Come on Pottery Barn! You can do better than that! Only 50 bucks cheaper?

You're going to have to try harder to make me a customer!

I LOVE these chairs, I want every color! I agree with art, too expensive for PB.

yep, seems wrong to pay 80% of the original price for the knockoff...

..here, here....

and don't tell me they cost ANYWHERE near that much to produce

For the difference, I'd just as soon get the real thing.

I am sooo sick of the Pottery Barn bashers.

So go to effing France and bring back a container of them and sell 'em on Craiglsit for $2 a piece.

(and I even hate the anti-PB insinuation of "we haven't seen them in person so we can't vouch for quality" of the editorial, to be honest. How many things posted on this site *have* you seen in person? Why is that not a standard disclaimer??)

PTOO, i totally understand where you're coming from.

but at the same time, for $50, i'd just as soon buy the original. BUT i really love that barely-blue color, which looks to be PB exclusive.

oh, these decisions i must live with...

These have been in Sundance catalog for quite a while, and they carry an armchair version as well. They offer them in raw steel, olive green, and a brighter red. 2 for $375 there.

patrick, you have a good point. The disclaimer here is because I've personally had quality issues with a couple of pieces from Pottery Barn, even though they make a lot of great things as well. I have tested the Marais chairs from DWR and know the quality is good, so that's where the disclaimer came in.

To me it isn't that the quality of Pottery Barn is bad, it's that there stores are everywhere. And their style is very bland. It's like buying a sweater that everyone else has.

Also, I think that their things are very over-priced, considering that they buy wide and deep. I don't want to spend that kind of money at a shop where no one knows their merchandise and no one bothers to wait on you. I'm a professional designer, and I avoid Pottery Barn - even though I get a discount (only 10%). I'd rather shop at IKEA.

As for this particular chair - it makes no sense to buy one of these when you can have an original for only $50 more. That's what I mean by PB being over-priced. I guess they weren't considering that smart people read blogs. :)

4 years ago I got them from Manufactum http://www.manufactum.de/ . There is also another model of this chair with an armrest. They then cost about 70,00 €.
They look great but aren't very comfortable. The backrest crushes on your bones Usually they are very cold so you need a cushion. If the sun is shining you can bake eggs on them. The quality is good: no rust and oxydation even though they are standing outside all the year.

If the DWR chair had been posted, people would be bitching and moaning about DWR's prices and saying how Pottery Barn has the identical chair for $50 less.

Sometimes, it seems, there is just no winning.

sarah c--

No worries, but there is usually an apologetic tone when anything is posted from PB, whether from you (here, for specific reasons) or from other AT editors, and to me it just gets old.

DesignHole--

Personal preferences aside, there is no style similarity between PB and Ikea and you know it, so that argument sort of falls apart.

And as far as "no one knows the merchandise and no one will wait on you" it just sounds like the PB you go to sucks. (And not even sure why PB *should* offer a designer discount...)

I would think a design professional would be able to acknowledge that *any* source has potential. And that in your capable and magical hands, that "bland sweater" could look like something completely unique.

Just sayin'.

And I've said it before... for all the crap PB takes for being so ubiquitous and over-used, I *wish* the average American home looked like the Pottery Barn catalog...

PB is to decor what the Gap is to fashion. Bland, endlessly repeated and unoriginal. I don't shop at the Gap or PB 'cause I refuse to be a corporate clone.

Patrick, I usually am on the same page as you with stuff, but although I (admittedly) am not much of a fan of PB (although I am happy to see them now carrying the metal office pieces that I missed when W-S closed the Hold Everything brand), I don't think Sarah was being apologetic at all. It seems to me they usually use the disclaimer "we don't know the quality" or whatever if they haven't tried them out in person. I think the post is pretty neutral ... it's the replies that are bitchy or whatever.

And I agree with the poster about the quality ... I don't have an issue with PB quality (I have a couple of things in my office that I bought on clearance from PBTeen, after all) it's just that it's everywhere ... and a lot of it is pretty bland. One or two pieces sprinkled around your house can look good ... I just hate walking into someone's house that clearly bought everything there. I can think of two people I know who have all the matching stuff in their living rooms.

(Incidentally, I have the same issue with IKEA, although I have some things from there)

ridge--

Yeah, I know, I was taking out on Sarah a site trend, so apologies for specifically singling her out.

But I stand by the comment that MUCH of the content shown here is not "editor tested" so I do indeed think if that disclaimer appears here, for PB, it should appear anywhere the case applies. Or else it shouldn't be mentioned at all. The line "can't vouch for quality" (to me) has an insinuation about it, and automatically casts aspersions on the item or company being shown.

Sorry again, sarah!

Carder--

So where do you shop to get your avant garde, anti-establishment style groove on? Do tell?

I just double checked on the site - because I saw these in the catalog and they only come in gunmetal gray. If you want those colors - you have to paint them. I was weighing the cost of painting them with the extra $50 to get them at DWR.

All in all, not worth it, IMO. Unless you wanted a color that DWR doesn't offer.

Sorry - scratch that - I read the note about painting them with lacquer for outdoor use as having to paint them in general.

Please disregard my silly comment.

PB looks better than 95% of the crap I see in people's homes. I agree it's rather unoriginal and bland, but not that many people have the design sense to create a really great-looking room on their own, with original pieces. At least PB give them a framework for putting things together, and they're a little more stylish than the furniture in all those suburban strip mall furniture stores.

That issue aside, I really like those chairs. I'm kinda bummed out to hear that they're uncomfortable.

"So where do you shop to get your avant garde, anti-establishment style groove on?"

Haha ... okay, I'm your fan again, P. ;-)

By the way, i have to admit, I do like the fish cushions.

Hi,

I have quite a few of the originals of these, produced by Tolix, and imported to my country by Thonet. They are around $230 USD here for the side chair which is pictured (brut venered), or $350 for the ones I have which are galvanized, in essenced weather proof. The ones I have are actually 20 years old and still look perfect!

Anyways, to make my point, I think it's a shame and plainly revolting that PB just flat copies a famous design and nobody else seems to have a problem with this? Give credit where credit is due, I have seen copies of the Jielde lights, and now the Tolix chairs, they should be sued out of business.

When I go to auctions, I see beautiful Herman Miller chairs going for pittence now because all the knockoffs are forcing value down.

If you want a piece you should be getting the originals, not complaining that a knock off is too expensive.

I think it is also the relicensing of some Herman Miller pieces that is forcing the prices down at auction. That, and perhaps the MCM ship has sailed in the auction circuit.

And you simply can't fault PB for some basics like vases, candles, pillows throws and other seasonal accents.

While maybe not furniture, PB accent pieces and staples show up in even the most high end designer rooms (if you look closely enough). The beauty, here or anywhere, is in the deft mix of high and low.

Ikea shows up in the most high end of homes as well. But, Ikea at least has it's own version of objects, rather than simply porting a direct copy of someone else's.

I find it sad, it takes away from the original as well.

racerz--

The DWR version is a relicensed original re-release.

But I hear ya. I guess I just never knew this oft-seen "galvanized metal French farm chair" had such a specific origin and pedigree.

Fan of PB, not a fan of the knock-off in general.

"If you want a piece you should be getting the originals, not complaining that a knock off is too expensive."

Racerz, not all of us can afford originals, so should we be denied timeless designs because we are not rolling in dough?

But hey, I guess this is all a matter of preference because I will admit that I would never be caught dead with a knock-off purse **shutters** But that doesn't mean that I think that there should be a ban on all knock-offs. I guess the saying is true though, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

I'm not to sure with DWR, I am sure they are licensed and most likely come from the factory mine came from. As I am in the industry here (Australia) I got mine through Thonet, which import them from Tolix, which still come from the original factory in France.

I'm not against people wanting timeless designs, but these are not even expensive to start with, it seems sad that another company would just rip them off. Who knows maybe PB is paying royalties for the design.

I still believe if you can't afford originals then get something else. If you have good taste you can make your budget work.

Actually, Pottery Barn bought the chairs directly from Tolix. They are manufactured in France. If you purchase one from PB it has Tolix on the chair. They are available in 5 finishes - Gunmetal, Red, White, Yellow and Turquoise. You would only need to laquer them if you wanted to use them outdoors; it is a clear laquer available in hardware stores. They are great chairs at a great price!

PB charges 225 now.

I now carry aged Tolix cafe chairs (made in France) available in white, red, gray, and custom colors. Vintage Tolix Chair