I know - I have loved a few PB rugs online, and when I have gone to the local store to check them out - wow! What a difference! I saw that the other pics looked very different from the first one in her auctions, and just know they are of the real rug. If you wrote her that you are interested in one, maybe she'd take a photo of her smallest one in daylight, so you can really tell what you're buying. My experience is that the catalog and their online photos are usually richer/deeper than the true colors.

UPDATE: I did order the bed. It's a beautiful bed. Very solid and well made. We put a 10,5 inch mattress on top of it and it sits up very high. A rug pad keeps it from sliding. Yes, it is very heavy and you cannot easily move it to get to the baskets against the wall. I guess Christmas items will go there. It would even make a nice place to hide things as well. I would say that is the biggest drawback to the bad, we love it otherwise. I wondered if I could get the hinges that attaches the three sections together if one should break. Not good that PB doesn't supply parts.

polly -I just tried to use it, but it said: Pottery Barn Credit Card Rewards Certificate Redemption for your Rewards Certificate will not be reflected in the Order Total. The credit will appear on your next Pottery Barn or Pottery Barn Kids Credit Card statement. So I think maybe you need to use it yourself. How about a cute H'ween or Christmas decoration? Thank you for offering though!

Yes I have done that, and it seems everything in showrooms looks just like you've described the one from Pottery Barn, very beat up and not holding up well at all. I do have a coworker that ordered hers from PB, and has had it for 5 years, she is happy with it. But when researching reviews, I've read some awful stuff about their customer service lately, and experienced it myself with a recent small purchase with them. I'm not willing to make such a large purchase and risk having issues with their customer service. I believe another GW member recently posted on decorating about it too. The manufacturer I ordered from has many very good reviews online. It was not cheap and actually cost more than the vanity from PB without the counter. It is solid wood construction with no MDF. I will inspect it when it arrives and report back. We just had some custom cabinetry made in our bedroom, and the carpenter we worked with did a decent job but he was such a pain in the neck to work with. It also took him months to complete our small job because he had so many ongoing projects with other clients. I was hesitant to go that route again for a vanity.