Moduar Furniture Experience?

June 20, 2007 8:21 PM

Has anyone had experience ordering furniture from Levenger.com? Or know of any modular office solutions similar to Levenger's "Euro Desk System"?

We're about to make a big ($2K-$3K) furniture purchase -- assembling a "home office nook" in the corner of our living room. We've measured twice and are ready to cut. We've found what we think we want on levenger.com (a variant of this setup), but they don't appear to have any showrooms near us (NYC). The neat thing for us about this furniture is that we're able to it lay it out to exactly fit our space. But we are hesitant to complete the purchase without the opportunity to do all the things one does when physically examining furniture. (touch it, "get a feel", verify the measurements, and so on.)
Can anyone:
* Vouch for Levenger?
* Suggest other venues for similar, but more easily try-out-able furniture stores that specialize in modular/component furniture pieces? (Levenger's "Euro Desk System.)
(Neither of us are carpenters, and time is an issue, so no "build it yourself" or "have it built yourself" suggestions please". )
(Also, this is my first AskMe, so I hope this is an appropriate Q.)

posted by bodega to home & garden (12 comments total)

We ordered a coffee table and end table from them 8-10 years ago. The were stylish, easy to assemble, good quality, and have held up well. I have no experience with the Euro Desk System though.
posted by Good Brain at 8:40 PM on June 20, 2007

1. Have ordered lots of 'small stuff' from Levenger. Highly recommended for things like that.

2. Ikea?

3. Absolutely appropriate question.
posted by unixrat at 8:45 PM on June 20, 2007

Re: Ikea. I know it's probably not what you were looking for, but most Ikea stores have a 'home office' consultant that will work with you to develop a custom setup.

They also have downloadable software where you can play with a floorplan of your home and place real Ikea bits here and there to see how it looks.
posted by unixrat at 8:46 PM on June 20, 2007

Thanks for the responses. Yeah, no ikea if we can help it. We don't have a car and we're looking for something a little nicer than particleboard.

We've used the ikea software in the past, and it's OK. But we prefer our current graph paper + visio solution. Next up is taping the floor, Nessman style!
posted by bodega at 9:13 PM on June 20, 2007

The desk you like is "Made with cherry veneer" -- that means it's particle board, the same as Ikea. As an aside, you can get solid wood desks at Ikea.
posted by maxpower at 9:22 PM on June 20, 2007

You say that time is an issue, so that's limiting, although it's going to take time for Levenger to get anything to you, so not sure exactly how much time we're talking about.

I've had friend in NYC that were very happy with Techline Studios, they basically custom build what you want from modular pieces, designed around your space and needs, and offer a free design consult and price quote.
posted by pupdog at 10:02 PM on June 20, 2007

Ok, bad preview - that's friends, and I forgot to mention that Techline's site says lead times are in the 2-3 week range between design and install at your place.
posted by pupdog at 10:04 PM on June 20, 2007

Even though some of it is composite (and call the 1-800 they'll tell you what's what), all the Levenger pieces at the store near me are considerably nicer and more "real furniture" like than anything I have ever seen at Ikea. The piece you link to is cherry veneer, which means it's a thin layer of real wood over composite. With the exception of a few folding chairs, I've never seen anything at Ikea that wasn't laminate over composite.

Home decorators is similar. It's Home Depot's line and some of it is all wood, no veneer over composite. The HD near me has a show room, perhaps they do near you.
posted by crush-onastick at 4:16 AM on June 21, 2007

I've never seen anything at Ikea that wasn't laminate over composite.

No, Ikea has a bunch of solid wood furniture. It's usually their more rustic country-ish line.
posted by mendel at 4:39 AM on June 21, 2007

We have some Levenger furniture in our corporate offices that I assembled because I was around the night they arrived. Really beautiful pieces, great quality, and very easy to assemble.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:19 AM on June 21, 2007

We ordered a small computer desk from Levenger a couple of years ago and I will also lend my recommendation for quality of the product and ease of assembly.
posted by briank at 6:14 AM on June 21, 2007

That again for the responses.

It's funny, I knew the Levenger stuff was particleboard at some point, but since it's been presented to me as better than Ikea, that must have translated (in my head) to non-particleboard. Well, that and the fact that the Levenger website has a pull-down menu to let you choose your "wood".

Thanks especially for the Techline link, we hadn't heard about them and we're going to check it out.
posted by bodega at 10:57 AM on June 21, 2007