What’s the Difference Between a Crate & Barrel Sofa and a West Elm Sofa?
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If you’ve tried to buy a new sofa sometime in the last two decades — or if you own a mailbox, or have gone to a mall, or searched the word “furniture” online — chances are you’ve come across Crate & Barrel and West Elm. Both companies have over 100 stores in the U.S. and online storefronts with thousands and thousands of products; they sell pretty much everything that goes in a house other than large appliances and hardware, the kind of stuff you’d find at Home Depot. Although they’re aiming to fill the same spot in the market, there are differences I’ve come to appreciate over several years of covering both brands.
Both companies were founded in the U.S., but Crate & Barrel is now owned by a German retail company.
Crate & Barrel was founded in Chicago in 1962 — the name comes from the store’s early practice of displaying wares in their original shipping crates. It was bought by the Otto Group in 1998, and the company has three additional brands: Crate&Kids, CB2, and Hudson Grace.
West Elm was created in 2002 as a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, a publicly traded company founded in 1956 in California. The company also includes the brands Pottery Barn and Rejuvenation. Both brands manufacture furniture at factories across the world, but most of its sofas are assembled in the U.S. Because sofas are built to your size and upholstery specs, lead times for both brands are a matter of weeks or months. (But if you buy a floor model, they can often deliver it that week.)
I’d pick Crate & Barrel over West Elm for durability and comfort.
Both West Elm and Crate & Barrel launch a tremendous number of new products each year, so it’s hard to make a blanket statement about their quality. Crate & Barrel’s site currently contains over 600 sofas and sectionals grouped into about three dozen collections; West Elm has 521 grouped into 31 collections. In general, West Elm’s sofas run cheaper and trendier, but I’ve heard mixed reviews about them,including the saga of a mid-century-modern couchthat was famously rickety and impossible to repair. Some people love them, and some people hate them. My experience sitting on West Elm sofas bears that out: Some are nice; some are uncomfortable and oddly proportioned. I haven’t yet found a West Elm sofa I’m obsessed with. I’ve heard some good reviews of theHavenandAndes sofa(New Yorkdeputy editor Alexis Swerdloff says the Andes has held up to her kids “literally using it as a trampoline”), but I find it a tad too firm.
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West Elm Haven Sofa
I’ve found Crate & Barrel sofas to be more reliably comfortable and sturdy — one of its models, the Oceanside, is my best-in-class pick.Kulevice-president of merchandising Maddie Bailisjust told meshe loves her mega-comfortableLounge sofa, which was seconded by a commenter who says it’s “absurdly comfortable” and held up well for about two decades. Senior writer Lauren Ro also has a ten-year-old Crate & Barrel sofa that’s still going strong. (That model, the Taraval, is now discontinued.)
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Crate & Barrel Oceanside Sofa
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Crate & Barrel Lounge Sofa
Both stores have hundreds of fabric options.
TheHarmony, one of West Elm’s most popular sofas, comes in 151 upholstery fabrics, including colorful velvets, twills, and performance fabrics. A good comparison is the Crate & BarrelLounge, which has 223 options in a similarly wide range of weaves and colors. The vast majority of upholstery textiles at both stores contain synthetic fibers, but if you’re avoiding polyester, West Elm offers 100 percent cotton canvas and 100 percent linen, and Crate & Barrel also offers 100 percent cotton canvas.
Crate & Barrel’s hardwood frames have the edge on West Elm’s engineered hardwood.
Comparing two pairs of similar sofas — theHarmony(from $2,099) andNassau(from $1,899) at West Elm and theLounge(from $1,749) andOceanside(from $1,999) at Crate & Barrel — the West Elm sofa frames contain engineered hardwood, while the Crate & Barrel frames are made of solid hardwood. Engineered hardwood is something of an umbrella term that could encompass stronger and weaker products, so it isn’t automatically a red flag. But hardwood is a “green flag” — it’s the strongest material for a frame and ideally what I’d want to see if I’m paying over $1,000 for a piece of furniture.
Read reviews before buying — just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s high-quality.
Any retailer putting out a high volume of products is bound to generate some hits and some duds. Read the specs closely; I’d avoid engineered wood for anything over $1,000, unless it’s being used in some non-load-bearing capacity. Crate & Barrel publishes reviews on its site, but West Elm doesn’t. Reddit is also a good source to double-check if an item is worth your money. Other than build quality, you can find a lot of complaints online about shipping times (and sparse communication when things are running late) for both brands. If you have a sofa deadline, consider buying an in-stock configuration or a floor model.
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