Feb 22, 2009

Ethan Allen, Revisited

While browsing my Sunday paper I came across an article about Danbury, CT based company Ethan Allen. They have recently launched a new Contract Division and hope to start providing furniture to the hospitality industry.


According to the article, 85% of Ethan Allen's products have been newly added within the last 3 years. I myself have noticed a revamping of sorts from recent commercials so I decided to check out their website. In my opinion the site is a bit hard to navigate but they offer up several looks and inspiration images to help get you started.

I liked a lot of what I saw on the site and thought the featured "looks" to be a nice touch (especially for non-designers). Perhaps with almost stagnant home sales and a lull in home furniture sales we will see more residential furniture companies target the hospitality industry. Let's just hope the hospitality industry needs them.

3 comments:

Erica Kelly said...

love your site! following ;)

Things That Inspire said...

I have heard that Ethan Allen is in financial trouble, but what furniture firm isn't in this day and age? I have always admired EA's ability to keep up with the times.

Anonymous said...

Totally disappointed in Ethan Allen sales staff, customer service and quality. My husband and I started remodeling our entire home and decided to purchase new furniture for our living room, dining, entry and family. Very excited about Ethan Allen, but after purchasing our first $10,000 dollar worth of furniture, and reviewing packaging - Everything was made and shipped from China. Nothing made in America and that was important to us. We purchase 4 rolls of their exclusive designer wall paper at triple the market price - but they lied about that, you can get the same wall paper online from Wallpapers to go for $25 a roll or less, not the $89 a roll we paid from the same design company Ethan Allen uses. When we started to hang the paper, it bled everywhere. Ethan Allen, refused to exchange or refund our money. That took four months before we heard that wonderful news. Four months ago, we went back to finish off a couple pieces for our entrance and purchased a Demilune Buffet for our entrance. Our wonderful experienced sales person told us it was in stock and that we would receive it within two weeks. We called after two, and we’re told that it would be 8 to 12 weeks. It arrived within 10 weeks and delivered with water damage. EA, ordered a new top and that arrived damaged 4 weeks later. So, they reordered another top and after 4 weeks that arrived damaged, including a one-inch chip, someone tried to patch with putty. Now, after several phone calls, we are told that a new top will arrive within 12 weeks. Mid April we should receive our third new top. No discount, No compensation, No apologies - Absolutely Nothing! Zero customer service. The highlight of the entire experience – the sales women who hit on my husband and extremely rude to me! It was way to funny.
As a special surprise gift to me, my husband decided to buy me a piece that I really wanted to go with our dinning room set. I agreed to meet him at Ethan Allen after work to take a look at some drapes and I saw him talking with another sales person. As I walked over to see what was going on, she was writing up an order for the piece I really wanted. She looked up at me and said “Excuse me, can you not see that I am busy right now, can you go find another sales person and give us our needed privacy.” Both my husband and I laughed, I walked away just to test her waters. I came back a few minutes later and she looked at me totally exasperated and said “honestly, do you need help, if you wait I will find someone to help you.” I laughed – and said no, I am just so appreciative that my husband, the one you are hitting on bought me this gift and I gave him a huge wet kiss. And we laughed all the way out the store and that is the last time we ever bought from that Pennsylvania location.