Canadian shopping rant

Home furnishings and decor shopping in Canada is extremely difficult, in my opinion. Unless of course you have buckets of money and nothing else to spend it on. Oh, how I would love to waltz into Elte, Studio B or Ethan Allen and pick out whatever I like! These places have absolutely gorgeous pieces and I have no doubt in my mind that the quality and craftsmanship (blah blah blah) is amazing but the prices are astronomical.

Commencing photographic rant.

I'm trying to find a banquette/settee for our eat-in kitchen, photo here:


Currently I have a temporary Ikea table and chairs for us to eat at but my long term plan is to make a cozier more inviting space, with a slightly larger table. Something like this:

Source: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

Or this:

http://pinkwallpaper.blogspot.ca/ Ignoring the table, I love the banquette style.

To do this I need to find a comfortable, reasonably priced banquette, somewhere north of the 49th parallel. So I visit websites and fire off emails to various furniture purveyors in my city (this is much easier than visiting said purveyors because I live in Toronto and driving across the city in our horrible traffic to some store just to walk out empty handed is my own personal hell). I'll show you these two options as an example:

The Ettiquette Banquette at Studio B. 
Source: http://www.studiobhome.com/site.html#/browse-by-item
 My heart leaped when I saw this banquette. LEAPED right out of my damn chest. That's not the fabric I want (although it's really nice!) but this is the perfect banquette to me. I love it. Except the base price is $3745. What the what??! Ok moving right along.

I found this one at Barrymore:

Source: http://www.barrymorefurniture.com
Also lovely. For $2360, starting. Yes, a way better price. And yes, it's going to be something I would have for a long time. We're not at the stage where we need to buy Ikea furniture anymore (although I do and I like it and it has it's place). But still, I can't help but think I should be able to find something like this for the less horrific price of around $1500. Even $1800? I mean really. If I lived in the USA, I could have any one of these options (found in under 5 minutes):

Target $239.99. How is that even possible? For that price I could reupholster it and still be getting a deal.



Joss and Main. $1191.95. DO NOT get me started on Joss and Main. I would have the cutest house ever if only they delivered to Canada.
Amazon US. $592.99


Ballard designs $1369

Hold the phone!! I just noticed on Ballard's website, which I haven't been to in a while since I knew they didn't ship to Canada and now it says they do! This is exciting news!! I'll have to get back to you about how much they want to extort charge me for shipping. Not to mention I'd have to factor in what those crooks at Canada Customs would like to take from me.

Americans have SO many more options when it comes to home furnishings. Yes there are 100x as many people in the US. I understand the economics of it but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Hmph.

If I lived in the US, my entire house would be currently filled to the rafters with amazing stuff, all at 75% less then you could find it here, and it all would have been purchased online and delivered FREE OF CHARGE.

And nope, I'm not being the slightest bit dramatic or exaggerative.

I will say though, that I no longer feel jilted when it comes to fashion, especially on-line. There are so many great websites where I can buy any brand my little heart desires, there is hardly any need to go to Buffalo any more! Sorry Buffalo!


4 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your rant, and can absolutely feel your pain. I wanted to buy replicate cast iron hinges for our bathroom door. I found a set for a decent price, and then they wanted nearly $60 to ship me two small pieces of metal. Yeah. Right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right? It's ridiculous. Sometimes it really makes me crazy.

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  2. really target wont deliver to canada? well crap. i would scream too. i guess i really do know nothing about canada except for what they put in old school degrassi episodes. :(

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    Replies
    1. Ha ha! Oh wow I love old Degrassi. I loved Spike and her awesome hair, and Joey Jeremiah and his jean jacket. They filmed that show in my old neighbourhood. So great.

      Also - Target is (cue angels singing) opening in Canada in 2013. I can hardly contain myself!

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