If only all furniture were "Ready to Assemble"

Anyone that has tried to buy furniture from the likes of Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, or Crate & Barrell knows full well that these looks don't come cheap. A few weeks ago, I even saw a condo listing boasting, "Pottery Barn like angles." Since when does a store have its own signature "angle"?? For reference, it was a pleasant way of saying the unit was on the top floor of a house, whose peaked roof created angled ceilings. And yes...all the furniture was from Pottery Barn.

Nonetheless, we are hooked. We *love* the Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel "look". Clean, simple lines of classic, lasting furniture. Lots of textures and natural fabrics, all keeping in mind comfort and ease of use.

Only problem: how does a young professional and a graduate student *afford* any of this stuff.

Answer: "Ready to Assemble"

A few weeks ago, we wandered into the large Crate and Barrell furniture store in our neighborhood. After oo-ing and aah-ing at an absurdly expensive sectional we fell in love with, we were walking out and one of the employees stopped us to ask if we had any questions. I asked about the desk I had seen in a C&B in NYC a few weeks prior. That is when we found out about C&B's "other" line of furniture: Ready to Assemble.

Apparently C&B has two lines of furniture: (1) Furniture Collection - traditional, customizable, and expensive furniture; and, (2) Ready to Assemble - less expensive, yet still really, really good looking furniture that needs light assembly by the buyer.

Now for the best part: not knowing the difference, we actually chose the cheaper pieces over the more expensive ones for our "wish list".

Here's a link to the table we like: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=916&f=12166
We fell in love with this dining room table in the store last weekend. It is called a "Pivot Table" because the top folds open and pivots, basically doubling the size of the table. Closed it can seat up to six, and open it is virtually square and seats eight. We *love* the idea of having an eight-seater square table. Once the numbers get high, we don't like the long banquet tables as much. The size of this table also means that it will fit nicely into our small dining area. Bonus: we even like the chairs that match!!