Background: In July 2012, I redid my office/guest room in Colorado with a small family business. They provided me with a Murphy bed, shelves and drawers next to the Murphy bed, a 10' long work space with drawers underneath, and shelves above. All of this work was done in real wood, was extremely high quality, and cost $5K less than the smaller office I just had done by California Closets.
We moved to Indiana and only had one space for a guest room and home office for my husband and I. Since the home office/murphy bed worked so well in Colorado for us, we decided to do it again. The office requirements were significantly smaller - we just needed a murphy bed, shelving and drawers on each side of the bed, and then a desk area with drawers (no book shelves above the desk). We found a few businesses, but California Closet was the best rated for Indiana, so we decided to go with them.
Planning: She was prompt and helped us rework our designs many times to get the right look for the space within our budget. She answered our questions promptly and provided great drawings. She even helped us with an odd request - we wanted a long piece of glass over our desk (about 10') so that we could use the desk as a whiteboard too. The only thing that could be improved is her knowledge of grommet holes. She assured me that the installers could put grommet holes where ever I wanted so that I could get power to our computers and printer on our desk. Unfortunately, I found out from the installers, that they could not put grommet holes because of the glass top (more on that later). She also said that we could have it installed in 2 weeks, but it took 4 weeks.
Installation: As soon as I got the installation notice email (right after payment), I responded asking if they could start at 9:30a instead of 9a because I had to get my kids to school. They assured me they could. I emailed the week of installation to confirm and again the said it would not be a problem. Installation day comes and the installers arrive at 8:30a - right as I'm trying to get my kids to school. So much for confirming times for installation!
The installers were friendly and kept my home clean - they put heavy duty tarps on the carpeted stairs so that they could get the pieces up stairs without ruining my carpet. They didn't even dink the walls despite some tight squeezes. They even carried the mattress upstairs to put in the murphy bed (thank goodness because the murphy bed needs to be checked to ensure the springs are okay and balanced properly).
They worked efficiently and were done within six hours. When I looked at the work, they pointed out that the crown molding had a noticeable seam. One installer said he wanted to fix it and could come back next week whereas the other installer tried to talk me into it being okay (definitely NOT okay - more on quality below). Then, they told me they could not put a grommet hole in the desk because of the glass top. But, I later figured out I needed half a grommet hole and then I could slide the glass, snake my cord through, move the glass back, and then power everything on the desk - I am going to ask them to do it when they come back to fix the crown molding (I'll update the review in a week). They also did not have the two valet rods I ordered, so they will be back to install those too. Overall, I thought the installers were great -with the exception of one installer trying to tell me that the seam in the crown molding was okay.
Overall Quality: Here is where California Closets loses big points with me. I know what good quality is - my father is a furniture maker and I grew up with high quality furniture. I also know that murphy beds, desks, and associated cabinetry can be high quality because I had it in Colorado. California Closets quality is okay - I would rank it as equivalent to Ikea quality. It looks okay, but there are noticeable seams between the shelving pieces and the Murphy bed - especially at the foot board (whereas, I've had Murphy beds with no visible seams anywhere). In addition, the murphy bed has a shelf on each side that cannot be moved for structural integrity - which is just poor structural design! The desk has a noticeable seam on the counter too. Also, the murphy bed is pretty heavy to lift up and down - my last Murphy bed required barely any effort - I was able to put it up and down while holding a newborn. Now, I need both hands to operate a California Closets murphy bed. So, although the people are efficient and capable, the material is just okay and the price is significantly higher than what I had for more materials and better quality just a year ago from a non-corporate vendor.
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