A little shabby chic furniture shop in the Junction. I was drawn to it the day it opened when I saw the faded paint and wooden patina on the furniture items in the windows. The furniture is all made by the owner and apprentices in the back of the shop. They use wood from local demolitions, such as the old bowling alley east of Keele on Dundas. Then they incorporate recycled hardware to give all the pieces that used or industrial look. Furniture items include dining tables, side boards, end tables, french provincial cupboards and islands for kitchens, coat racks, mirrors, desks and they do custom jobs as well. Each piece is unique. I wanted to like this place but after a few visits I have had a change of heart. A lot of the items have an obvious faux-finish look to them, which I am not a fan of. I like most rustic looking, antique-ish items and things here look way too 'assembled' to me. I find the prices are inflated, especially considering we're dealing with recycled materials here. The price for certain types of not especially interesting or scarce pieces of wood for table tops is ridiculous. I'd sooner drive out to a country auction and buy my own barn wood. I've also found dealing with the owner to be trying, as mentioned in all the other reviews. He doesn't have good customer manner and hasn't hired anyone to deal with the front of the house for him(he really should). Him and his one staff member usual just ignore you as you shop unless you demand their attention. On one occasion, when I was in the market for a custom harvest table, he fought me in just a discussion about the style and design I was looking for. I wanted turned, recycled wooden table legs and he thought this was odd and traditional sounding, trying to sell me on straight metal or wood legs. It seems like he just wants to make his own furniture to his own taste. I left without ordering or buying anything. I would prefer to give my business to someone who wants to make the table I want! read more

Forever Interiors - Furniture Stores Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

I bought something here, and now regret it. Walking around the junction, my wife and I found this cute little store and were immediately drawn to a small church pew. How cool would it be for our house guests to have a place to sit while they remove their shoes, we thought. He offered the pews in various sizes, from about 3' to 5' or so, and in two colours, natural or stained. The stained unit looked decent overall, and would match well with our existing furniture; however it didn't appear to be done very well. It looked rather blotchy. The natural wood looked pretty good, kind of what you would expect the actual church pew to look like, so we decided on that. He promised it would be ready in 6 weeks, and we paid a $200 deposit and walked out. Afterwards, we headed over to Metropolis Living, where we purchased an original metal Catholic offering box as well as a metal "Funeral Parking Only" sign that used to belong to a funeral home in Ohio. Yeah, we're a bit weird, but we thought they would be a nice addition to the pew. Six weeks go by, and no call from the owner. I called and was told they were behind and that it would be another week. Another week goes by now they say t'll be ready in 5 more days. One of the most important part of sales and running a business is the process of setting customer expectations. If you say you will deliver in 6 weeks, delivery in NO LESS than 6 weeks. Delivery in 4 weeks and we'll be overjoyed. Under promise and over deliver. This isn't rocket science. It was his second brutal failure in setting my expectations which led to my disappointment with his product and service and ultimately the reason for this review. Today we walked in to pick up the pew. Check out the finish product. http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6662/photo2tf.jpg This only shows a few of these marks. They are where the screws went to attach the bench, filled with what appears to be some kind of wood putty. There are 6 on both sides. Since this isn't going in my garage, I asked "What is this? How is this even... I wanted to put this in our HOUSE. How is this even finished??" http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6793/photoizt.jpg Why is there a gigantic gash in the left side? And how is this acceptable? I walked out to grab my wife so she could see it. I said nothing to her, so I could get an unbiased opinion. "Well, we could sand that and make it darker no?" She said. "Isn't that what they're supposed to do? How is this presentable?" Then I showed her the deep gash and she said "Um, no..." At this point the owner is highly agitated with me. "This is how it's supposed to look. Nobody ever complains. Starbucks buys these all the time, and we have sold over 100. Everyone loves them. You just don't know what rustic looks like." Then he says he doesn't want to work with me and wants to refund my money. I'm pretty on board with this, but I'm pissed because I really wanted a pew (I've always wanted a pew, haven't you?), and here we've waited 8 weeks and are back to square one. I asked if we could take the dark, varnished one they have in stock instead. He agrees and sells it to me. Nearly 2 feet shorter and has also been splashed with epoxy, so there were drip marks. While he pointed these out to me, and DID offer to re-varnish it for us, I accepted it as is. I didn't want to wait another 8 weeks and figured I could just do it as a project at home down the road. I really just wanted to get the hell out of there and never talk to him again. He didn't offer to give us a lower price, so I paid the full amount and walked out, another satisfied customer. This could have all been avoided had he said something like: "If you go with the natural colour, you'll have big splotchy marks on both sides, and they'll be a big ugly and really noticeable gash on the inside." Obviously, we'd have said no. As a side note, while somewhat of a likeable guy initially, he's rather unprofessional and unhelpful. As the owner, that's his prerogative, but it's a bit strange. The first time we came in there, he never asked if we needed any help and his female assistant was equally uncongenial and standoffish. If you end up buying here, make sure you ask a lot of questions since you won't get a lot of information up front. read more

I really want to like this store. I like what he makes and I like that he's recycling old furniture into cool new pieces. However, I had a similar experience to sua m. in that owner is so off-putting I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon. read more

Martin the owner really needs to think about hiring someone with sales experience, personality, and consistent knowledge of products and pricing. It's pretty unbelievable that he runs this business given his lack of all 3 of those qualities. Like all other reviews mention, the stuff in there looks amazing and I really would like to recommend it but the guy has a major communication disorder, and won't give straight answers on pricing, stock, or customization possibilities. Customer service and return policy is basically nonexistent. I suggest taking a photo of what you like there and finding a decent carpenter on homestars or by word of mouth. read more

We ordered 2 pieces for our dining/living room and when we managed to damage our main table the owner picked it up himself and loaned us a new one while ours was being repaired. The Delivery was a little late although the table came back even more beautiful than before. love the store, look forward to doing more business with them! read more

Totally unimpressed. I came to them with a really creative project and they flat out told me it was impossible. It's in fact possible and becoming a trend. What a joke these guys are. Rude and mean. read more

Forgive the length ... but this story is worth retelling. I found this store on the internet. Was really impressed with the concept, the creativity and the actual pieces. I particularly liked two cabinets, called the store, spoke to Martin and told him what I was after, but they were already sold. We talked about him creating a similar piece for me, which he seemed open to. I then made the trek downtown the next day, with my measurements and specs as agreed, to get an estimate for the cabinets. I just have one word to describe this encounter. WEIRD. The entire exchange was unprofessional, off-putting and strange. I was down-right baffled. He proceeded to show me another piece. More than once I had to politely say that I wasn't interested, that I just needed an estimate for the cabinets we talked about. He hemmed and hawed, hesitated, answered text messages in the middle of our discussion and carried on conversations with his assistant. I just sat there. I felt like I was invisible. Seriously? I was looking around for a hidden "candid camera" crew. I then insisted that he go to his own website/blog, so that we could look at the the pieces I had called about. After I told him my measurements, he said they wouldn't work because he made these out of doors, and that the doors were typically taller than what I was after. OK. So then I came right out and asked, "how much did those cabinets cost?" He said, $1800. I asked (to clarify), "for both"? He disapprovingly replied, "No, just for one". Then I said I was a little surprised by the price and asked what was making it that costly -- considering this was built using reclaimed / used wood. He then explained that he had used these old ceiling tiles at the back of the cabinet. So then I asked for the cost without the tiles. He then said "Oh no, they are $200 extra, so the cabinets would actually be $2000 per unit with the tiles". At this point the soundtrack for the Twilight Zone TV series started playing in my head. I pushed back ... "but you just said $1800" .... no use. Then I asked what if i just bought the doors (which was the only place on the cabinet that really has the treatment I liked anyway). I could get the actual cabinet pieces made separately (of interest, he had other doors on sale in his show room). He scoffed at the idea saying he made whole furniture, not pieces. I said thank you and walked out ... in a daze, wondering what class of drug he was using. In short -- in addition to ignoring me and avoiding answering questions directly -- I felt he was just feeling me out to see how much I would pay. But Ieven if I liked his price, I probably would not have worked with him. My threshold for idiots is super low. read more

I went in to this place, for the second time, a couple of days ago looking for a custom made counter for a loft kitchen. The man in the store was attitude-packed, surly and really patronizing, making it quite clear that I was bothering him. He was rude and unhelpful to the point that I left in frustration. I figured that if he was that difficult to deal with before I ordered anything, he would probably be dreadful to deal with once he had money in hand. Icky experience. read more

Reading the reviews below, I have to say I was slightly hesitant on going here. The reason we did go here in the first place was because this place provides a product that we were after and couldn't find elsewhere and the price was right - the price was better than anywhere else we shopped around in Toronto and outside of city. We wanted custom. We needed custom. We had specific dimensions that we needed so we couldn't buy stock items from a distributor. We figured we could deal with someone who wasn't so good in the personable department because we were after the product and we were in no rush for it either. Honestly, the owner A) spent a great deal of time with us helping us figure out the specific measurements and dimensions we were looking for. B) He gave us an approx time the item would be ready and he was ahead of schedule by a week C) He delivered the item exactly as we had requested - the finishing, colour, the size, everything. D) He delivered it himself and set it up for us.... All in all, we had a very pleasant experience. I can tell he takes pride in his work and we absolutely love the final product. Our friends compliment it. We've referred people to him and tell them "don't read the Yelp reviews". In fact, we are going back to him for something else in the very near future. read more