Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen isn’t what it used to be. I’ve read enough reviews to know they’ve compromised their quality and are now making furniture built overseas. They don’t last 30 years, they last 6 years at most. Not only is their quality meh, but the pricing is overwhelming. The amount you spend on one couch you can buy plenty of other deals. We came into an awkward situation where we placed an order for a couch and within the short time period of 2 days, we decided we no longer can have this couch. When we decided we no longer could have this couch, the truth came out. Our saleslady told us we’d receive it by August — Sept, constantly assuring us 6 – 12 weeks. We found out later she knowingly lied, and it would actually be received in October. The customer service was prompt only because they’re rushing you to put in an order. Yes their furniture looks awesome and it is all custom built, but for price and delivery waiting period, it’s not worth it.

My husband and I were interested in some new furniture, and used Ethan Allen’s free in-​home design consultation service to get some ideas. Talking with the consultant, we decided we wanted to buy a new armchair and some pillows for our sofas in the family room. She put some fabrics and ideas together — a mood board of sorts — and we were so impressed, we decided to go with her ideas on the spot.
Big mistake. Shame on us for not taking the fabrics home and looking at them in our space. We have a gold sofa in our living room that we hate. We pointed it out to the consultant and had quite a discussion about how much we dislike it, so imagine our surprise when the armchair we ordered arrived and was almost identical in color to the sofa!
I fully acknowledge that we have no one to blame but ourselves for not examining the fabric more fully, but it was the design consultant’s response to the issue that irked me.
I emailed her after a week to say that we really did not like the chair, explaining that it was the same gold color we wanted to get rid of and we had been expecting a taupe-​colored chair, as that was how it appeared in-​store. Her response was, more or less, «oh, yes it is supposed to be a taupe color.»
She offered to stop by to drop off some ridiculously expense pillow casings we had also purchased, and I erroneously thought she was coming to look at the chair, and maybe give us some advice as to how to make it fit with the room. Or better yet, tell us we had somehow gotten the wrong one! Instead, she came over with the pillow casings, but remained in the hall, even as I suggested she «come on in.» She seemed very anxious to leave, and never did look at the chair. As a designer, wouldn’t you want to see how your recommendations turned out in the space? Wouldn’t you want to set your client’s mind at ease, and tell them it looks «great?» Apparently not.
So now we’re planning to get our brand-​new armchair reupholstered locally.
We’ve decided to go to the Schaumburg store if we ever purchase from Ethan Allen again, and we won’t definitely won’t be using the design consultation services. Instead, we’ll do our due diligence next time, and overthink everything!
P. S. — don’t buy pillows from Ethan Allen. If you do your research, you can find the same fabrics online for ¹⁄₃ the price. Make them yourself or take the fabric to a local seamstress who can do it for you.