Do you own this business? Let us notify you when claiming and promoting begins.
On Apartment Therapy
We work in Dogpatch, where there isn't much in the way of window shopping to occupy our lunch breaks. We have been known to spend those last few minutes before 1 making a quick pass through Sphere Designs, though. Located on 3rd St. at 22nd, their large showroom has a generous selection of furniture, including a clearance section that is often generously stocked with major markdowns (on our most recent visit it seemed most of the store was 50% off).
Related stores
Store details
Recent comments
Hey all....Please Beware of Sphere
If you would like to be not only SCAMMED out of your hard earned money for custom furniture, but would also like to play in the game of furniture amateur hour, please contact Sphere Designs Furniture.
Before I proceed with this review, let me note that the guy who runs the Berkeley location, Frank, is extremely nice and helpful and NONE of the following set of catastrophes is his fault. My boyfriend and I decided to contact Sphere in Berkeley for some custom designed furniture. We ordered a dresser, bookshelf, and an entertainment unit. We were VERY excited for this furniture and thought we scored ourselves an awesome deal with an awesome store.
First, they pushed back the delivery date about 4 times. Finally, after the furniture being 2 weeks late, I received the offending objects. Not only did they switch all of our stains, they put hardware on a dresser that was to have no hardware, did not drill holes in our entertainment center, did not stain half of the furniture legs, AND made us the complete wrong bookshelf. Also, the one they sent us was completely structurally unsound, had no lacquer on the top and had no stain on parts of the legs. Clearly, they do not have ANY quality control, nor do they care. So, I contacted them thinking any reasonable place of business would fix this large list of F ups. WRONG!
Now, this is all from the mouth of the owner Nick, not Frank. I was sent the following email: (This is an excerpt)
The Entertainment center was indeed made without cord management. I believe that this was an error on my part. I don't believe that I specified they be drilled out, this would definitely be a mistake from my end. The finish was incorrect, due to an oversight on our workmens part.
The dresser should have been made without hardware, per the inspiration photos that were given. The finish was incorrect, due to an oversight on our workmens part.
Nick and I have spoken at length and he has come to a determination. Upon my initial quotes for all you custom pieces, it seems that I made pricing errors on all 3 pieces.
Based on what I had charged you, the prices given to you were significantly less than what they should have been. In reviewing the order, Nick has looked over the details and the specs that were given for production, and has come to the decision that the pieces cannot be reproduced from a cost effective standpoint, based on the original prices.
ARE YOU EFFING SERIOUS???!!! They decided to refuse to fix every piece of furniture saying that we underpaid (like we somehow masterminded our own pricing). We decided that we would just deal with the dresser and the entertainment unit, since the mistakes were minor, but Nick REFUSED to remake our bookshelf, even though we had a picture and the specs of the proper shelf.
Basically, Sphere clearly does not care about their customers or running an ethical business. I have a contract that clearly details each piece of furniture that we ordered from them. They F'd up and have refused to make it right. Truly unconscionable and appalling.
So, please, if you decide to purchase custom furniture, save yourself the time and money and go elsewhere. I will be updating this review as things begin to unfold. We will NOT take this crap when we have a legally binding contract. DaynaR on Jun 12, 2009
I gotta say AT is disappointing me. I've seen a lot of threads recently featuring knock-offs - from questions of quality to blatant endorsements. This goes totally against AT's philosophy of endorsing legit design, endorsing eco friendly products, and seemingly contrary to thier big sponsors like DWR, CB2, Hive etc, and anyone else who advertises on this site and carries legit designs. Its a shame, because AT is otherwise still a great great blog! Modfan on Mar 4, 2008