Crate and Barrel

Always love browsing in Crate & Barrel whenever I’m at Oakridge Centre mall. They have gorgeous furniture, home finishings, cook & dining ware, and quirky random gifts.
I’m always inspired by ideas for home décor whenever I visit this store. Since I don’t own a home yet, I’m just keeping ideas in mind for the future!

I love checking out Crate and Barrel whenever I’m at Oakridge. They do have the nicest displays and cutest little decorations here and there. I do like their styles in furniture and home décor. It is not the cheapest but it is reasonable for what you pay for. They do have a little clearance section for off season items. Staff are helpful and friendly. I always find new ideas for home decorations after browsing thru. They have a great Christmas section for gifts, snacks and decorations during holiday season.

We are huge fans of C&B. They are a breath of fresh air in terms of style and quality. The Oakridge store is smaller than US counterparts but the service, selection and layout are very good. What is not good is the location of their warehouse on the fringes of Delta near the Alex Fraser bridge. We thought it would be no problem to go there to pick up a large table since we live in White Rock. Theoretically we live 25 minutes away and have been driving by this area for 20 years. However our first attempt to find the exact site was a nightmare. It is situated in a miasma of industrial cul de sacs and poorly marked ramps and exits that can send you spinning over the bridge or onto the east-​west connector as you try to find the correct turn. The map they provide is beyond useless and the address on River Way doesn’t show up on our GPS or iPhone or Blackberry. Our GPS took us to the wrong place (2 km away) and this is such a frequent occurrence that the security guard at the wrong place has a map of how to get back to C&B. There are no words to describe how tortuous it is to find. We thought we were lost in an X-​files rerun. We finally found the office 2 minutes before closing but the actual loading bay is located at the rear of the building which is the size of an airport hangar. The staff at the warehouse were apologetic and kind. They said they deal with lost and confused customers all the time. All I can suggest is to aim for the Tim Horton’s on Nordel Court using a GPS and then you will be a couple of blocks away and the C&B map will make a little more sense — sort of. Allow an extra hour and don’t go on a dark and stormy night.

The Christmas stuff has come out… we can all jump for Joy now. I came here to check out some center pieces and some décor. I am thinking of hosting a party, therefore, wanted to see what a budget can buy me and what DIY inspiration I could walk out with. Prices range from reasonable to… no thanks. The store is well organized for the rest of the departments.

I was so pleased when I found out there’s a one and only C&B in the Lower Mainland in Oakridge. I bought my first «grown-​up» furniture (read: Not Ikea) at C&B in Toronto and to this day I love my living room set. C&B has good quality furnishing and accesories. Some of their items can be a bit pricey but the simple, classy and contemporary designs are sometimes worth it. (I had to do some comparison shopping at Home Sense for some of the kitchen accessories and I waited for a sale to get my bookcase.) The Oakridge staff are also very helpful and easily accesible.

Terrible customer service. In addition every item I have ever ordered has come in late or the wrong item. Too bad as they have great products

Another pretty simple transaction. We were shopping for a wedding present off of a registry. There was no confusion in the process as the rep in-​store was very efficient in producing a list of desired gifts, showing us where to find them and then wrapping them up. We even had help splitting the receipts for the two of us that bought a larger item together.
Would i personally shop there? Probably not as they are wildly overpriced ($ 600 stools? Really?) but perhaps as my tastes in interior design mature i’ll be back to support the brand.

I popped in here in hopes of finding a new couch — my partner recently gave birth, and our old saggy couch would just not cut it for nursing.
In general, my experiences in dealing with home outfitting retailers has not been great — usually I think the prices are high and the quality is low when dealing with «affordable» furniture.
In recent months I had made a number of purchases from Ikea and West Elm (see my West Elm review for a description of that train wreck of a store). I really didn’t want an Ikea couch. I had looked around at a bunch of the other furniture retailers in Richmond, and found that they were generally more expensive than Ikea, but the quality and design was not even as good. My partner suggested I try Crate and Barrel, so I went there with fairly low expectations.
My first impression, I was surprised at how many different large furniture items they had in stock or on their floor. Many different styles and sizes — more or less something for everyone’s taste. I had seen a specific couch on their website that I thought looked nice, and not being able to find it on the floor, I went and spoke with one of the sales clerks. Again — very impressed. I also learned that he was a stylist on a television show — can’t remember which, maybe love it or list it? Anyway, the guy was good.
While they didn’t have that couch in the store, he deduced from talking to me that it really wasn’t going to be the ideal couch for me (and I did totally agree). He went on to take me around the store and show me a whole bunch of couches that he thought I might like. He was very knowledgeable, pleasant, not pushy at all, and knew tons of specs on each item off the top of his head. In the end, he led me to a couch that had been purchased and returned because it didn’t fit into the buyer’s apartment. It was on for half price. It’s a beautiful, comfortable couch, and I bought it on the spot, and picked it up the next day.
The pickup went very smoothly, just walked into the warehouse area with my receipt and within minutes they were loading it into my truck. (Getting it into my house was a different story, but not C&B’s responsibility!)
So overall impression, very friendly, courteous and knowledgeable staff, nice products, decently priced. I am very happy with my purchase and would definitely shop here again. Unlike West Elm, which I wouldn’t even recommend to my enemies.

Strolled through here to get some ideas of prices and décor for our new place. Prices are not too bad but I didn’t really feel like the value was there for the price point. We were looking for more modern stuff and this place feels very cabin-​esque to me. Pretty good prices on wine glasses and random kitchen stuff.
Not a huge fan, of selection or service. I’ll stick to my happy place — IKEA :)

More modern than Home Restoration but both obviously cater to the well to do.
Kitchen, Bathroom and Living room specialities.
saw a fancy casserole made in France, not surprised cost about $ 300. nice and heavy.
It’s worth browsing and dreaming.

A rich person’s IKEA was what I overheard when we were wondering around.
Very well layout store with attentive staff almost in every area.
Prices are not cheap for the bigger items but you can buy a taster size Chinese soup spoon for 95cents, probably the cheapest item in the store.
If you like having cocktail parties and serve drinks, they have a very nice selection of different types bar cabinets in the store.
Who knew there were different glasses to be used for different beers.

Came here to look around for the first time. Was very impressed with all the furniture and décor at this location. I found the furniture to be very trendy and also well built. But I do find that the prices here are a tad high. But if you want quality you have to pay for it. Nothing comes cheap in life.

Alright, I am changing my review from a 5 to a 1 no less because I experienced the worst service ever. And from the manager!
We recently bought a bunch of rugs and spent quite a bit of money. One runner was 3X8 but somehow the runner was 2.5X8 which did not work at all.
When we went to the shop to ask about alternative options (like a proper size underlay), the manager was called in and said that she would have to make sure the underlay was in good condition before she would refund us, because she needed to make sure she could resell it. But she could not make any promises. Blablabla…
Really, it had been in my house, and it does not even fit any of your runners! Why try to resell it?
Keep in mind it’s a $ 25 underlay and we would not have made a special trip to the shop but really expected they would say, well of course, the underlay makes no sense at all with that rug, so if it doesn’t work for you we will refund you!
Then to add insult to injury, one of the rugs we ordered was «too large» to be delivered to the store so we either had to pay over $ 100 to get it delivered to our house and be left on the front step during the day, or we had to go to their warehouse in Delta to pick it up.
We chose the Delta option, even though it was highly inconvenient but at least they were open on Saturday.
When we got there, we saw this super disorganized warehouse and of course the rug and underlay fitted perfectly in the back of the car, so why they could not deliver it to the store was a puzzle!
After this, we decided to return the runner underlay out of principle and cancelled a further order. One of the guys there who was not aware of the conversation with the manager refunded us no problem, so extra points for you, whoever you were!
Crate and Barrel, I am so done with you, you have silly policies and a terrible manager in the Vancouver shop and that’s a real shame because you do sell nice stuff, albeit not great quality and usually overpriced, but you have been a good friend to my kitchen over the years.

Nice store with great products. A little pricey as a trendy store would suggest.
I would caution you if you are planning to buy a large furniture item because we bought a couch and they did not honour the date, even after we confirmed it twice the week before and after they confirmed it two days before the actual date.
After numerous phone calls from my wife, the issue is still not rectified. They still do not even know when the couch will actually come — from bad to worse! Not what you would expect from an established company. Btw, the couch cost us over $ 3000.
Also, we created a registry over a month ago, and when you do, you are supposed to get a 10% discount card mailed to you after the event. We were told it will be mailed to you in a couple of days, then two weeks, then they weren’t sure and they would call us back, they did not, and now they still don’t know when we will get it. It appears nobody from the managers down know what they are doing.
Again, a very amateurish staff behind a nice looking store. Buyer beware.

Crate Barrel finally arrived in Vancouver!
I like this store is trendy, classy and carry quality brands with reasonable price.
The upholstered furniture could be custom-​made and they do have nice outdoor furniture.
Hope they can do well in Vancouver…

For most of my life I have had a Crate and Barrel store in close proximity to me. I have even been fortunate enough to shop at the Crate and Barrel flagship store in Chicago, so when we moved to Crate and Barrel-​less Vancouver I felt the absence.
Fast forward 6 years and Crate and Barrel has finally arrived in Vancouver! This store is definitely on the smaller side in comparison to other stores in the chain and unfortunately the prices reflect the Canadian premium that gets put on all merchandise north of the border.
I am a huge fan of Crate and Barrel’s linens, home accessories and furniture. They continue to be one of my favorite places to pick up kitchenware and kitchen gadgets.
This store seemed to have a lot of customers milling about but not too many buyers. I hope it does well in Vancouver.

Imagine what it’s like to being a Pilgrim paying homage to a Holy Site. Lining up outside the main door waiting to review the objects of desire hoping putting together the right mix of objects in the right group of colours will create a magical oasis in a place we all call home. I willing took part in this ritual of retail consciousness rising yesterday but when it was time to pay homage to the brand by picking and object and providing an offering to the cashier. The cue was a bit too long So I have to come back another time and go thought the process again and it appeared to a good process. This location is a bit smaller the US store I been to in OR and CA but it a nicely done location overall and it raises the bar overall at the Oakridge Mall.

Every time I’d go to the States, we’d drive by one of these stores and I’d look longingly through the windows, yearning to go inside. Never made it in… but NOW, it’s so easily accessible! Woohoo! I don’t even own a home, nor do I have any space for extra furniture or décor or housewares, but I sure love looking at this stuff!
Last night I attended the grand opening preview party, and spent a ton of time looking at every single knickknack and sitting on every single piece of furniture in there. Unlike it’s cousin, CB2, the mood of the pieces in here are a bit warmer and welcoming, while still staying modern.
Furniture is pricy, but I think some of it is worth investing in. I’m already in love with the 4-​poster bed with matching everything. Tons of the other home accessories are very affordable, and I am thinking of getting a bunch of things I never knew I needed, like plates in the shape of bread, woven candle-​lanterns, and crazy coloured napkins. There are also tons of different types of drink glasses!
Some things I wouldn’t get here, like mixers or juicers (department stores have them at deeper discounts), but you can’t compete with the sheer volume and variety of all things «home».
P. S.This store is totally gift-​registry worthy!

I’ve been waiting for this store to open its doors. It was the commercials that caught my eye initially. The first I’ve heard of any Crate & Barrel, and the ad wasn’t very explanatory. It wasn’t until I ventured out on a high-​end retail excursion to Oakridge did I learn about about this shop that appeared behind glass panes and «Opening Soon» signs as simply Ikea’s rich sibling.
Even on a beautiful day fit for doing anything other than humming and hawing over housewares indoors, this place was bustling with browsing buyers. Basking in the splendor of the «new car smell» in a fresh, just-​opened space, the setup in this spacious store was clean and uncluttered.
Overall, I was impressed with the selection of goods here. From napkin holders to an adorable 6-​pack of artichoke tea light candles, there’s a little something here for everyone.
Houseware fetishists and Ikea enthusiasts, welcome to your new playground. Prepare to find at least a half a dozen precious pieces to feather your nest with. Stunning dishsets, woven wood baskets, decorative or functional mason jars, vases and the like, pretty placemats and napkins, this would be a choice spot to select a housewarming gift (even if it’s for yourself!). Prices seem to be medium to high, so while I dismiss the dream of revamping my bedroom in the name of Crate & Barrel, there may be funky candles and wall mounted terrariums in my future.
Appearing to have hit the ground running, Crate & Barrel is stylish and sophisticated with a little quirk that gives it personality and flair.

Crate & Barrel has finally arrived in Vancouver, and today was opening day.
Seriously, the Vancouver market really does need this lovely and more affordable houseware store.
Things I saw worth buying were collapsible measuring cups ($ 16), tea infuser stir sticks ($ 11), cute mason jars ($ 4 – 6 range), comfy couches and chairs, and beautiful and reasonably priced duvet covers.
It was a little crowded, but I’ll come back when the hype has died down a little and I can take more time browsing the store.