Photo of Structube store in Halifax, NS

When I leased my office it came with furniture. I was grateful because I didn’t want to shell out for furniture.

However, the default furniture wasn’t the prettiest. It was clunky, ornate and not a great fit.

Recently marked my 3rd year in my office. It was time for new furniture including new office chair. I was very fortunate to land a small office in the famed Marine Building downtown Vancouver. Here it is:

Marine Building downtown Vancouver
Brick building in center is the famed Marine Building in downtown Vancouver, BC.

I didn’t want to spend more than $5K on furniture, but I needed quite a bit including the following:

  • Desk
  • Desk chair
  • Sofa
  • Filing cabinet
  • Bookcase

My office isn’t all that large so it would be tight no matter what I did. A sofa makes it tighter, but since getting it, I love it. It’s nice to have a place to put my feet up.

Because I sit much of the time in a desk chair, I wanted a proven ergonomic chair. I opted for the expensive Herman Miller Aeron chair. This was easy to find.

Next, I had to buy the rest of the stuff.

I set out on foot to see what downtown Vancouver furniture stores offered. I found some high-end places but I didn’t feel like dropping $4K on a desk.

On my march, I discovered Structube in the Gas Town district downtown Vancouver. I liked what it offered immediately. The prices were amazing.

The options in the store gave me a good idea of what the company offered, but before I pulled the trigger opening my wallet, I wanted to see the rest of their inventory online. I’m glad I did because I ended up buying everything off the Structube online store.

That said, two guys who helped me out in the store were fantastic. They walked me around showing me options based on what I sought. They then showed me the website and made several suggestions.

Back in my office, I browsed the online Structube store another hour, made my selections and called it a day. Everything was scheduled to arrive in about 4 weeks.

True to the ETA delivery, everything came in one shipment in about 4 weeks.

I ended up with several big boxes.

Yup, it needed assembly. I wasn’t surprised given the prices.

I called up a buddy to help. He was cool and came on by. Within a few hours we had it all assembled.

I’ll say this for Structube and that is their furniture is 10X easier to assemble than IKEA furniture. There are far fewer pieces and putting it together is super simple. This is one huge benefit of Structube over IKEA. I think also the quality is better too.

Related: Office Equipment Checklist | Online Furniture Stores | Desk Dimensions | Alternatives to IKEA | Online Rug Stores

What is Structube?

Structube is a Canadian furniture retailer with 70 stores across the nation. It all started with one store in 1974 (the year I was born – go figure). They focus on reasonably priced modern style furniture that they source from around the world. While it looks like it could cost beaucoup bucks, it doesn’t. It’s priced a tad higher than IKEA furniture, but IMO is better quality and looks better too. Moreover, it’s far easier to assemble than IKEA.

Here are the individual pieces I bought from Structube

Desk: $439 CAD

The following is the Tokyo desk from Structube. It offers two small drawers. It’s also not very deep which is good for smaller office spaces like mine.

Structube Tokyo desk

Sofa: $299 CAD

The following is the awesome Lois sofa from Structube. As you can see it converts into a small sofa bed. I still can’t believe this sofa only costs $299.

Structube Lois sofa

Structube Lois sofa in bed position

Bookcase: $329

Here’s the Madras floor-to-ceiling black wood bookcase I bought from Structube.

Structube black MADRAS bookcase

Here’s the Structube pricing breakdown:

  • Desk: $439 CAD
  • Sofa: $299 CAD
  • Bookcase: $329

Structube total: $1,067

Plus

  • Herman Miller chair:  $1,800 CAD
  • Wayfair filing cabinet:  $275 CAD

TOTAL OFFICE REFURNISHING COST: $3,142

I also bought a print and some pillows.

I came in almost $2K under budget thanks to Structube.

All assembly instructions available on their website

This is a very nice touch. Sometimes we toss out instructions only to need them down the road. If this happens, you’re in luck. All the instruction manuals can be found here.

My complaints

My only complaint was how long it took to get my items. I waited about 4 weeks. I ordered a filing cabinet from Wayfair at the same time and that was delivered within 2 weeks.

Structube, as far as I could tell, used a local delivery company. All things went pretty smoothly except they constantly called and texted me the days before delivery. It made me nervous because they asked for me to call them back to confirm I would be here, but it wasn’t all that easy getting in touch with them. At the end of the day, delivery was on time and nothing was damaged.

Would I buy from Structube again?

You bet I would. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy more furniture from Structube. It’s stylish, reasonably well-made, fairly easy to assemble – all for a very reasonable price.

You do have to keep in mind that this stuff is not expensive so you can’t expect Restoration Hardware quality. That’s simply unreasonable. I splurged on a Herman Miller chair for comfort which left a smallish budget for furniture. I’m not rough on furniture so I expect that it’ll last me several or many years even though it wasn’t expensive. For example, I sit on or lie down on the sofa maybe 30 minutes per day. If you’re looking for a sofa that you use for hours every day, kids jump on it etc. don’t expect anything under $1,000 to last 20 years. You gotta have realistic expectations. That said, if you spend $4K on a sofa that falls apart in 3 years from regular use, that’s not cool at all.

 

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