Walter E Smithe Furniture + Design

I’m updating my review because of the quality services I received! After my post I was contacted by Mark Smithe who set me up with a senior designer and a credit. Eliza, was great to work with and in no time we will be purchasing Two couches. It was definitely worth another try and I definitely had a fluke with my other experience. I will be going back again for more furniture.

I had the pleasure of working with Cindy Holmer at the Geneva store. She helped me redecorate my sunroom with new furniture, fabric and drawings for window treatments and paint color. She provided me with several coordinating options, and I was so pleased with the fabric choices. She came to my home several times, she has a great eye and style and she will work to make you happy with choices. She helped me with repair of an older leather sofa (also from Walter Smithe). When I noticed some discoloration on tables that we ordered she was quick to have them picked up and new ones were ordered. We have been very pleased with our purchases and customer service from Walter Smithe. I will be shopping for future purchases there. Also, several of my neighbors have worked with Cindy as well and there rooms turned out beautiful.

Mark Smithe one of the owners personally called me to discuss my unsatisfactory purchase. They offered to refund me the 30% return cancellation fee. As I have said in the past I always believe their furniture and products are quality it’s the type of stuff you can pass down from generation to generation.
My problem was that the customer service left me feeling like satisfaction guaranteed wasn’t guaranteed.
But all that has changed when an owner of a company called you personally you know they care about customer service.

We’ve shopped here for both 2 bedroom sets and our living room furniture at two separate times. In both cases, we reviewed what they had in the store with the store personnel, after describing the room and colors and such, we picked a number of furniture types, colors, etc. There was a lot of looking at alternatives and sitting/​laying on some of the store furniture. The store personnel came to our house and sat down with swatches, measured the areas and then, with my wife, started to narrow down the options. I stayed out of the way. (I’m not good at this stuff. In 5 minutes, my brain saturates and I’m done. Then, everyone starts talking cost and time and my outbursts at this time are considered immature and nonproductive. The only thing worse, in my humble opinion, is picking out blinds for the windows).
The furniture showed up at the right time. It was placed by the store truck folks. They were extremely careful not to run into anything and anyone. They made sure the furniture was in the right spot.
The place is pricy. Its not a WalMart, Target or even a Lazyboy pricing range. A little bit higher. But the quality and the «rightness» of the furniture is spot on. The one couch we got takes 3 people to move and once I’m laying on it, the only thing that will get me off of it would be a The View TV marathon.

Re Colleen Stumpf, interior designer. I purchased 2 of the same couches from her last year. I have no decorating or color talent, but she spoke and worked with me. Didn’t take her long to figure out what I wanted, and she even looked at my new house floor plans to figure out the placement in the room. They are absolutely beautiful. I’m not exaggerating when I say everyone who visits just loves them. As far as pricing, Smithe is not cheap, but it is quality, well built furniture that lasts. 4 stars (not 5) because it is expensive.

Outstanding experience with the Geneva Walter E. Smithe: We downsized from our suburban home to a city condo, sold all our existing furniture and started from scratch. We stopped in WES one day just to browse and luckily met Mark Smith (one of the Smithe brothers of the TV commercials) who introduced us to Gary, the store manager. I originally intended to buy one or two pieces, but Gary made the experience so awesome that I ended up furnishing our entire condo through WES.
First, the selection is phenomenal due to WES’ manufacturer relations and extensive catalog options, and the quality is fabulous. I received outstanding design assistance from Gary. He was just wonderful — he listened, was extremely attentive to our interests and delivered above and beyond service. He thoroughly understood the urban look we were going after and put together multiple ideas on everything. The small condo spaces created some challenges and Gary was all over it, creating scale drawings and lay-​outs, and ensuring every piece we considered was a perfect fit. He brought together ideas from different lines to give it the eclectic feel we wanted to capture. Throughout the experience, Gary gave his honest opinions, was incredibly helpful and fun to work with. He found exactly what we wanted, came up with some of the coolest pieces and was not at all pushy about a sale. He worked with us to help keep costs down. The furniture delivery team was equally exceptional — professional, polite and very accommodating.
I was originally dreading this process of buying all new furniture but honestly Gary turned it around into an incredibly fun experience. I felt that he was just as invested in the outcome of our new home as we were. Gary even came out to our home at the time of delivery to ensure set up was done correctly and arrived with a housewarming gift. We feel we received an amazing customized experience that resulted in a wonderfully urban yet elegant home that totally fits our style. Simply beautiful outcome — I could not have scripted it better!