Trouble in the Bedroom at bstewart23

Trouble in the Bedroom

30Aug07

So here’s the bed I covet:

It’s from Room & Board and it costs $899. Room & Board will be so kind as to ship it to me, too. For $1350. Yes, for 150% of the cost of the bed itself.

I have options, though. I can have it shipped to Buffalo or Niagara Falls, NY, for $199, and have it received/warehoused there until I rent a van and make the trip to one of those cities for pick-up. All together, I’m guessing the cost of the bed would be $1400 for that option.

(By the way, did you just do the math? $199 for Room & Board’s delivery to Niagara Falls, another $1151 for Room & Board’s additional, 90-minute drive to Toronto.)

“But”, you say, “aren’t you the guy who posts those almost-amusing ‘Canada V. USA’ entries? What about a Canadian distributor?” And I would have to reply: “what about a Canadian distributor?”

I’ve approached a couple of metal fabricators and they quote me prices of roughly $1600-1700.

“Hold on,” I can hear you saying already, “you’ve conveniently omitted the retail option. Surely in Canada there must be some company which will sell you a bed like the one you covet! It’s not that superunique in design or construction!”

Well, I’ve looked. I’ve searched online. I’ve roamed every furniture store with which I’m acquainted, in the Greater Toronto Area — which, by the way, is the largest metropolitan area in Canada — and have come up empty. I show the dealers photos. They either shrug or give me the same answer given by my designer-type friends, and of those I have many.

“UpCountry used to carry a bed just like that.” Indeed, the operative phrase being used to. Oddly, half of the aforementioned designer-type friends own that particular bed, indicating, oh, I dunno, that it might be a fucking best-seller and therefore worthy of continued availability!!! Good call, UpCountry.

But no, this is Toronto, the largest city in Canada, and finding a metal-framed, four-poster bed such as illustrated above is a goddamned impossibility in the largest city in the country. Stupid Canada.

Unless you, dear readers, have knowledge of somewhere, just one place, from which I can get hooked-up with such a dealio. Or a trustworthy receiver/warehouser in Buffalo/Niagara Falls.

Filed under: Canada v. USA, Stupidity, Toronto |

8 Responses to “Trouble in the Bedroom”

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1 sam on Aug 30th, 2007 said:

Not canadian (necessarily), but someone asked about this particular style of bed fairly recently on Apartment Therapy, and there were a bunch of suggestions for similar styling from other retailers (the questioned bed was actually from West Elm). Perhaps one of these other retailers would ship to you for less than the price of building it yourself?

Here’s the thread: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/good-questions/good-questions-similar-canopy-bed-but-for-less-020729
2 bstewart23 on Aug 30th, 2007 said:

It looks like that particular model, from West Elm, is no longer available in queen size, but thanks for the tip on Apartment Therapy, which might hold other answers… Also? I didn’t know that West Elm was Williams-Sonoma…
3 stephd on Aug 30th, 2007 said:

A friend of mine bought a huge plasma hd tv on line and I believe he had it delivered to either: http://www.myus.com or: http://www.chichesterinc.com/USAReceivingServices.htm
He went and picked it up and paid the duty when he crossed over the border.
It’s very close to the Queenston/Lewiston bridge. He said it was totally worth it.
Good Luck.
4 tim on Aug 30th, 2007 said:

well you could always fly to san francisco, visit the store here and purchase said ultra-chic four-poster (and i speak from personal knowledge of structure and quality), then rent a u-haul and drive cross-country on a free-wheelin’ adventure. probably come out about the same in the end…just a thought…
5 bstewart23 on Sep 1st, 2007 said:

Oh, you.

But if I was to make a road trip, as enchanting as San Francisco is, it would make far more sense to go to Minneapolis (where the warehouse is located) and me-haul from there. Minneapolis is so gorgeous at this time of year, too.

I think stephd’s suggestions are the ones I’ll investigate, receiver-not-open-on-Saturday notwithstanding…
6 tim on Sep 1st, 2007 said:

why on earth would anyone willingly *want* to visit minneapolis? (and once again i speak from intimate knowledge of structure and quality)
7 Smonson on Sep 27th, 2007 said:

You could buy an arc welder for about $70 and fuck around with metal tubes until it all comes together. Right?