Check Alan Furgeson(sp) in North Carolina and work with Patrick. We got the name from this other follow up responses to similar postings in this site and the pricing was much better than any local store.

Robb & Stucky is a dealer for Lee Industries.

I second Alan Ferguson and Patrick - I've been working with him and recommend him to all.

dutch boy, I am sorry to hear about your negative experience with your local Crate and Barrel. I have several wonderful Lee pieces purchased through Crate and Barrel and am in the process of ordering several more. (I say local, but the closest showroom is almost an hour away... Matthew and I have done much of our work on the phone, so I see no reason why you could not order through a large showroom that does offer Lee special order. They are even having a sale at the moment.) C&B aside, you will surely note that there are lots of folks working with North Carolina dealers who have been pleased with their experiences. Whatever you do, do NOT pay a designer a ton of extra money. I have a Lee sofa w/ down wrapped cushions that cost well under $2000... with a high grade fabric! Please let me know if I can help. I would be glad to put you in touch with my local showroom. I am sure they would gladly help. Belle

I'm interested in buying a Lee Industries sofa too #193-03 - it's a slipcovered couch. But even though I live in a major metropolitan area, there's only 1 place besides C&B that is listed as a dealer. And that store told me they "aren't in the slipcover program", so they can't order a slipcovered sofa. OK, fine, I can order from NC, but how do I pick a fabric?? The store I went to has a very strong southwest flair and only has fabrics that fit thier style.

Help! (and sorry for hijaking your thread dutchboy, but how did you choose your fabric?)

- Jena

Jena-

I would do a couple of things. Firstly, I would email Lee directly. You can do this from their website. They respond quite quickly. I would ask them about additional dealers in your area... I know of at least three in my area that do not come up when I do a zip code search. I have spoken w/ Carole at Lee several times and she is very helpful. If you can locate more local dealers, go and sit and look through fabric samples. If you end up ordering through NC, previous posts from other folks have all noted the willingness of the sales associates to send samples. I have a box full of samples at this point! Your sales associate can request as many as you need from Lee. The Lee online library is quite large and worth browsing to get an idea of the range of fabrics, though it does not show older fabrics. I do not know what it means to not be in the slipcover program, but I do know that if you have a local dealer with samples, you can always call Alan Ferguson to see if the fabric you like is available in coveralls (slipcover)... Many are, but they have a different letter grade. (My C&B has a WALL of Lee samples; even if you do not order through them, their fabric library is a great resource.) Belle

I just learned that you need to go to a Crate & Barrel furniture store to order Lee furniture--the regular C & B stores can't do it. We drove to the South Coast Plaza C & B from San Diego today, and were able to look through dozens of Lee fabrics and peruse the catalog. There were several fabrics that weren't on the Lee website--maybe they are C & B specials?

ALERT!! All Crate & Barrel custom order furniture, including Lee, is 25% off through October 15. The sofa we were looking at was $2100 to $2300 on sale. C & B charges a flat $69 to deliver any size furniture order.

Thank you so much to all who suggested ordering Lee through C & B.

Aha! This weekend I was able to go to C&B and ask about fabrics. At first they only showed me the fabrics on the wall that I could choose from - even after I asked if these were really all the choices I had (there were a lot, but most were upholstry fabrics, not suitable for slipcovers). But finally a different (more knowledgeable) sales person took pity on me and from a cabinet pulled out 5 huge stacks of fabric samples - all of which were for the Lee Coveralls collection that I want - yeah! I've narrowed it down to just a couple choices and will order samples.

Thank you Belle!