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Friday, March 29, 2013

Designer Meeting with La-Z-Boy




So we had our meeting with the designer at near by La-Z-Boy.

If you didn't read my earlier post, we did an initial consultation with the designer last week where she got to know us and our style.  We gave her pictures of our flooring, cabinet and granite choices along with lighting, etc.  Honestly having this blog helps because you can direct them to the page. She also downloaded the floor plans and put them into her CAD program.

I can honestly say, so far this has been the best part of buying this house. We had a blast looking at sofas, chairs, sectionals, looking at fabrics and learning about the quality of their construction. We've looked at other furniture and it really is great stuff. As you would expect you are going to pay a little more for higher quality furniture that gives you over a thousand fabric choices. Apposed to Ashley that is imported from China and you get 3 to 4 fabric choices. This is our forever house and this (we hope) is our forever furniture. Years ago when we said we were going to do this, we made a pact that we weren't going to settle and were going to do it right. Well unfortunately we will have to do it in phases and it will take us 1 1/2 to 2 years and will be a work in progress but it will be worth it in the end.

I told our La-Z-Boy designer and sales rep what our intent is and they say that for most people that have to buy this much furniture, they usually do the same thing and it is a long term relationship. We locked in on a big sale they were running, and it applies to custom furniture too (not all their sales do). The great part is we can place our order anytime. Interesting thing...they are used to be people buying/building homes and have tweaked their business processes to cater to the customer, instead of the customer bending to their process/policy. That's a novel concept.

At any rate, we are more excited than ever before to see our new home come to life with at least a few pieces of this wonderful furniture in it.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds great; thanks for sharing your experience. I would never have thought that I could you can lock in sales and order your furniture at any time... We're in the same situation - we need (would like) quite a bit of new furniture and there is no way it can all be done at once. This may be the way to go.

    As for the quality, I can attest to the fact that it is pretty good. We currently have a La Z Boy reclining sofa and loveseat purchased about 6 years ago and it has held up well.

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    1. We've been through our share of furniture over the past 22 years, 3 kids, pets and a ton of military moves. I couldn't bare to see good furniture get ruined, so we settled for middle of the road brands. You still got upset when it would get scratched but not cry because you didn't spend thousands on it. We are looking for pieces that could be heirloom quality furniture. La-Z-Boy owns a few furniture company's. One of them is Kincaid and this furniture is really nice. It parallels the Amish but is not so country and boring. We really like the Sturlyn collection but it's not cheap. We'll have to buy a few pieces at a time.

      The way we locked in the sale was we just put a deposit on a couch we liked. You can tell them when you want them to begin work on it and even when you want to take delivery. They say they have a 8-10 week lead time. We are going to order the upholstered pieces about 8 weeks from closing (they want 40-50% down to do this), then prior to taking delivery, you can add to the order and still get the sale price (in our case 30% off all customer orders). We are going to order our case goods then (not all, just what we can afford). I created a quarterly plan on the other pieces we want and gave the salesman my plan...for instance I plan on buying the dining room set between September/October...call me when you are running another 30% sale (Wink, Wink). They agreed and said they would. They also said that when I was ready to buy, they would be willing to ask their GM if he would just give me the sale price because we will be buying so much furniture. Twist my arm...

      It was a great time and we had a lot of fun with the designer. We plan on meeting a few more times to work out details and she is going to come out and look at our house after it has been sheet rocked. After we move in, she said she can do an Accessories call. Basically bring in a bunch of knick knacks and see what sort of small pieces will go with our furniture. Score!

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  2. Great info. We too had looked at Lazy Boy and we loved a sectional that they no longer carry. We are looking for new furniture for our bedroom and some odds and ends pieces. As with most furniture they all offer amazing sales during major holidays. The 4th is right around the corner and I will have to go back to Lazy Boy and see what they offer in July(also closer to our close so my husband doesn't pull all his hair out trying to cram more stuff into our storage unit)
    Can't wait to see pictures of your new stuff.

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  3. They have a wide range of price points. They own Alexvale, American Drew, Hammary, Kincaid and Lea. Kincaid is one of the top end, followed by American Drew, then Hammary. I would put Ashley (if you are familiar with their furniture) somewhere in between American Drew and Hammary. Kincaid would be direct competitor of Thomasville and Broyhill (both in where they are located and quality). I've found online vendors who list the prices for these brands and my local La-Z-Boy Gallery has been able to beat their prices.

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