I have decided I need a credenza for my entry way and have spent far too much of the morning looking online. I found the perfect one only about an hour into my search. It is the Florence Knoll Four-Position Credenza. It meets all my criteria:

Size - a perfect 25.5 inches high, 37.5 inches wide, & 18 inches deep

Color - ebony

Pulls - finger pulls in steel with polished chrome finish

Base - also steel with polished chrome finish

Storage - one side has one large drawer with a smaller one above it. The other side has 3 smaller drawers
top - marble
Oh yes perfect! Until the price $8,127. Not perfect.

Well at least I have an idea of what I want, right? Gee I can replicate it. Surely Ikea has something with those proportions and that I can paint and put a marble top on. Lots of time later I know Ikea does not do those perfect proportions.
Well Room and Board does custom. I have a credenza from them already. That should work. Hmmm...... so not those exact proportions but:

Size - a reasonable 29 inches high, 39 inches wide, and 16 inches deep. The 16 inch depth is even better for my space so promising.

Color - ebony (oh good!)

Pulls - aluminum (OK)

Base - stainless steel (fine with me)

Storage - most similar option to perfect credenza is two large drawers on one side and three smaller drawers on the other side but that looks awful.

Why? 5 drawers looked so good in the Knoll credenza. back to look at the Knoll credenza & it turns out it is made so the top of the large drawer lines lines up exactly with the top of 2 of the smaller drawers. Surely Room and Board thought of that - nope, unless you choose the same drawer configuration for both sides no 2 drawer banks line up in the case. So 5 drawers is no longer an option because I have seen perfection. So 2 banks of drawers, each with 1 large drawer below and 2 smaller above. That looks good and will be fine for my storage needs.

But: Why doesn't the darn thing look as pleasing as the Knoll?
No I hadn't forgotten about the top - marble would be better but even if the room and board had a marble top something is still 'wrong' (darn finding perfection!!!).
Back to looking at the Knoll, it has a base and legs that are perfectly lined up with the body of the credenza instead of being recessed and 'sat on' by the body. Also the Knoll has a perfect reveal between the base and the body andthe 'feet' have a reveal between them and the legs and there is a reveal between the top and the body of the piece. Perfect.

I know and love people who would see what made for perfect immediately - I needed to go through the process of comparing to see the differences. I will probably get the room and board piece but now I understand why folks would spend $8,127 for a credenza. Attention to detail (reveals, things lining up, proportion) makes the difference between good enough and perfect.

This is second or maybe first nature to many of you but still surprises me.

I appreciate the posts about design because I enjoy trying to learn this, for me, foreign language.