I’m moving into a (slightly) bigger apartment in May (Lake View area, north of Waveland) and I’m looking to furnish it with some stylish, contemporary furniture that doesn’t cost a fortune.
I’ve found Modani to be well worth a look, although their Yelp reviews are very mixed. I’m heading there tomorrow to look at their showroom.
Design within Reach is not within my reach except for maybe one piece. However, I do love the style of their furniture. Their furniture is pretty much the ideal of what I’m looking for, without the $1000 prices and way up.
Other suggestions on places to look, preferably in the area from the loop heading north? I can go to the burbs if the place is worth checking out.
Ideally, I’d like to find a place where I can buy several items, mainly living room and bedroom. Delivery charges add up very quickly, so ideally I can find one or two showrooms I can order from.
Check out Domicile Furniture. We bought a floor sample sectional couch at the Lincolnwood location, and we love it to death and it was reasonable for decent-quality furniture. It would still look brand new 4 years later if not for the cats.
For some reason, Chicago is not very big on contemporary. I had a sofa shipped from Dallas because we didn’t yet have a Bo Concepts store. We do now. Several good places went out of business in the recession.
My top choice is probably Room&Board, and next would be Dania (Lombard or Glencoe), but you might also see some individual pieces at Art Van or Domicile. Crate&Barrel seems to be trending country more than I like. West Elm is worth a look. And don’t forget to look at Affordable Portables and Ikea just in case.
There are also a couple of strange places in Niles and around that import modern furniture from old Eastern Block countries, which have a rather distinctive aesthetic.
I’ve bought stuff from Affordable Portables. Very crowded showroom on Clark Street, but they have a nice range of styles from contemporary through traditional. They deliver, but their warehouse is on Ashland near Diversey, so just renting a truck for a couple hours and shanghaiing a few buddies can save you some bucks.
I’ve also bought nice stuff at Roy’s, which burned to the ground not too long ago. I hear they’ve rebuilt and reopened (still on Sheffield) but haven’t been back since.
And if you know what a cheapskate I am, you can trust that I wouldn’t mention anyplace that wasn’t pretty inexpensive.
I’ve also bought a number of things from Dania Furniture. They have stores in Lombard, Northbrook, and Skokie (that one is branded “Scandinavian Design” but I think has all the same stuff), IIRC.