Planning an Outdoor Siesta
Posted by Rebecca, March 8th, 2011
This weekend was a little crazy for us. We ran around doing taxes, visiting family and… doing homework for 7 hours on Sunday. Needless to say, we didn’t make any office progress. But we did squeeze in a spontaneous Sunday morning Crate and Barrel visit! Of course C&B never disappoints me and since we haven’t been there in a few months, it was an extra special treat.
Yes we are that boring. I think I just lost a few readers.
Anyway, we went there not really looking for anything other than a dough separator for our pizza making adventures. We’ve had patio fever and I was hoping the outdoor stuff would be displayed since I have been in love with the Ventura furniture collection since I first laid eyes on it. It was even one of my first blog posts!
This is last year’s C&B image, I loved the orange the purple combo.
As we got upstairs to the furniture section on Sunday, all of a sudden Mike stopped and started drooling over something. I look over and of course it’s my beloved outdoor furniture collection. I was a little scared because normally one of us is the voice of reason, but when the 2 of us love something? It’s dangerous for the credit card. I decided in this moment that I had to pull my ish together and be the mean wife.
Mike: Thiis is awesome!
Me: That is expensive.
Mike: Well maybe it’s worth it if we’re going to use it and it’s a good quality.
Me: You might want to look at the tag…
So we looked. The table alone, without a glass top, is $900. The glass top is $200. Each chair? $300. Each cushion for each chair? $40. We ran away screaming without looking any further.
So I set out to research my plan since last year, which was to find a knock-off at Target or something. But first, I had to see just how much this lovely Crate & Barrel combination would be. We want a table, 6 chairs and a conversation set. Here’s this year’s picture from the C&B website…
Here’s what this would run us…
Um yeah. I’m not sure all of the furniture in my house combined costs that. My dining room table was $200. So on to the options!
First I checked Walmart…
Walmart has a looot of options that look similar. Apparently they sell things via CSN, so many of these were still around $2000 a set (we want a convo set and a dining set). So I moved onward to Target, which only has a few of their pieces out in stores right now. There’s the ever popular Rolston Collection, which I’m not too crazy about because of the legs.
Then I found the Belmont Collection…
Still just okay. Then I found the Lexus Collection…
So far this is my favorite! Even the dining set meets my criteria…
I was looking forward to putting some bright pillows on whatever we get to mimic my favorite purple/orange color scheme of last year’s Crate and Barrel collection, but these Target chairs come with those cute little pillows! I like the idea of the lumbar support in the dining chairs.
As of today, I’m starting to think of sectional more than conversation set type thing because it just looks so cozy!
Okay who am I kidding, I love the sectional because I want to take a nap on it like this dog…
Sticking with the conversation set for now since we’re just in the research phase, I added the Lexus conversation set, the table and six chairs to my Target cart to see the price difference…
Still a large expense, but that’s nearly a $5,000 difference! I think I would like it more if Target offered free shipping on all of the items rather than just one or I had some sort of coupon. I bought our dining room chairs from Target and a set of 2 of those were cheaper than the sets of outdoor chairs! Oh patio, you are so pricey.
Hardwood stamped Patio Guy is coming next Saturday, cross your fingers our patio dreams (whatever they may be) come true! 🙂
Tags: crate and barrel, dining set, outdoor furniture, patio, sectional, target, ventura, walmart
Have you tried Overstock.com? I used a 10% discount code on our bed!
Thanks for the suggestion, I always forget about Overstock! I did check and there aren’t many options for under $1,000. I’m hoping Target will get more in store so I can sit on them too….maybe nap… 🙂
Love daydreaming about patio furniture! haha I think I saw something sort of similar at Ikea, but I forget the name.
I think there is an Ikea version but I didn’t see it in my Ikea last year or this year yet. I think I’ve heard it’s only in certain areas? I’ll have to check it out online!
We got our set at Home Depot last year. We settled on something smaller due to the sticker shock of patio furniture. Why would something that birds can poop on cost more than all of my living room furniture?
Seriously! Plus I’m afraid someone is going to hijack a nearly $7,000 set from my backyard or something. I can’t imagine spending all of that!
I saw a nice set at Lowe’s, but I think they only had one displayed so far. Once the season gets a little further on hopefully there will be more options in stores!
isn’t it insane how much crate & barrel furniture is!? i drool every time i go in there but end up just feeling sorry for myself when i leave because i’m not a millionaire. 🙂
I know!! Even if I was a millionaire, I don’t think I could get past some of their prices! Thankfully between Ikea & Target they have loooads of c&b knock-offs lately. There was an accent chair Mike and I both liked and it was $1100!!
No that I am saying look in the garbage, but Pat just happened to find a $700 chair (http://www.dwr.com/product/designers/r-t/philippe-starck/bubble-club-armchair.do) on the side on the street in Chelsea and brought it home at 2am on Monday night… he had just won his hockey championship game was was apparently really on a roll that day.
The moral of this story is… craigslist? I know if we moved from our apartment we would probably just abandon our balcony furniture, so maybe someone who is moving is doing the same? And since it is outdoor stuff you can just hose it down and not have it feel weird and used. Maybe get new cushions…
That is awesome!!! I checked Craigslist today, I seem to never find anything decent I need on there! I searched for patio furniture and I got a little 80s, a lot of non-trendy wicker and some plastic chairs. People should save themselves the trouble of typing up some of that stuff and just donate it to Goodwill!
However, when I searched for “crate & barrel furniture” there were some great things on there, just no outdoor furniture. If i was looking for something specific like a dresser, it would have been spot on.
I have been browsing garbage piles lately. I’m hoping to find some sort of gem via drive-by!
Its so fun to look at and plan outdoor furniture. I love the sets that you were swooning over, and hopefully you’ll be able to find them in your price range!
P.S. – I just kicked off my Spring Shape Up Challenge this week and there is a giveaway for a $10 iTunes card! The contest ends tonight at midnight, so come on over and enter!
http://smallhomebigstart.blogspot.com/2011/03/giveaway-10-itunes-gift-card.html
Thanks Amanda! I’m sure there will be a happy ending to this, I am not a quitter! 🙂
Check out the warehouse stores. I just saw a “living room” at Costco for $1600.
Thanks for sharing. These set are gorgeous.
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I love patio furniture, thanks for sharing this.
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Very beautiful patio furniture I wish I could buy it.
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