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Williams Sonoma Home

Strictly on the basis of catalog design alone (and I should know, I've worked on several!) I have to give Room and Board top marks for usability. Between the peel and stick tabs, the summary pages where they show all the products in a section and clear photography that never dominates the product, they definitely deserve kudos.

However, the catalogs I actually browse through the most include Ikea (which does a great job at merchandising their products in environments) and West Elm. To be fair, this is in large part due to their low prices and the fact that both include lots of accessory items - you're not going to splurge on a $2K R&B sofa every day.

I also have a surprising fondness for the PB Teen catalog and the lowly HomeDecorators catalog; am totally over DWR though, rockin' parties notwithstanding!

I vote for R&B too ... although I don't remember if they did the tabs this past year, did they? I also love the summary pages with all the little isolated pics of each piece. I look forward to the new IKEA catalog each year, too, although I rarely get anything from it. I just like their layout ideas and seeing all kinds of new stuff. In fact, these two are probably my faves because they're only once a year ... instead of Pottery Barn (and the like) who sends out a catalog every few weeks it seems when really they've only reshuffled the same stuff around ... instead of showcasing a whole new collection of stuff.

I also like PBTeen for the fun graphic style ... and Crate and Barrel has a nice, clean user-friendly layout, yet they do the same as PB and send them way too often with mostly the same stuff in it.

The rest I can take or leave. Ones I dislike: Chiasso, Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie (way too hipster pretentious with all the screwy fonts, etc.), and the fact that Williams-Sonoma isn't quite the big, fat, recipe-stuffed beauty it used to be.

I like CB2 quite a bit as well for home stuff. Their catalog isn't too bad for perusing either.

I am not a fan of the regular crate and barrel catalog, but I always love their "Best Buys" catalog when it comes out. No idea why!

perhaps it's because I am a San Francisco girl living on the East Coast, but I still love, and always will, the big seasonal Pottery Barn catalogs.

I like Ikea because they offer a wide range of inexpensive furnishings, which opens up the modern home market for the masses. I use it mostly for inspiration and then shop Crate and Barrel, Room and Board, and my old favourite, Salvation Army, for the actual goods.

Room and Board for me too. We bought a bunch of our furniture from them purely on the basis of their catalog and swatches. Their telephone personnel were also polite and knowledgeable. I also love the Ikea catalog. Although I really like Crate and Barrel their catalogs are too small, and too frequent. I don't know why more stores can't do as well.

Room and Board rocks.

i did read here that R&B's furniture is not rated highly..i do have their copenhage 6 drawer dresser in maple, and i love it. only drawback is the glides that open and close the drawers..very cheap, have had them on other pieces from macys, and after 4 yrs my DD's dresser caved in, however i agree about the catalog..looking forward to new one.

I'd have to go with the Curran catalog and Curran Online web site. From the minute you hold the catalog in your hand or pull up the web site you get the impression of instant quality. And that's exactly what you are getting. This is not cheap furniture but it is about carefully selected home furnishings of legacy quality. There is alot of expensive furniture out there that is actually poorly made and there is a difference between real experts who guide you to what's good and those who market poorly constructed offshore furniture well. That's why I vote for Curran.

http://www.curranonline.com

IKEA's catalog gives me the best ideas, espcially for arranging in small spaces. I like to decorate with select FANCY pieces blended with lots o' IKEA.

Goodness, I think Curran sent one of its marketing people over!

I love Ikea, because I am on a really tight budget. I enjoy CB2 and Westelm for their ideas, though. Crate & Barrel is a good place to get classy pieces on clearance.

I enjoy Curran. I recently ordered some furniture from them and it arrived in a timely manner with no problems. Plus, they always have really good monthly deals on select items.

I drool over WS Home and wish I could buy 90% of the products.

I'd have to go with Ikea.

With regards to West Elm, I refuse to buy anything there. They blatantly rip off artists and designers all the time...not that things like that don't occur elsewhere. West Elm just seems particularly shameless in their "borrowing" of design ideas though.

It's funny how marketing people sound like a commercial even when they're trying not to.

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No DWR?
No BoConcepts?

I was not familiar with Curran until I checked out their website from this posting. They actually had some nice things.

Clearly they sent marketing wonks over here to pump their product. Nothing wrong with that, just don't be so shameless about it (ie. Write it like a "real person", don't just submit your positioning brief as a post. People see right through it.).


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Marketing people actually talk like that all the time. Seriously.

I vote IKEA, not so much because I love their furniture but for their exuberance in dressing up cheap, modular furniture in so many distinct styles. Look! You can go country! Look! You can go sleekly white and urban! Look! You can be high tech! They're also the only shelter source that really loves small spaces.

The BoConcept catalog IS THE SHIT!!!!

room and Board is the best.

where is BO CONCEPTS?

they have a store in paramus NJ and recently opened one in white plns NY .
bought couch there, arrived in lots of pieces which they proceeded to screw together..ugh, never again..my next one is waiting at R&B..