CB2

Staff look like they just walked out of an indie music video — and so does the furniture.
This place is perfect for the inbetweener that I am right now. Moving up from Ikea but not quite at West Elm yet. Mixes well with the vintage/​antique finds at my place.
Delivery is not included regardless of how much you buy. Negotiating is also not a possibility.

the store has a nice layout and the selection is good.
the prices are really, really painful. even the little accessories aren’t worth their price tag. when i’m in the queen west area, i like to stop by and look at what’s trendy. i don’t plan on ever buying anything here though.

I absolutely love CB2!
I’m a huge fan of Crate & Barrel however, I’m not at the point where I’m able to spend $ 7,000 on a piece of furniture… yet.
CB2 is a great alternative for someone who is looking to furnish their home with high end, affordable modern «stuff».
By stuff I mean anything you would need to furnish your home or apartment.
— Furniture, lighting, accessories, wallpaper, rugs, pillows/​throws, dining/​kitchen, office, storage, bed/​bath etc…
CB2 has a large section of unique, creative gift ideas to please everyone this holiday season. They often have great sales going on throughout the year so make sure to subscribe to their newsletter!
Drop in and discover affordable modern for your apartment, loft, home.

CB2 is a great place to find nice furniture that looks more expensive than it is. Unlike its sister company Crate & Barrel, most items are some assembly required — which is perfectly fine considering the value.

I’m from Chicago, where I love shopping at CB2, which is Crate and Barrel’s hipper, less expensive little sister. The CB2 store in Chicago is great. It’s clean, bright, and upbeat, with nicely designed displays and truly helpful, excellent customer service. CB2 in the USA also offers easy, convenient online shopping and delivery. And I like many of the products.
The CB2 store in Toronto is a big disappointment, in contrast. It doesn’t do justice to the modern, hip CB2 aesthetic at all. It’s incredibly dingy, with numerous shopworn, dirty-​looking floor samples (the sofas in particular look awful), confusing displays that are arranged in such a way as to make the store difficult to navigate, bad lighting, poor stock levels, and all kinds of dust and debris all over the floors and stairs, as if the shop is never swept or vacuumed.
Worse than this, however, is the appalling attitude of the staff, which, on the five or so occasions I’ve shopped there over the past several months, has alternated between indifferent, bored, distracted, snooty, defensive, and sarcastic. The other day I went in planning to buy several items and had even gathered them together in a shopping basket. I was very friendly as I approached the cash register, but I was so put out by the bizarre attitude of the staff there that I decided to give the whole effort a miss. I walked out of the store with nothing, feeling very uncomfortable.
A shop that doesn’t treat its customers with courtesy isn’t long for the world of business. Too bad, since I’d have liked to continue shopping at CB2 in future.

Rude, we weren’t acknowledged by any of the staff. One even went out of his way to pretend to be doing something very important on his phone as we approached his area. Other people browsing were acknowledged, one was a mere inch away from us.
The furniture itself is overpriced crap quality furniture. I’ve seen better things at Ikea.
We were treated much better and saw more unique items at every other furniture store in the area.
Saying hello and acknowledging your guests is literally the cheapest investment you can make to get a guest to be a customer. We spend a lot of money on home furnishings, but we can’t justify spending any at CB2.

Ikea quality at Queen West prices? No thanks.
Warehouse is in the US, so shipping is slow. Bought a chair that shipped with two left hand arm rests. After a week of calling to report this, store manager finally phones back to suggest that i couldn’t follow assembly instructions, wouldn’t accept that the warehouse had made a packing mistake.
Reluctantly ordered a replacement, which took 3 weeks to arrive. Which means storing a useless bulky chair for over a month.
Replacement Chair finally arrived. Assembled it and it rocks like crazy… so it got returned.
Staff on the floor seem nice, but management, both at the store and up the supply change, is useless. Since they ship from the US, they’re extremely reluctant to deal with any kind of returns or quality control issues. Even Ikea does that better.

A lot of CB2 accessories for kitchen and home looks really familiar…
I think I seen them somewhere else? In someone’s home? In some restaurants?
But I do like the pricing… which is quite affordable and some of the items are great gifts to someone as house warming gifts!
Furniture wise. I do find a few interesting pieces… especially the outdoor furniture… dreaming having one of those day beds on my patio… until I see the price. :)
The store itself is well layout… high ceiling… inviting comfy looking furniture…
There is also a small clearance section upstairs but the discount is just too minimum to worth your while!

Wow! What a cool store. They have a lot of neat and interesting products that would fit anyone’s home life. Today I got a really neat Bodum cetlon pitcher for my mom for mothers day, something she has been searching for some time now.
The only reason I did not give this store 5 stars is because of two reasons. First, the original product I wanted to buy (a neat interconnected six piece stainless steel vase) was all scratched, and there were almost ten of them! Secondly, when I asked the sales lady to look in the back for one that was not scratched it took FOREVER for her to come back and when she did the product she produced still was slightly damaged.
Other then that the store is cool, funky and fresh offering 2 floors of modern design items. I can’t wait to go back when they have new products. If you want to check out some of their products before venturing to the store you can check out their website at:

I wanted to review CB2 predominately because I am so impressed and pleased with the renovations, turning a drab though developing intersection into something swift and easy on the eyes.
It was a sad day for music lovers when the Big Bop closed its doors. For months, sheets hid the renos and curious onlookers such as myself waited in anticipation for the grand unveiling. Old brick was restored, glass brought in, walls replaced, the inside gutted and reborn with a subtle nod to the original owners, an old Big Bop sign on the wall hung as a huge piece of art.
Inside is home to designer furniture, a cross between Umbra and Ikea with prices in between. Though many couches and tables cost more than $ 1000, for less than $ 10 one can find gorgeous colourful plates to enhance a kitchen and quirky home accents with just a hint of demure. I picked up a magnetic whiteboard for my office at around $ 50, steeper than I’d have liked to pay but it met two of my needs. Inside I could have walked out with a million things. The art, the accents. I will go back for plates, teak bowls and a wine rack — not to mention I’m sure many gifts. It’s consistent with its Crate&Barrel roots, though perhaps as more of a hipper sister.
Most any home décor store on Queen West is bound to merit the same emotions, perhaps even at better prices, but CB2 is still at home in the burgeoning area and will be for a long while.

«Any person who would defile America’s pastime by wearing a baseball cap backwards… well, that’s an evil that speaks for itself! «
— Virgil Robinson, CB4
There are a lot of places along Queen between Bathurst and Spadina that offer smart condo ready furniture. CB2 is the most recent addition. Billed as the more value-​priced spin off of Crate & Barrel, CB2 is hit and miss in terms of values. The furniture is pricey. $ 1200 couches, $ 800 benches. Nothing really stands out as cool design. I’ve seen cheaper and more innovative condo style furnishing at Ikea. Ikea can breath easy, for sure. The kitchen accessories, plates, glasses, etc. however are a study in contrast. Great design and affordable. A first stop for Christmas, whenever that is.
Nice touch to keeping up a Big Bop sign, a nod to the building’s previous tenant. Wonder if anyone has met their significant other at the Big Bop and are now returning to feather their nest?

I was listening to some women talking about their anticipation of this store opening. Inside, I was wanting to interrupt their conversation and say, “Me, too!“
Since the day it opened I have seen the white and orange CB2 bags cradled in the arms of many ladies and gents. This only drove me crazier. Those bags were such a tease.
Today, I finally got to walk through those doors. Holy Man! I was excited and giddy like a little girl. I believe I did have the desire to jump up and down once inside but, you know, I wanted to look cool — that perhaps may have gotten a security tail on my ass.
Let me say this, after reading the reviews from my fine Unilocaler compatriots, I agree. This is no replacement for IKEA. There is definitely a lot less to choose from in every area of the home. IKEA wins hands down on pricing especially on furniture. It is still more expensive for the fewer pieces of furniture available.
Now, if you are a fan of the modern, inexpensive style — this is hands down THE place to go in downtown Toronto for basic pieces. No long drives to the burbs for that elusive IKEA shop.
I wanted to buy something just to buy something because there were so many items under $ 5. Great prices on kitchenware and entertaining.
The only thing I have to say is it does fall short on the customer service. I got eye contact, I think, from someone who worked there but that was about it. It was difficult to tell who was actually working there. Although, I am glad they have no uniform. I just wish they were easier to identify.

The renovation/​restoration of the former Big Bop building is one amazing transformation and an improvement to this rather dumpy intersection of town.
CB2 is Crate & Barrel’s more affordable, youthful and urban spinoff, just like Pottery Barn’s West Elm stores. Having lived in the U.S. and shopped in these stores the arrival of these stores on our soil are most welcomed.
If you have shopped at Crate & Barrel than CB2 should be very familiar, but cheaper.
It’s not as cheap as Ikea, but the quality is much better, and you have a much less chance of seeing the same stuff in other people’s homes.
Some good buys are their wine glasses, with their wide selection of shapes and sizes and are priced less than $ 5, with most priced around $ 2.50.

Crate & Barrel’s new store in Toronto CB2 is very well done.
Love the way they integrated the historic building in with modern design. I’m usually not a fan of modern design however the two mixed together work very well. Many design elements are well done, for example the grill in the stairs and using that same grill in the storefront window display and the overall design of the stairs and the upstairs back bar for the customer service desk, and the like the use of the steel beams for the barn doors/​artwork, the exterior of the building refurbished very well done. Lastly, LOVE the west wall treatment… well I like it now when it’s new — once the birds find it, might be a little messy then… in the large scheme of things, compliments to the designers of this store… job well done, very nice !
Many of the furniture pieces are at great price points, and lot’s of furniture and accessories for small condo’s.
Many unique pieces of artwork and lights, store flows very well and I might just return for a purchase this weekend.

Part of Crate & Barrel, CB2 offers modern and vibrant furniture, home accents, and kitchenware. Targeting the downtown Queen West residents, this newly opened store draws the eye and both complements and competes with all the smaller home furniture shops along this strip.
The big pieces will never be able to beat Ikea’s student budget pricing, but they have really well-​priced kitchen goods.
If you like sleek lines, bold colours, and trendy items in your home, CB2 is a worthwhile stop.