Pottery Barn: Ultimate Brand Review And Rating

Pottery Barn Couch Brand Review
Pottery Barn is an iconic brand. They’ve been a titan in the upscale furniture and home accessory scene for decades. But these days are they simply coasting on their world-renowned reputation? Or are they still the best place to shop for your next couch? In this in-depth Pottery Barn review and brand breakdown, I take a look at the current state of Pottery Barn and reveal their PotatoMeter rating.

Overall Potatometer Rating:

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Pottery Barn is one of the top furniture names in the game. They've defined home decor trends for the better part of 40 years. They have gorgeous brick-and-mortar stores and their website is just as stunning.

Pottery Barn's stylish sofa selection hasn't missed a step over the years, but their customer focus has certainly stumbled. Their lack of a true sofa warranty, the inability to return most couches, and deceptively long lead times all brought their score down. Their excellent website, the quality of their couch construction for the price, and their brand vibe were all highlights.

94%

Online Shopping Experience

86%

Shipping & Lead Time

70%

Customer Focus

90%

Durability & Quality

92%

Vibe Check

Our Own Rating System

The PotatoMeter is Couch.com’s very own rating system that grades furniture retailers on a variety of – what we consider to be – essential criteria. While we aim to be fair and objective in our assessment, subjectivity based on our expertise and personal biases is unavoidable.

The Potatometer- Couch.com's rating system

94%

Online Shopping Experience

Pottery Barn: Online Shopping Experience

Visiting Pottery Barn’s website will instantly remind you why they’re so respected and esteemed in the furniture world. They have an absolutely gorgeous website that draws you in and makes you desperately want to buy every piece of decor in every single one of their glamorous photos. Even better, the site is also quite functional and easy to navigate in addition to having lovely visual flourishes throughout.


Pottery Barn’s Ease of Navigation

  • As I said, Pottery Barn’s homepage is stunning. You should spend some time just scrolling through it to enjoy and appreciate what they’ve put together. It’s truly lovely.
  • Pottery Barn’s menu system is very functional considering the number of products they sell. I appreciate that they give “Furniture” its own category, which then gets broken down by specific rooms. It’s all very neat and tidy and it was easy to find what I was looking for.
  • The “Sofas” and “Sectionals” category pages have a very elegant and practical layout. They also feature nice large images to help break up the monotony of product listings. These are very smartly and thoughtfully placed. My main gripe is that they show the same couch multiple times in slightly different variations to make it seem like their catalog is larger than it actually is.
  • The “Sofas & Sectionals” category page displays each sofa collection, as opposed to individual couches. This alternate display is also very chic and a great way to browse their offerings.
  • Pottery Barn provides dozens of different filters you can use to find the perfect sofa for your home and budget. They also have a “Quick Ship” filter, but this one doesn’t work very well since nearly every sofa has at least one quick ship option available.
  • The product pages are also quite nice. I like the way they organize their product information, dimensions, and details. The main issue is that, despite there not being that many choices to make, the customization and fabric selection panes take up so much vertical space that you end up scrolling up and down quite a bit. This is especially true since choosing a fabric or customization may change the price. Then you’ll have to scroll up or down to find the price to see if your choice affected it.
  • It can also be unclear that there are dozens of fabric choices since there’s another scrolling section within the fabrics window itself. On mobile this can be even easier to miss since the way to scroll through fabrics on your phone is side-to-side.


Pottery Barn’s Information Available “At-A-Glance”

  • On category pages they list the couch name, show a selection of fabrics it’s available in, let you know if there are “more” fabric options, list the price range, and let you know if a couch is a “bestseller” or a “new arrival.” It’s a good amount of info.
  • They also provide little icons to let you know if a couch has specific sustainable or eco-friendly features. For instance, an FSC-Certified wood icon or a BIFMA compliant tag.


Pottery Barn’s Product Images

  • The couch images on category pages are very professional. The couches are photographed against a light gray backdrop on top of a well-worn wooden floor. It nails the modern/rustic vibe that Pottery Barn has perfected over the years.
  • Hovering over the sofa listings either shows a lovely lifestyle image of the couch in a home, or an alternate angle of the couch, or a special feature like a pull-out mattress. In some cases there were no alternate photos, which was surprising given the scale of the company. But that’s only a minor quibble.
  • On product pages, the main couch image is nice and large. Then there’s a carousel of images that feature a good mix of alternate angles, close-ups of features, and lifestyle images in homes. It gives you a very good idea of how the couch will look in different settings and different lighting.
  • My main issue with the product photos is that the main couch image is the only one that changes when you make any customization choices, including fabric. This would be OK, but all the different fabrics simply don’t look great on the couch image. It’s hard to get a sense of texture or true color depth. It would be very helpful to see more real-life images in different fabrics to really understand the differences in each fabric and how those will impact the overall style of your sofa.


Pottery Barn’s Quality of Product Information

  • I was pleased to see that Pottery Barn does a very good job listing its product information. They list the cushion construction, the spring support system, the frame’s composition and construction, and they even list the joinery methods. I was also happy to see that they provided manufacturing origins for each sofa.
  • The only additions I’d like to see for their product details would be a specific country of origin if the couch is an “Import,” a specific density for the foam in the cushions, and the exact cleaning codes of the fabrics. Fabric cleaning codes can be very useful to let customers know if they can use water or solvent-based cleaners on their fabrics.
  • The dimensions they list are great and very practical. They have everything you’d need to know, including important additions like “diagonal depth,” which can help you determine if a sofa will fit through doorways or hallways.


Pottery Barn’s Extra Bells & Whistles

  • Pottery Barn keeps track of any fabrics you’ve clicked on and then provides a list of them beneath the main product photo. That way you can easily compare a couple fabric options without having to scroll through the full fabric list every single time.
  • Some couches have a 360 view option, but it’s not available for as many listings as you’d expect and it doesn’t work quite as smoothly as some competitors.

86%

Shipping & Lead Time

Pottery Barn: Shipping & Lead Times

Pottery Barn has fairly standard lead times that they advertise on their website. However, one of the biggest customer complaints against Pottery Barn is that their lead times end up being far longer in reality than what they initially claim. So be sure to take these lead times with a big grain of salt.


Pottery Barn’s Made to Order Products:

  • Pottery Barn states that their Made to Order couches will take 8-10 weeks to construct. For some imported couches and leather couches that timeline is bumped up to 12+ weeks. Keep in mind that your order could take longer than these advertised estimates.


Pottery Barn’s In-Stock Items:

  • Pottery Barn generally has 3-5 fabrics for each sofa that are available for “Quick Ship.” These are advertised as being delivered to you in less than 5 weeks. Therefore the lead time is roughly 1-3 weeks for these Quick Ship options.


Pottery Barn’s Shipping Time:

  • It takes roughly 1-3 weeks for delivery once your couch has shipped. This range is greatly dependent on your location to the nearest distribution center.

70%

Customer Focus

Pottery Barn: Customer Focus

Our goal at Couch.com is to provide customers with the information they need to find the best couch for their home. We take customer satisfaction very seriously. So how does Pottery Barn stack up to the competition when it comes to customer friendly resources and offerings? Pottery Barn falls into the same traps as many other companies of their size and scale. Unfortunately, the bigger the brand the more difficult it is to provide satisfactory customer service and solutions.


Pottery Barn’s Warranty:

  • There is no official warranty for couches on Pottery Barn’s website. You may still have luck within 1 year of delivery if you call customer service, but you won’t have any official documentation to back up your service request.
  • Pottery Barn does not offer any extended warranties for their sofas, either. I’d like to see them partner with Mulberry or Allstate or Extend to provide a modern, extended warranty option.


Pottery Barn’s Return Options:

  • There is no return option for Pottery Barn’s Made to Order sofas. Any fabric or customization that does not have a “Quick Ship” option is considered to be “made to order.”
  • If you select a “Quick Ship” sofa, you should have 7 days from the date of delivery to initiate a return. However, your mileage may vary. For any sofa order at Pottery Barn, I would encourage you to go in expecting it to be final sale and not able to be returned.


Pottery Barn’s Delivery Options & Costs:

  • Flat Rate white glove delivery is the only option Pottery Barn provides for delivery. Here’s how it breaks down depending on your proximity to the nearest shipping hub:
    • 0-50 miles = $279
    • 51-99 miles = $299
    • 100-199 miles = $379
    • 200 miles+ = $429


Pottery Barn’s Financing Options:

  • Pottery Barn has partnered with Affirm to offer 3, 12, or 24 month financing plans starting at 0%APR.


Is Assembly Required?

  • No, Pottery Barn’s white glove delivery service will complete any necessary assembly. In general this should simply be attaching legs or connecting sectional pieces together.


Pottery Barn’s Customization Options:

  • Pottery Barn’s main customization options are fabric and width. Many styles are also available with different numbers of seat cushions, different numbers of back cushions, and sometimes different cushion filling materials. I was pleased to see the number of couches available with different cushion configurations. You can really find the exact right style for your home.


Does Pottery Barn Offer Free Fabric Swatches?

  • Yes, you can order up to 12 fabric swatches for free, including leather swatches. Check out their great, detailed fabric swatch page. You can change to leather swatches by clicking on that tab near the top of the page – this can be easy to miss.

90%

Durability & Quality

Pottery Barn: Durability & Quality

Durability is a major factor when it comes to purchasing a couch, especially when you’re ordering online. So do Pottery Barn couches hold up over time? Overall the quality is good for the average price range. It’s great quality for the lower end of the price range and just OK quality when you hit the upper price range. For the expensive couches, there are other competitors with higher quality construction and components.

 

Pottery Barn’s Quality of Materials:

  • Pottery Barn has a truly lovely selection of high quality fabrics. Many are GREENGuard Gold certified, which is great. They also list the double rub count of their fabrics. Most have a double rub count of 50,000+, which means they’re considered commercial grade. However, some go as low as 15,000, which I wouldn’t recommend for homes with kids and pets.
  • They have dozens of different leather options, but almost all of them are top-grain leather. This is a perfectly fine quality of leather, but it’s not the top tier. Only one leather option (their Easton leather) is a full-grain leather, which is a top shelf offering. For the price range, I’d like to see more full-grain leather options available.
  • There’s nothing special about their cushion construction. It’s perfectly serviceable, if a little underwhelming. Pottery Barn mostly employs medium density foam cores that are then wrapped in polyester or an envelope of down. They generally don’t provide the foam density, but one listing does state that it features a 1.8 density foam. This is OK, but 2.0 or higher would be better for longevity.


Pottery Barn’s Cleanability:

  • Pottery Barn details the cleaning method for each of their fabrics, but they do not provide specific cleaning codes. It would be very useful for customers to know if a fabric could be cleaned with a water or solvent-based cleaner as opposed to a generic “spot clean only” description.
  • Many of Pottery Barn’s fabrics are listed as machine washable with cold water. Pottery Barn also has many slipcover style sofas, which makes machine washing an even more convenient option.


Pottery Barn’s Quality of Construction & Manufacturing Origin:

  • The majority of Pottery Barn’s fabric upholstered couches are made in the USA. That’s fantastic. But the majority of their leather sofas are imported. This is also true for any of their sofas with an added “gimmick” like reclining options, pull-out trundle beds, or other power features like built-in USB outlets.
  • Pottery Barn’s couches are generally constructed using kiln-dried hardwood and engineered wood. This is standard and what you’d expect for this price range.
  • Almost every Pottery Barn sofa uses a sinuous spring support system. Again, this is perfectly fine for the price. However, the more expensive the couch gets, the more I’d like to see them employ an eight-way, hand-tied suspension system, which is the top quality tier available.
  • Pottery Barn does detail their joinery methods and frame construction methods. The good news is that most frames have mortise-and-tenon joinery and corner-blocked frames. This is what you’d hope for at this price range and I’m glad they list this information.

92%

Vibe Check

Pottery Barn: Brand Vibe Check

Vibing with a brand is important. Brands can also promote certain lifestyles and sustainability goals. That’s why it’s my goal to help you find a company and brand that you vibe with so that you’re as comfortable with your new couch as you are on your new couch.

 

Pottery Barn’s Key Differentiators & Unique Facts:

  • Pottery Barn has been around since 1948 and the origin of the name is quite literal. The founding brothers, Paul and Morris Secon, found three barns full of second-hand, discarded pottery from a failing factory nearby. After the factory went under and abandoned the pottery, the brothers began selling it in their shoebox-sized New York City storefront.
  • Pottery Barn was acquired by The Gap in the ’80s, but after a few years they were bought by Williams-Sonoma, who are still the owners to this day. They had a major period of expansion in the ’90s and became a household name in household decor.
  • They were one of the first furniture companies to offer a sleek catalog, which proved to be a particularly savvy business decision.


Pottery Barn’s Sustainability:

  • Pottery Barn plants a tree for every order. By the end of 2023 they estimate that they will have planted more than 6 million trees. Wow!
  • Many of their fabrics are GREENGuard Gold certified, which is a great environmentally-friendly option.


Pottery Barn’s Overall Brand Presentation:

  • Pottery Barn has firmly planted itself among the top of the home decor hierarchy. Their vibe is elevated rustic, which speaks to those who have modern sensibilities yet yearn for heritage-style furniture. They do an incredible job of staging their photography to set a warm, inviting tone. This radiates throughout their entire website and online presence. They’re effortlessly chic, like Martha Stewart. If you want to manifest that feeling of being a classy adult, Pottery Barn is the perfect way to embody that goal.

Pottery Barn Couch Brand Review

What are Pottery Barn's top couches?

Pottery Barn’s Signature Best Seller:


Pottery Barn’s Couch That Intrigues Me The Most:

  • Pacifica Square Arm Upholstered Sleeper Armchair ($899 – $1,199). This is a bit of a cheat since the Pacifica is an armchair. That being said, I chose it because it’s a real multi-functional marvel. It has a nice frame, quality construction, three recliner positions, a pull-out trundle-style sleeper platform, and a USB charger in the arm. This is an incredibly practical and surprisingly inexpensive option, especially if you have a small space to furnish.


Pottery Barn’s Hidden Gem:

  • Celeste Upholstered Sofa 86″ ($1,299 – $2,699). The Celeste is a more modern take on the slope arm look of the York. It has a sleeker, daintier profile. I love its elegant, almost feminine details. It also looks like it has very comfy, robust back cushions.

How much do Pottery Barn couches cost?

Pottery Barn has a wide range of couch prices. There are some impressively inexpensive sofa options available, though the prices can start to skyrocket if you choose higher tier fabrics or wider configurations. But if you’re a savvy enough shopper, you can score some great, competitive deals on Pottery Barn couches.


Pottery Barn’s Average Range:

  • You can expect to pay somewhere between $1,500 – $3,500 for a standard 3-seater style couch.
  • Pottery Barn’s sectional sofas are generally in the $3,500 – $6,000 range. Considering the current market, that’s really not nearly as expensive as it could be. But you can certainly spend much more than that on bigger configurations or by choosing one of their high quality leather options.


Most Expensive Pottery Barn Couch:


Least Expensive Pottery Barn Couch:

  • Preston Upholstered Sofa ($799 – $1,499). This little curved cutie is one of the newest additions to the lineup. It also has a cute price tag to match.

Does Pottery Barn have good reviews?

Pottery Barn does not provide customer reviews on their website. This is always disappointing and I find it to be a very anti-consumer practice. However, it seems there’s a good reason for it, since their other online reviews are quite ferocious. I intended to provide a 5 star and 1 star review for the York Sofa through TrustPilot’s customer reviews, but I could not find a 5 star review that was specific to that sofa. I’ve instead used a 5 star review of the overall couch shopping experience for one customer.


Overall Pottery Barn Reviews:

  • Pottery Barn has shockingly bad overall brand reviews. They have a dismal 1.1 star rating on TrustPilot after 1,378 reviews and their individual Better Business Bureau store reviews are also generally in the low 1 star range. This is not what you hope to see before spending thousands of dollars with a company.


Pottery Barn’s Top Product Reviews:

  • Pottery Barn 5 Star Review: “I ordered a custom couch in October 2019, I placed the order in store during a 20 percent off promotion. I also got the credit card to take advantage of no interest for one year. The order process was smooth and the sales associate was great even though I could have Ordered it myself online […] The online tracking system worked great and kept me up to date with the process. I couldn’t be happier with the delivery and more importantly, my new couch!” – Jess
  • York Sofa 1 Star Review: “I bought a York sofa from Pottery Barn less than a year ago. The price of the furniture does not match the quality. You think the more you spend the better quality. I constantly have feathers poking out of the pillows. The fabric have balls on them and feels scratchy now. I have been told this is all normal wear and tear. Skip the headache and purchase elsewhere.” – Sarah L.


Pottery Barn’s Customer Service Reviews:

  • Pottery Barn’s third party reviews are riddled with complaints about customer service and deceptive delivery timelines. This is disappointing to see, as the presentation and the catalog are excellent. While I always hope to give the benefit of the doubt, since most people only tend to leave reviews when they have a bad experience, the sheer volume of negative Pottery Barn reviews does concern me.

What kind of style is Pottery Barn furniture?

Pottery Barn has perfected the rustic modern style. They have a very elevated, elegant catalog of couches. Here’s a closer look at what you can expect to find when shopping at Pottery Barn.


Pottery Barn’s Range of Couch Options:

  • Pottery Barn offers the full gamut of couch options, from armchairs up through modular sectionals. But they specialize in standard 3-seater style sofas and 2 piece sectionals. They do not have as many modular options as competitors, but they do have a decent number of sleeper sofa and daybed style sofas to choose from.


Pottery Barn’s Range of Couch Styles:

  • Pottery Barn’s main couch styles are modern and traditional. They have a healthy offering of modern, square-armed style sofas, as well as plenty of rolled-arm style couches.
  • Pottery Barn has several vintage styles to choose from, like their Chesterfield options and their English-arm, turned-leg sofas. Compared to most current couch companies, Pottery Barn does not really offer many Mid Century Modern sofas.
  • What really sets Pottery Barn apart is the number of slipcover sofas they offer. This gives them a very distinctive, formal-yet-homey look, which has been the company’s bread and butter for decades. They have tons of chic slipcovered sofas to choose from.


Does Pottery Barn Have Other Products Besides Couches?

  • Yes, Pottery Barn has a huge catalog of home decor and accessories that are all as lovely as their sofas.

What are some alternatives to Pottery Barn?

Pottery Barn has a very elevated modern style, but if you are still curious about their competitors after reading this Pottery Barn review then I’d recommend checking out these similar companies.

Picture of Alex Back, CEO of Couch.com

Alex Back, CEO of Couch.com

Alex Back is the founder and CEO of Couch.com. Previously, he was the co-founder and COO of the popular furniture brand, Apt2B, which was acquired by a large US retail furniture chain in 2018. He worked to integrate Apt2B, one of the very first online furniture retailers on the Shopify platform, into the operations of the 100 year old larger business entity and was deeply immersed in the business operations of both online and brick and mortar retail for 4 years before leaving in 2023 to start Couch.com. Working in various parts of the furniture industry since 2004, he has 20 years experience in retail sales, e-commerce, marketing, operations, logistics and wholesale manufacturing and distribution. He's worked extensively with partners such as Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond and Amazon and his work has been highlighted in many publications such as Forbes, CNN and HGTV, among others. Alex is delighted to bring his experience and authority on couches and the furniture industry to this platform, along with many of his industry colleagues who are helping him keep the Couch.com audience informed and engaged on a daily basis.
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