While they are both pretty I suggest you review return policy and manufacturer’s warranty since both are imported. Perhaps compare with LampsPlus website offerings.

to be honest probably nothing, both made in a china factory, probably like buying name brand cereal vs the store brands.... the only true quality you would get if it was made in USA, even then the parts would come from china.

Thanks RL. That's what I presumed. There's a place in NYC that forges their own metal and sources glass from the US, though I bet the guts are made elsewhere. Too bad I don't like their lights that much.

jackowskib - Thanks for the heads up about warranty. Visual Impact is 5 years. Still waiting to hear back from Pottery Barn.

Pottery barn is a conglomerate with RH and someone else, I dont like their customer service, its lousy, and they will not sell you replacement parts for anything, like nothing. so down the line you break a glass lets say, to bad so sad. I dont buy from them for that reason

As I recall Thomas O'Brien sells to the trade. When I was looking for sconces, my designer referred me to his website.

The price that would have been charged to my designer was significantly less and so the price I would have paid - even with my designer's markup/fee would have been less than the price on the websites and probably less or the same as sourcing from a place like Pottery Barn.

I wound up with sconces from a different source and the price I paid was significantly less than the price on their website for consumers.

It is why in my experience working with a designer has many benefits beyond design help as the final cost for stuff - at least in my experience - was less or the same as if I had purchased myself without the benefit of a trade discount - not to mention input from my designer on function and aesthetics.

id imagine you can even find these by several others, probably hudson valley, maybe even kichler.

Visually not much difference. If you were able to touch them, you might find that the PB ones are a thinner metal or more tin-like. But most of us don't go around touching lights mounted on a wall to notice that type of difference. I do prefer towel rings/bars that are of better quality, with a thicker metal, because those do get touched and the difference is quite obvious.

Kristin makes a good point about the projection of the fixtures. Depending on the bathroom design, that could be the the main reason to pick one over the other.

Thanks for all of your replies. I can tell already that PB's customer service stinks. I'm still waiting for them to email me about the warranty. Maybe it is because of the holidays, maybe they lost my info. It took 30 seconds for someone at Lumens to get their hands on it for me about the Thomas Obrien.