There is a great gulf between dog and man. We can't understand why they pee on the carpet. They ca...
There is a great gulf between dog and man. We can't understand why they pee on the carpet. They can't understand why we pee in their water bowl.
Member since:19.07.2001
Reviews:233
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Picture it if you will – it’s the room that was my daughter’s bedroom. She left home many years ago, but somehow there’s still a tennis racquet on top of the wardrobe, a stack of school exercise books in the bookcase and strange pieces of clothing (what can you do with a ra-ra skirt these days?) that are not actually needed where she’s living at the moment but are far too good to throw away, or so she tells me. It’s not too bad when you just close the door on the room, but when an unexpected guest turns up it’s a source of deep embarrassment. Well, you can hardly deny that you’ve got a spare room, can you?
Then came the fateful day. I went into the local town and a Sharp’s Bedrooms showroom had opened. I’d like to say that it was the aesthetics of the window display that drew me inside, but it wasn’t. It was the banner which said something along the lines of “50% plus £50 off all prices – offer must end Saturday”. I’m sure that if I’d looked a little more closely I would have found some small print underneath saying “but don’t worry it’ll be replaced by another offer next week” because something you realise is that this company has always got a special offer banner in the window.
Sharp’s Bedrooms is part of the Homeform Group. It doesn’t ring any bells? Well, I’m sure you’ll have heard of Moben Kitchens, Dolphin Bathrooms,
Kitchens Direct and Portland Conservatories who are all part of the same group. Sharp’s say that they have a commitment to providing a ‘desirable product range coupled with a friendly and efficient service.’ ‘Quality’ you may note is not mentioned; it’s more ‘it’ll look pretty and we’ll smile whilst we take your money from you as quickly as possible.’
So, there I was inside the showroom and it does look impressive. There’s a range of furniture to suit all tastes and styles. The ornaments are all tasteful and the duvets have matching pillowcases, unlike at home where someone always ends up with a Magic Roundabout pillowcase if we have a full house.
You may get the impression that this is a custom-built bedroom, but it’s not. A solid frame is built (or, in plain language, battens are screwed to the wall, floor and ceiling) and then standard units are fitted into this. You choose the units and the finish for the outside. They put it all together.
In showrooms the staff always seem to fall into two categories. They’re either very friendly or rather superior. The lady in Sharp’s was very friendly if a little vague on precise details. The ‘designer’ (salesman to you and I) would be able to explain everything in much greater detail. Her job was simply to spread her friendliness far and wide and promise that the bedroom could be fitted within three weeks of the order being placed. We enquired about prices. She moved into flustered femininity and for a moment we were convinced that finance was not a word that had ever entered her life. “How much” I asked “would that arrangement over there cost? If you can’t give me any idea then I don’t want a salesman calling.” “About £2000” she replied, looking as though I had extracted her teeth.
A salesman, sorry, designer would telephone to arrange an appointment and indeed an appointment was made. Commeth the hour, it is said, commeth the man. The only trouble was that this man came an hour early and stayed for three. He had difficulty in realising that we knew the possibilities and the limitations of the room that was to be fitted and that we knew exactly what we wanted, including the doorknobs. He also had difficulty in realising that we didn’t feel deprived by not taking advantage of the finance deal at an APR in excess of 20% per annum. I had to start doing the ironing to persuade him of my lack of interest.
The proposed bedroom was drawn out, laboriously, by hand and all the different fittings listed. The order was placed and a deposit paid, with the final price being surprisingly close to the figure quoted by the lady in the shop who knew nothing of prices. I expressed my delight that in three weeks I would have a new bedroom. A cloud passed in front of the sun. Due to the unprecedented demand generated by the unbelievably generous offer, fitting could not take place for six weeks. Ah, well, no matter.
In the meantime a surveyor would call to check the precise measurements of the room. He arrived, clutching the plans and pointed out that two of the units existed only in the salesman’s mind and prepared to depart saying that he would arrange for the designer to return. He only changed his mind when told that if it was a choice between the salesman returning and the bedroom not being done, then the bedroom would not be done. In fifteen minutes we changed the plan to our joint satisfaction. I told him he was the first person I had encountered who actually seemed to know what he was doing. “Ah”, he said, “I don’t work for Sharp’s. I’m self-employed.”
It was as well that we had the six weeks because Sharp’s do not undertake any electrical work and it was necessary to move some electrical sockets. Good electricians are not generally available at short notice. It’s also advisable to do any wallpaper stripping from the area around the edges of the new units as this will save potential damage later. The room has to be cleared of furniture and the carpet removed as the framework is screwed directly onto the floor. We took the opportunity to rectify some squeaking floorboards. Unless the room being fitted is particularly large you will also have to have an area where the units can be stored prior to and during fitting.
The units were delivered at the end of the week prior to fitting. Basically they are flat-packs which are constructed on site and then fitted into the framework. I could not fault the fitter – working on his own he did a tremendous job and completed the fitting in three days. Apart from the fact that the constructed units had to be stored on the landing before being fitted, making going to bed something of an adventure, there was surprisingly little disruption. The room looked splendid.
We chose the Ascot range of furniture. If you look on the website (http://www.sharps.co.uk) you’ll see it pictured there. The website is not strong on information though, it’s simply there to draw you in, with lots of ‘arrange an appointment’, ‘contact us’ and ‘request a brochure’ links. It won’t, for instance, tell you what material is used in the construction of the units. Ours look like wood, but are not.
We’ve had the bedroom for three years now and I’m generally pleased with it. Our arrangement covers one double and one single wardrobe, two chests of drawers and a cupboard for books. Everything that was in the room before and more has disappeared into the units. It still looks superb and the only problem I’ve had is the tendency for the bottom to fall out of the larger drawers if they’re more than lightly loaded. The use has been fairly light though, and I suspect that there might have been more problems if the use had been heavier.
I’ve given three stars. One was taken because I’m not sure about the quality of the units for heavier use and the second was taken because I had a feeling of being messed about before the bedroom was fitted. I would recommend Sharp’s to a friend (in fact I have done) provided that they were aware of my reservations.
We've used Sharps before and found them quite good. Em x
nictastic 12.02.2003 11:42
i dont think i'd have the guts to go ahead with it, you hear so many horror stories dont you, but yours seemed to turn out rahter well so thats good, im glad you were one of the lucky ones! nic :)
A.M.Richards 21.10.2002 21:35
Interesting 'behind the scenes' information. For that price I would have expected decent quality drawers too.
Advantages: Impressive finished product, great catalogue and TV advert, professional sales staff Disadvantages: Very expensive, sister companies featured on BBC1's Watchdog
Oct 13th, 2002
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