MB-Realtor

Our experience with both the Brick & Leons has not been good, very poor quality that looks good for the first few months and then .

Best experience has been from a local store that builds to order, more expensive yes, but vastly better value.

kb33

I wasn't complaining about Canada in general (I love the place ) But those 2 companies just get my back up, All I ever hear is complaints about them.

And don't get me wrong there are plenty of companies of the same ilk in the UK and probably in most other country's as well.

JonboyE

Ikea.

OK, no I didn't mean it.

For mid-market furniture you can look at Jordans (I think they have branches in AB), Sears Home, or Ethan Allen. None are cheap but they are a big step up in quality from the Bricks of the this world.

The best quality is from independent furniture makers. Often they are not much more expensive than Jordans etc but you are paying for the hours of labour and materials used, not the store markup. The difficulty is finding the good ones. Ask people who have furniture you like. An good interior designer should know but may be reluctant to give up their sources for free.

Edit: if you are shopping in Calgary try Domaine Fine Furnishing & Design, #8 7130 Fisher Road SE,
Calgary, Alberta T2H OW3 Tel: 403-830-9862

Auld Yin

What a load of bollocks about the wrong country for nice furniture. We have stores in Toronto with superb furniture and with prices that would knock your socks off. There are other furniture outlets also with very decent/high quality furniture at more reasonable prices but out of many people's price range. Leons and The Brick cater to a different market but their furniture is servicable for most people. Making such a sweeping statement is nonsensical to say the least.

dbd33

Such as?

kb33

Oh for Christ's sake wind yer neck in, It was meant to be a tongue in cheek/sarky comment and FYI I live in Calgary not Toronto, Plus judging by other posters in this thread and many of the people we have met over here I'm not alone with my opinions of Brick/Leons.

Judy in Calgary

kb33, if you can wait till then, a branch of Crate&Barrel is going to open in Calgary around the middle of 2009. It'll be located in Southcentre Mall, at the intersection of Macleod Trail and Anderson Drive SE.

The chain apparently is well established in the USA, and opened its first Canadian branch in the Toronto area not too long ago.

Forum members say that its offerings are similar to those of Habitat in the UK.
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kb33

Thanks Judy I know exactly where you mean and will look out for them.

Talking to other expats (not on this forum ) I know I am not alone in being disappointed with the style and choice of furniture over here, Its not a criticism of Canada just an observation. I'll head back to the trucking forum now were most have a sense of humour and are slightly less abrasive.

triumphguy

The Brick, et al, doesn't sell furniture, it sells financing.
Now and again you can get real nice furniture at the Brick. Just save up and wait for a great sale - eg: 50% off leather couches, and buy a good one that you couldn't afford otherwise.

But, pay cash, or even put it on a low interest credit card. Do not use their financing. It sucks you in with 0 down 0%interest, and ends up costing you 3 times the value of the furnture you bought.

cov-canuck

We bought a couch and a recliner at the Brick, paid for them in cash, and asked to wait 8 weeks until we got the keys to our house. We arranged delivery for the day after that(we were "fresh off the boat").

We called and confirmed everything 2 weeks before, and it was all good.

Two days before delivery we got a phone call at 8pm from the Brick asking us if we still wanted the chair. We said, um...yes, we want the chair and the sofa and loveseat we ordered. We were then told "what are you talking about, we aren't delivering the sofa/loveseat?". A few strong words later and they told us that the loveseat was out of stock, and they'd expect to have more in 2 months, and the sofa was out of stock, and they were expecting that in 4 months.

Needless to say - not happy. The following day we drove to the Brick and cancelled the order, then walked literally across the parking lot to La-z-boy.

They had a sofa for slightly more money, deliverable the next day, so we got that.

I'm still somewhat steamed about it, because we are "extraordinarily" sensitive about our sofas - they have to be comfortable enough for someone who is 6'5" and 5'1", with major lumbar support, and various other requirements. The La-z-boy one is still a "settle"...it was the best that was available at the time - the layout of our house means we practically live on these things, but we're not entirely happy with them.

6 limes

Do you have pottery barn in canada?

dbd33

The furniture mention above came with one of those "don't pay until 1990" type deals. That seemed fine to me, no interest, bill paid in one lump 18 months after furniture delivered. I recently took up a similar offer from the Home Depot on some appliances.

clynnog

The Brick is to furniture retail as Future Shop is to electronics retail.

Judy in Calgary

A few branches in the Greater Toronto Area, one in Vancouver, one in Calgary. According to their Canadian website (see FAQs), they do ship some items to Canadian addresses. Their Canadian website does not show their full range of merchandise, but their American site does.

From my observation of their Calgary branch, the in-store offerings there were pretty much identical to those on the American website. That even included similarity in pricing. That is, if something was listed at US$500 on the website, it was going for C$500 in the Calgary store. That was back in August 2008, before I moved to Vancouver Island.
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iaink

The brick was expensive and had a really shitty attitude to getting me credit when I was here on a work permit at first. Leons were the oposite and bent over backwards to help. For that reason I have never shopped at the Brick since.