was eliminated as part of their re-organization.

I've had the furniture since February of '08 and am very pleased. For the price, it is very well constructed and solid maple. My only complaint was a finish issue with one of the drawers. My dealer had Durham to send a replacement drawer which took care of the problem.

For anyone shopping, you have to overlook the website. It isn't up to the quality of the furniture and the pictures don't do justice to the pieces themselves.

[Odd I/O]

Briant73 and Ci2Eye can either one of you post pictures of your bedroom sets? Since you've both indicated that Durham's website doesn't do their furniture justice you've piqued my curiosity.

[Briant73]

I think I will try posting a picture sometime once we get our bedroom all done. We just now are finishing up from having it repainted, new furniture, new bedding set and putting it all back together.

One thing that pictures miss on is how Durham and other brands like it feel/operate compared to brands made overseas that may sell for less (sometimes same price). The feel of the wood, the drawer construction and operation, the solid build when using it is something a camera doesn't show.

[PeachtreeCity]

seems like we have the same taste in furniture. just bought a kincaid king canopy poster bed with dresser and nightstands. love the simplicity and seems like it is made well.

[Briant73]

The local dealers for Kincaid were few and far between but it was a brand I researched a lot and even got an out of town quote on. You know when I went shopping I thought we could get away with a bit above the very low end but maybe not all the way to mid end bedroom furniture but I found out quickly they don't made them like they used to. We looked out low end lines and up to stuff like Thomasville, Oak Express, Universal and others that are priced higher than the usual run of the mill low end stuff. ind. But we had trouble finding anything we liked in those brands and was amazed how poorly constructed some of those units were. Some units we couldn't even get the drawers to open, the finish had major flaws, and the drawer bottoms felt like anything of weight would cause them to bow. I was shocked because when we started looking I figured those lines would have less real wood, more veneers, maybe a little less attention to detail and not as robust construction but overall a decent looking furniture set that would function well but I had to expand the budget up to Durham, Stanley, Kincaid and others to get what I felt would be good furniture.
Still very happy with the Durham set though it's only been 1/2 a year.


Poor contruction where the drawers on some models woiulexpected some of the lower brands and even Thomasville to not be all wood and they lower priced