Design Within Reach

I, for the first time in my adult life, am outfitting my house with nice furniture. It has been work in progress and continues to be. I completed my living and dining areas a few years ago and then turned my focus to my bedroom. Last year I bought a bed and a nice mattress. This year was to be everything else. I did my research and had things earmarked to purchase from various places BUT I started my search at DWR. It was my first visit to their new showroom. The new showroom is awesome. I was greeted by several sales people however all gave me space to walk around and do my own thing. Then one woman asked if she could help me. And so it started. It was so much fun. There was no pressure to purchase anything. When I said what I was considering she showed me everything she had in that type of thing. I ended up buying all of my bedroom furniture that day — from DWR. I ended up with a different look than what I went in with and what is amazing is that it will actually compliment my other furniture in my other rooms — creating an amazing flow. It was a few weeks before the bedroom sale was to begin however the woman who was helping me worked with her manager to get me the discounts!
I then began waiting for my furniture delivery and wasn’t sure of how the tracking worked. I reached out to the email attached to the delivery confirmation and once again — was greeted by a person with the utmost in customer service. Next week my furniture arrives. I am getting the white glove treatment! I cannot wait. I know I will be greeted with people who embody this same wonderful customer service philosophy. I feel so well taken care. As I told both women that I have been working with — I love DWR!!!

They have lots of great, classic modernist designs. I definitely love this stuff!
However, most of it is way out of the «budget-​minded» price range, so it may not really be «within reach» for a lot of people. That’s unfortunate, since a large draw of the modernist design movement was that stylistic furniture and décor could be produced quickly, and acquired by consumers at affordable prices.
If you are searching for mid-​century design, but you are on a budget, you might be better off keeping an eye on craigslist and local thrift stores for original vintage pieces.

Five stars for awesome customer service and great contemporary designer furniture selection. First thing’s first: DWR represents the best of the best when it comes to modern and mid-​century modern furniture. The classic inventory cannot be beat. All furniture is high quality materials, the perfect balance between form and function, and absolutely authentic.
The staff is always really great: helpful, knowledgeable and professional. We love working with them and they are great at following up when sales happen.
DWR is great for browsing, dreaming, and, feeling inspired. We love going here just to look around.
Bonus: This location will briefly move and reopen as a larger, more extensive show room later this year. Cannot wait!

This is a great furniture store. The classics are here — Eames and Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe — and a lot of gorgeous work from designers you may not know. It is a brilliantly curated collection, and the staff has a deep passion for furniture and design.
I don’t know if DWR has really put «design within reach,» that dam Barcelona chair is still five grand! But — the staff is incredibly enthusiastic and helpful AND knowledgeable — they really love their products, and chances are, you do, too.
Oh, and the customer service after the sale is awesome, too. I bought a lamp that stopped working a few months after delivery, and they made it so easy to swap out.

I was walking back to my car from The Market when this little store caught my eye. I retraced my steps back to the front door and decided to see what it was all about. Though it was pretty clear I was just ogling, the salespeople were super friendly and even offered me some bottled water while I looked around.
The furniture is a mix of modern and mid-​century modern and the designs are fairly impressive. As others have noted the prices are a little steep, but I don’t think they exceed the quality.
This little store will definitely be in the back of my mind when considering future furniture purchases.

Beautiful furniture, but man oh man is the name off base. That’s within reach? Maybe I am a cheapo, but I am just not willing to kick down that kind of money. I love oogling, but would rather get something not quite as cool but way less at IKEA. Maybe one day when I win the lotto (sigh)

I totally agree with Katie F about the shipping. The other day I was looking for some placemats that I wanted, well, yesterday… and I saw a set that I loved so, even though it was a bit more than I wanted to pay, I decided to just suck it up and buy them. I walk out with four new placemats, and everyone is happy. Well, sort of. Apparently, since they are a «showroom» and not really a «store» they can’t sell me the four placemats they have on display. They have to order them for me. Well, okay. I’ll wait a couple days for my placemats. Then I find out they are going to charge me $ 9 for shipping. And it will take a week for them to arrive. ARG, if I wanted to wait a week and pay for shipping, I would buy the placemats online!
But, customer service sold me — they let me borrow a placemat free of charge for a week while I waited for the full set to come in, and even with shipping the price for the placemats was only a bit more than available elsewhere. The sales lady was very friendly and knowledgable gave me some suggestions for new finishes to try on my next woodshop project. It’s pretty cool that they have interior design/​industrial design students and graduates working here, who actually know their stuff. I feel like I can trust the recommendations made more here than at many other design stores I’ve been to — but the extra shipping charges kill me. I will definitely be waiting for their floor model sales if and when I make furniture purchases from here — they have a pretty good discount then, AND no shipping.
As for what else I want to buy here, top of my list is this desk —

I wish they had it in a different finish, but the design is spot on. The kind of piece that you can keep for years and display in any room. For the quality of materials and design, the price is reasonable and comparable to what I’d expect it to be. And if I were to make it myself, building all the shelves etc would probably take me more than the 2 grand price in shop time and materials, anyway, which is generally my gut check for whether purchasing pre-​made furniture is worth the expense.

My first shopping experience here will be my last! I love their stuff but it’s really expensive. We bought a dining room table, bench and chairs in January of 2012. I am STILL waiting for the bench. I was told everything would be delivered in 2 – 3 weeks. Well we are going on 7 months now and they still can’t even give me a delivery date for the bench. I asked if I could return the table and chairs since I’m really tired of waiting for the set to be complete and I was told I’m past my return date. I am extremely frustrated with this store right now and will definitely not be shopping there again.

My 500^th review!
Perfect milestone for one of my favorite stores… yes, there are a ton of people complaining about «within whose reach?» when talking about DWR, but if you’re in the market for authentic mid-​century modern and want good customer service, this is one of the more solid furniture chains that I’ve dealt with over the years.
Even when window shopping, I’ve gotten very good service at all their locations from complimentary water, print-​outs, catalog sign ups, etc. They don’t follow you around when you browse. Once we had narrowed down what we wanted, the salesperson was kind enough to suggest that we wait for the 15% off sale before ordering… how great is that?!
Post-​purchase assistance is great, with a prompt reply after customer serice had to liaise with another department about an installation question.
Designs = 5 stars
Quality = 4 to 5 stars
Service = 4 stars
Shipping = 0 stars!!!
Yes, the shipping is what kills it for me here… I’ll suck it up if it’s a DWR exclusive, but I’ll buy elsewhere otherwise. On my latest purchase (huge puffy heart!), I had the pleasure of paying another $ 300 to ship it to an address in WA, or $ 500 to my doorstep in Vancouver, Canada. Ouch!
With many other high end furniture stores, most have covered the delivery costs for me given that I’m dropping minimum 4 figures and often 5 figures there… DWR occasionally does the complimentary white glove delivery upgrade, but you’re still stuck paying for the basic standard shipping fee.
I find it bizarre that nothing is actually ever «in stock» for purchase at the store, so even if you go in person, you’re stuck with the astronomical delivery fee added on :(
If DWR’s management ever reads this, you would totally become a 5 star for me (and also get more business!) if your shipping policy gets revised!

When I hear the phrase «Design Within Reach,» I hear «Furniture I Can Afford.» Not true. Very expensive. Very hoity-​toity. Cool stuff but ridiculously expensive. I know that the «real» stuff is even more expensive, but $ 1000 should buy twenty chairs rather than one.

Furniture stores frustrate me. I have an eclectic sense of taste and great stores like DWR have me thinking, «ohh… I love that piece! Wait. look at that one! I need that. Or wait, I need this! And that too!»
Wanting to buy the whole store and fill it up with sexy contemporary and modern pieces, well — it’s impossible. Not only do I not have the space, I don’t have the cash! That doesn’t keep me from browsing and dreaming. Everyone is always helpful here and one day I’ll be back. Cash in hand!

To me decorating is my art where my taste is a lil classic modern mixed with some swedish influence sprinkled with some swag
This is my absolute favorite furniture place in town. Its kind of boutique yet very tasteful carrying a lot of upcoming and classic modern pieces. Primarily Herman Miller. Though it is kind of pricey, occasionally there non classic pieces go on sale and the classics could be 10−15% off with free shipping. I am not rich but I will save for months, perhaps years to purchase a piece.
Keep in mind you will be keeping these pieces forever. I recommend checking out their website first before coming here so you know what you are getting yourself into. Also, don’t expect taking anything home right away long lead times.
Customer Service is superb. To sum it up this place is like the Barneys of Furniture.

Meh. Some — like, oh, me – call this place Design Out Of Reach. Their much-​ballyhooed warehouse sales are… er… Hey mom, look, only $ 1,000 for an Eames chair that’s been reduced to a pile of designer kindling by God knows who or what! Such a bargain!
Like that.
So. I’ve shopped DWR/​DOOR in SF, shopped DWR/​DOOR in Seattle. All locations peddle beautiful, classic stuff at the highest possible prices and lots of ephemeral poop at the same highest possible prices. Not a fan, sorry.

DWR is a chain that has two locations in the Seattle area. What you have is great selection, stock, and shorter lead times then some other stores. I purchased a bed and some tables, which took half the time of some other places. Sure it’s pricey, but they also seem to have quite a few sales. The sales are staggered, e.g. it might be lighting this week and seating next month, but they are pretty flexible and easy to work with. They have a bunch of items that other stores carry, such as Hermann Miller, Eames, Bensen, Bludot, etc., but plenty of other items for which they are the exclusive distributor, so definitely worth a visit!

Of course, I research for cheaper deals and order it online from someone else because I’m not rich. More like broke.
But if I were rich I won’t mind paying what it’s worth for a design. I highly value good designs.
I have been to three of their events, and two were empty and one was packed.
The packed one was on green design.
One of the empty ones I went tonight was on K3 from Kithaus. I had my eyes on them for year and a half now since my teacher introduced the company to me for my research on my senior project. My heart was crushed because they’ve already done what I wanted to do. I was ten years behind. So I wasn’t going to miss this chance to see the designer who broke my heart but also so super excites me.
It was truly a pleasure to shake hands with Tom Sandonato the designer and Dow O’Neal the sales manager and exchange cards. They are nice people.
At those DWR events they always have refreshments and you get to sit on designer chair/​sofa during the demonstration. That’s awesome. Sign up to get informed about those events :)

DWR makes my designer lovin’ heart sing!
I’ve always browsed their online store. I had never set foot in their 1^st Ave store and I’m not really sure why.
Well friends today was different. My Mr. had never experienced the wonders that are DWR and he, above all people, should be aware of what is one of the best furniture stores in the city.
As we entered the store, we were kindly greeted by Travis. He was extremely helpful and nice without being overbearing. He was there when we needed an explanation and wasn’t when we didn’t.
I drooled over the pale blue leather couch, the gorgeous plastic chandelier that came in white, red, chrome, clear, AND gold, and, of course, I could not get over their tables and chairs. Loads of awesome stuff laid out in a space that’s much larger than I originally thought.
I will not be a stranger to DWR any longer!
And someday, when the KTrain wins the lottery or gets a big cash settlement after she loses her right pinkie after being hit by a Smart car in a crosswalk, rest assured that she will be livin’ the high life, via DWR.

I’d like to say first that while this is a forum for personal opinions, we can’t deny that most people come to Unilocal!to find out information on businesses not just to read how people think it’s overpriced.
That said, I can’t say enough positive things about DWR and this studio. They carry a huge selection of quintessential modern design by some of the worlds most well known designers. The staff are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. They are not pushy or irritating and tend to provide a great experience regardless of whether you’re actually buying or not.
Even better is the fact that the studios often present lectures and events that are interesting and fun for both Modern Design enthusiasts as well as those who may not know that much on the subject.
Like I said I think the most important thing to note on here is the this studio has a large selection, friendly and knowledgeable staff, relatively easy parking, and as a bonus, regular events open to the public.

DWR is a vehicle. A vehicle that I will never drive b/​c it’s way way overpriced. It is a means to an end — I love their design and it’s a great place to scope out what you want and then go buy it somewhere else that’s more affordable.
West Elm, Dania and even IKEA rip off their designs, but that’s not such a bad thing. You can almost always find a DWR knock-​off at one of these stores. Yes, it is of lesser quality, but as long as you don’t do your entire house in knock-​offs, you’ll be fine. And less poor.
The funny thing is, there are probably much more expensive stores than DWR, but I don’t even want to know about them.

Design Within Reach carries nice stuff. It’s all classic Mid-​Century Modern or trendy modern classic. I’ve always found the sales people to be helpful, polite and friendly. Their showrooms are nicely laid out and always neat and tidy.
But I don’t like the DWR business model and will probably never do business with them. The prices you pay are generally full MSRP. Adding Washington sales tax is reasonable as we are, after all, in Washington state. However, since DWR’s stores are in effect only showrooms, you also get charged for white glove shipping (read $$), because it gets shipped from some central location (s). Ouch. It’s like being hit with the worst of all worlds: full price + tax for the brick-​and-​mortar experience + shipping because it’s really mail order. And no instant gratification.
Pal Larry often asks, «Design Within Whose Reach?»

DWR is «within reach» — if you have a really long arm. Or if you’re willing to make monthly installment payments ;) I give it a high rating anyway because I love it all the same, and if I had more money, I’d definitely want to blow it on more sweet furniture from this store.
I did manage to scrape together enough to buy some cool minimal shelves (photo in the photos section) and found that they had great customer service. I explained my tight financial situation, and they found a way to get the product discounted. :) They do occasionally have sales too. It’s fun to stop in there just to wander around and check it out even if you can’t afford anything in it.