I love their furnishings and overall style. It just doesn't read "dreary" to me like it does everyone else. There's a rustic sophistication with a hint of whimsy that I find really appealing.

I'm with you, jan_in_wisconsin. Personally, for those prices I'd rather have real antiques (if I could afford anything in that price range), but I can totally understand it as a response to the constant sensory bombardment we're subjected to these days.

I don't find it any more depressing than all the horrible grayed "colors" (spa blue, for instance) that have been so popular for years. Less depressing, actually.

Certain individual pieces are quite lovely! And I do enjoy the store to an extent. My son does not and has voiced as much at the tender age of 3 though.

The catalog is awful the way that they show things and I find that my most favorite 'rooms' in the store are those that include the old Silver Sage in the decore. Wonderfully soothing!

The furniture is ridiculously overscaled though and many of their decorative items I can find at junk and salvage shops. It's all in the eye and the presentation.

Honestly I much rather enjoy looking at the RH Child catologue and can see buying stuff from there for me.

As noted prior - especially the lighting.

What bothers me about the catalog is that unless you buy completely into the aesthetic, aka trend, then you are basically SOOL. Some individual items are nice, but you have to find them amidst the sameness of the rest of their stuff.

It reminds me of Henry Ford when he said his customers can have any color car they want, as long as it is black.....

What I would prefer is to see a catalog showing different styles and what is possible with their stuff. The lack of choice is the part that I don't buy. They seem to show that one must toss everything they have to completely re-do their home to this new trend. If you buy their stuff, your house will look like millions of others who also buy their stuff. People will walk into your home and ask "RH?".

In a few years, I bet it will be all wild colors in RH and the Belgian bland look will be passe.

Some of the upholstered pieces are reasonably priced, and I would use them. I don't think the upholstered goods have changed much from 'the olden' days' at RH. And I'm intrigued by the Bruno leather chair. But I'm not at all thrilled with the case goods. The catalog is just odd -- if you are really interested to buy, you would have to go on-line to find all the pertinent dimensions.

Good question. Gosh, now I wish the catalogue hadn't been so ugly that it went straight into recycling. I can't look at it. Although it's probably online.
Having said that - we bought some lights a few years ago and they stopped working after about 4 years, should have lasted longer given what I paid for them. Their hardware is nice and I do think the quality is quite good. Their furniture has, for me always been too big and overwhelming for my taste but that's what it is - just for my taste.

Restoration Hardware used to be one of my favorite stores - and my daughter's, too. We both appreciated the former aesthetic, and enjoyed shopping at their stores. I no longer identify with the new look, and although there might be a few items I would still like, I am not going on a safari to hunt for them through an environment that I find depressing.

I used to enjoy going to their stores. I am buying new funiture now and didn't even consider them. Their prices are in my budget, but the only memory I have of my visit to their store 2 months ago was "depressing dark place". At those price points I prefer going somewhere a bit more boutique-like, instead of a store found at malls across America.

Like some, I really like the quality of RH and there are still a few select pieces that I really love. I love the quality and some of their more reasonably-sized items. I'm very sad that they no longer carry as many of the contemporary / sleek somewhat classic designs in darker wood (cherry, mahogany, etc). I love their hardware and bathware. I keep hoping they'll scale back their really crazy stuff and have more of a mixture of what they used to have and still keep some of the new aesthetic. Not that I can afford much of what they carry.

I haven't read all the comments, but I do want to respond. When RH changed its look, an article written for/by the company stated that the directors went to Europe, found things they liked, hired two top-notch Belgian designers to reproduce/modify/etc. said items, then took the prototypes to China to mass produce them according to their specifications. However, no information was offered about the conditions of the Chinese factories in which the production actually occurs. I have ongoing "issues" with this model. Apart from that, as I have mentioned in other RH discussions, it seems that many of the products are designed to photograph beautifully, but are a disappointment in real life. The quality control is not there. I grew up in a family of furniture store owners and designers, and while all those relatives are gone now, I am quite sure that they would not have considered RH's line "good." For those prices, and given the profit margin margin that I suspect the manufacturing model allows, the furniture finishes should be better and more consistent. Finally, I have purchased a number of accent pieces, towels, stuffed toys, etc. from the RH baby line for showers and certain outdoor pieces for gifts because I thought returns and exchanges would be easy, should they be necessary, given the ubiquity of the stores. As it turned out, shipping delays, problematic returns, and confused customer service reps are more the norm than not. I have pretty much written off RH. (I do miss their giant dressmaker's scissors, though.)

I didnt like the stuff before i got the behemoth catalog. To me it looks like a substitute for style, no different from the showrooms or catalogs of cheaper or more expensive "lifestyle" furniture and goods.

I like many of their items: their towels receive top-rated reviews. I like their lights, lanterns, etc, inotherwords, their accessories. But, I visited the store nearby recently to check out their coverlet quality and felt as if I was walking into an interior-designer welcome only atmosphere. The 4 salespeople (?) clustered around the counter discussing something among themselves and literally looked down their nose at me. I felt I had wandered into an exclusive club accidentally. One did finally ask me if I needed help, but when I asked him what the color of the coverlet was on the bed, he didn't know.
I left. I don't think I'll be back again, though, like chispa, I used to love going into their stores.
Dee

When we redid out master bath I was all over the RH website looking for inspiration, and ended up buying the lighting from them. I think they have gone downhill since then (5+ years or so) and nothing much interests me. The RH store at our local mall closed a couple of years ago. That said it all--been there, done that...bye-bye!

But isn't buying the big ticket item, i.e. the sofa, in a classic shape and neutral color words of wisdom everyone is supposed to follow?

If I can pay the same for that couch (or even a bit more) by going to a local store, that manufactures their products in the USA, will customize any piece and gives me more choices in their neutral fabrics or even going with my own fabric (COM), why would I buy from RH?

I'm lucky to have always lived near major cities so I have plenty of choices of where to buy home furnishings.

I like the individual items very much but it really DOES help to see them in a room similar to something I would do (aka PB), so the monochromatic greige is difficult for me, and as someone able to visualize easily, must be terrible for someone unable to visualize-most people.

It doesn't help that I had a horrendous customer service problem on my second order from them.

When I was young I use to covet RH and PB but once i could afford the items I realized I did not want mass produced things. If I do want a mass produced item, which happens from time to time, I will purchase from a discount store like Homegoods, marshalls etc. I agree with chipsa, for the price point I prefer a local boutique. I think of RH and Potterybarn like fast food furniture although not as base as mickyds it is more like olive garden...

I have to admit that I just love my Belgian linen drapes that I bought at RH, but I'm now mad at the very drab color choices available. I'm ready to purchase drapes for a couple of more rooms and hate the few options they have. UGH

Sure, some of the stuff is attractive, but what turns me off is the pretentiousness of the presentation in contrast with the seen-it-to-death same old same old. Hello, you are a chain furniture store in suburban Ohio; no need to act so grand. Did I actually see subway signs and resin skulls in that catalog? See, I can't take anything seriously as reflecting "style" that has resin skulls or subway signs in it. So once I've seen those things, it kills any desire I might have had for the light fixtures or whatever. Like being served food with a hair in it. The joy is gone, even though all the food the hair didn't touch is technically still good.

And the "articles" about the designers. Too too.

I bought some really cool "oxidized" switch plates a couple of years ago. I also liked their bathroom hardware at the time.

I do not like "greige" at all.

I have not seen the catalogue but I've been browsing online and I do love a lot of the pieces, I find there's a variety of styles one can put together and integrate in an already existing decor.

We rented a house in the laurentians in july and it could have been a showroom for RH, I found it peaceful and relaxing to live in , the textures of the woods are more appealing in person, also easy care since it's slightly distressed.

The trunk collections are amazing.

I haven't been in a RH store in years. We'd pop in from time to time to look around, and my reaction even back then was that the colors were dull, the furniture and objects not particularly well made and not comfortable. And as I commented in another discussion recently, I don't get the idea of buying accessories simply to accessorize a space, and certainly not mass-produced ones that were made in Accessory City, China.

I didn't go through much of the online catalog. Just could not get past the pretentiousness of the intro piece. Teddy Roosevelt and RH? Is that supposed to be some sort of joke? Like leafy said: RH is a chain store in the burbs. So what's with the attitude?

I like the lines of some of their furniture (dining tables, mostly), but I am not a fan of oak, weathered or not, so wouldn't be interested in most of what they offer.

I agree with Lynxe that their pretentiousness/attitude is hard to take.

Nothing says "take me home." I've had some of their bathroom hardware and lighting which I liked. Some of their lighting, hardware, bath accessories, wall decor and even some of the curtains are fine. I've always thought that RH furniture is poor quality for the price. I'll take my Hancock and Moore leather sofa over anything at RH any day. I'll overlook a poorly fitting drawer in a vintage piece, but not in something new.

The new RH "look" is extremely off-putting to me. I'm usually a rather happy sort, but grey-tones have always depressed me to the point of tears. I also don't like the weathered wood - either how it looks or the tactile experience of it. As you can imagine, a trip into one of their stores is no longer something on my list of fun things to do.

Is there anything wrong with buying accessories that are not one of a kind, not vintage antiques, etc.? Not everyone has access to antique stores at all, or only to those that sell unmitigated junk. Even if you do have access to genuine antiques how likely are you to find a genuine industrial cart, a genuiune piece of large scale architectural salvage, and the like--that doesn't cost an arm an a leg? (You can spend $10K for a genuine Vuitton trunk, easily).

Are you supposed to abandon that style of vintage decorating altogether?

I am pretty lucky: I live in a large city, one that used to be known for its antique stores (most of which no longer exist as brick and mortar stores). I have upwards of seventy candlesticks in one collection, all vintage. How many did I find in a store locally? Exactly one. My house is full of vintage furniture, and I only have a few things I bought new, but I have waited years, sometimes, to make a pair, and then often had to buy things in such poor condition (so they were affordable) and then have an upholsterer take the whole thing apart and put it back together. I not only have the access, but I have the patience to do so...most people don't have either.

I should also say that mixed in with my mostly vintage stuff I have things like plastic coral from Pottery Barn. Where it comes from means nothing to me if I like it. I am not sure if I have anything from Restoration Hardware, not lately.

But I think this whole catalog thing shows how advertising, media and presentation hold sway over opinions. I think a lot of the stuff is the same stuff it was before, in essence, and the change in presentation is what people find so off-putting. People hate some of the same stuff they loved now that it is presented differently.

Pal,I think this could be a new post unto itself:
"Is there anything wrong with buying accessories that are not one of a kind, not vintage antiques, etc.?"

No there is nothing wrong with buying mass produced accents but homegoods, target and many others offer similar quality things for much less so when Rh has sales I look but otherwise for their prices i prefer one of a kind and unique things.

Two words CHESTERFIELD SOFA'S

It's funny, when I looked at their first "new look" catalog, I was really put off. Like everyone said, the monochromatic look and giant scale put me off.

We recently re-did our master bath and began the update of our master bedroom. I'm hoping to post some photos soon for some advice.

I am very drawn to the RH zinc, but I don't think it'll work with my bed...and I am also considering the Printer's sideboard in the bedroom. I feel after seeing their products in person, that I could use them in my home. Well, at least the bedroom, which has had a re-model (as well as the master bath) which has a weird McDonald's Happy Meal Box kind of scale.

I worked at PB for quite a while and furnished our vacation condo primarily with their stuff. At 40% off, the quality is what it is. There are a couple of things that had I paid full price, I would have raised a stink about the quality. But job security and the distance from the condo to the store made it easier to ignore.

So I'm RH shy. I was thinking perhaps a local furniture store may have some "knock off" sort of things that'll work. But on the other hand, DH and I very rarely buy furniture. Shouldn't we get what works for our new "nest"? Which is always easier to say than do when right now our primary income is seasonally in the Cape Cod restaurant business.....OH, i went to Provincetown this week and finally saw some home accents that were different and fun and not what I would have found closer to home. I'm thinking there may be some deals come October.

Beth P.

Great subject. Got me thinking at least!

I love their new look. It has many elements in common with the way I've always liked to decorate. Now finally I could actually buy some pieces from a catalog (if I wanted to) rather than strip and sand furniture back to the natural wood myself. Over the past decade I've bought many lamps and also curtain and cabinet hardware from them. (although I prefer my Rejuvenation curtain hardware to RH stuff but the Rejevenation is more $$$). However I never bought any furniture from them because I just don't like new dark stained lacquered furniture like they used to sell. I bought my first furniture piece from them recently, an outdoor resin wicker sofa, only because it looked exactly like some old weathered natural wicker pieces I already owned. On sale I must add because I would never pay those prices unless I was getting a locally made handmade piece. We have some very good woodworking businesses locally. I'll also be honest in saying I used their farmhouse dining room table as a model for getting one made locally with wood from our farm. I guess I just don't get why their new look gets some people so seethingly upset. I didn't really care for their 'previous' furniture but I didn't seethe over it. I just thumbed through the catalog for fun but didn't buy anything. I have no idea really but wouldn't you think if their 'previous look' was doing grat financially they wouldn't have changed a thing? Bottom line they want to make big profits so my guess is they were about to go under and are trying something new. Now I like this look a lot but honestly no one I know decorates this way. Plus even though I like it, I find it really expensive and am more apt to buy on sale or buy used / antique / vintage with the same vibe but for much less $$$. It will be interesting to see how long RH will stay afloat for!

I just posted on the other thread.

I would not want to browse through a 600 page catalog but I do have a few pieces of furniture from RH that work well with my antique pine and painted furniture. I love my RH dining table. Visitors compliment me on the furniture and ask where I bought it, so I don't think they scream "RH" to most people.

I like simple lines and RH offers that in addition to the more gradoise styles, which would not work in my home.
I've always preferred unfinished solid wood furniture to stained and/or laminate so RH's new look suits my preference more than the old.

I don't like the "look" because the "look" goes beyond "neutral" to "sepia" in the catalog.

Most of the items are scaled too large for my own 2600 square foot home, and honestly I just can't afford to pay those prices for a linen sofa that will look like the other RH sofas on Craigs List in five years.

And a lot of it is just too pretentious for my own personal style.

And, of course, I like several individual pieces, especially the RH ready-made linen drapes which are just gorgeous. However, I've already bought several ivory panels, and was hoping to branch out to a little color for a couple of bedrooms, but the choices are quite limited compared to what RH once offered. And that is a pity to me.

I was so offended by the massive size of the catalog that I immediately removed myself from their mailing list. There were no colors other than 'dreary' or 'ashen' in it. The only smile it brought to my face was the little box on the back that said 'Please recycle this catalog to help the Earth' or something equally ridiculous.

"Is there anything wrong with buying accessories that are not one of a kind, not vintage antiques, etc.?"

"Are you supposed to abandon that style of vintage decorating altogether?"

To answer the first question: of course there's nothing wrong with it. But to me, an accessory is an object that you have or that you find, and that you place in a space and like in that space. It's a piece that you relate to in some way. Whether the piece was made in Accessory City, China, or whether a one-of-a-kind isn't the point. But when shopping (or looking through your own things), an item catches your eye...

At that point, after it catches your eye, you decide whether or not it works somewhere in your house. There's a difference between doing that and ordering from a catalog: that thing on the wall for my wall, that thing on the table for the coffee table, and that thing on the side table for my side table....my room is done!

....I'm having a hard time articulating why I think the two processes differ.

To answer the second question: Again, no. Assuming you want to decorate in that style.

However, to decorate that way, I do not need to buy overpriced stuff from RH. Nor would I have to rely on antique stores, although there are bazillions in this area. I can (and do) go to the nearest thrift shop or consignment store.

"But I think this whole catalog thing shows how advertising, media and presentation hold sway over opinions. I think a lot of the stuff is the same stuff it was before, in essence, and the change in presentation is what people find so off-putting. People hate some of the same stuff they loved now that it is presented differently."

I didn't like most of the stuff back then, and I don't don't like it now. Or if not actively disliking it, I'm indifferent to it. For me, the presentation is almost irrelevant. Even if I can't get past how inadvertently funny the catalog's intro message is.

But I think a Lot of people go through the process of "that thing on the wall for my wall, that thing on the table for my coffee table..." process. A lot of people in the general population and a lot of people in these forums.

I really don't know that a lot of people choose accessories through their personal resonance toward them --not by reading the forum or by how clients I've had have picked things in the past:

In these forums, I DO feel like a read a lot of --"is this big enough, the right color, does it fill the space adequately?" which IS "this accessory for that spot"

and with clients I have had a hard time getting them to even grasp that accessorizing can be easy if they choose things they personally respond to.

The exception is the collector or accumulator who does this as a matter of behavior and doesn't even think about it.

---
The other thing is, is it worse to buy something from Restoration Hardware *because* it is expensive, *because* it is accessible, and it is copies of things that are normally not accessible? If you have the money and you don't have the time and/or patience aren't you just trading one thing for the other?

These aren't direct responses to any post in particular but more a way of following the thought process...

If you want to spend

$10,000 for an antique Vuitton trunk

$2000 for a Restoration Hardware trunk delivered to your door

or $200 for a real vintage trunk that you found at Goodwill but it took you 9 months

...what's the real difference if you have the discretionary income?

pal, you should start a new thread with those questions. They are interesting and I think there will be many responses covering the spectrum of possibilities. I'll respond to just one of your questions here:

"I really don't know that a lot of people choose accessories through their personal resonance toward them --not by reading the forum or by how clients I've had have picked things in the past:

In these forums, I DO feel like a read a lot of --'is this big enough, the right color, does it fill the space adequately?' which IS 'this accessory for that spot'"

Yes, it is the same as is the accessory right for that spot. But IMO it's also the same as "I found/saw/bought/was thinking about buying this accessory, and I wonder whether it's big enough/the right color and so on for this spot"....by the time the person has asked the question, he or she has already responded positively to the accessory....

Personal resonance was undoubtedly too strong for what I think should happen. How about simply: responded positively to the accessory and likes it?

I think responding to something personally is the best thing that could happen, irrespective of appropriateness.

I am still not sure that for some people responding to it is part of the equation, that it's simply a matter of finding something the right size and shape and color. Sometimes I am reading a lot of detachment with regards to whatever the object is, just that is meets a list of criteria.

In my experience, most people buy art because they have responded to it emotionally and it's rare to purchase something just because the wall is bare. A massed produced $19.99 print can bring just as much delight as one for thousands.

It does depend on the room too. Kitchens, baths, hallways are not as emotion driven as bedroom, living/family rooms and kitchen.

The unemotional ones are the decorators who are purchasing for a commercial enviornment. I need this color, this size, this feel, this price......done.

substitute the 2nd 'kitchen' with dining room :)

"Sometimes I am reading a lot of detachment with regards to whatever the object is, just that is meets a list of criteria."

I can see that from certain posts on here.

Personally, the majority of my walls are currently empty. Like tattoos, I cannot imagine anything I would want to look at long term....

In my experience, most people buy art because they have responded to it emotionally and it's rare to purchase something just because the wall is bare.

I worked for a while for an art gallery. We had designers who would call and tell us how many pieces and what colors--never came themselves to see. Other customers likewise. People would come in and tell us the color scheme and ask to see what we had (not the other way around). And this wasn't starving-artist-off-a-truck-on-velvet stuff, either. Gross Arnold, for example. A supposed Caravaggio (although I always thought it should be "studio of"). Things like that.

I don't think there is anything wrong with buying something because it goes with the scheme--some art in museums was originally commissioned to fit a certain space and have a color scheme after all...

but, yes, I still think a lot of people accessorize by mental checklist of right size, right color and don't feel anything toward what it *is* at all, and this is why people

1) can change out accessories because they are tired of the color
2) can get bored of their accessories, get rid of them, and replace them with a shopping trip to Home Goods etc. and be done in a weekend.

I have had clients who wanted to do just this: allot X number of hours to find X number of accessories for X places

I don't know that this is Wrong necessarily, but I would much rather have people Want the actual Item so that the "criteria" portion of it is less important, and they aren't going to get tired of it.

But if I hate the catalogue- the overwhelming size, the nothing special photo on the outside, it will not make it past the recycling bin where its determined which mail gets to come in the house and which is junk. So I don't know if I could like any individual item. I couldn't get interested enough to look. The only way I would go to the web site now is if someone posted an item on a blog, or on Houzz, and I liked the item and it was linked to the site. I'm an impulse looker.

That's why I felt that people were heavily influenced by the marketing and not necessarily by the actual goods, many of which are the same or similar to before they entered their griege period.

Ya gotta have sexy marketing.

Oh. My. I received the catalog today. Cannot believe how thick it is! I hope they aren't going to keep printing them this size... much less very often. What a waste.

sorry, Pal. Thought this was the other thread. I need to go to bed....

bird lover, did you see the textured Belgian linen curtains on page 514? Those are the ones I have. They come in more colors... are lined and keep out the light (we live in the woods, not city).

I flipped through all 616 pages. Didn't see a thing I couldn't live without. I took a second look (means I looked at the price) of maybe a dozen things.

I have the lined Belgian linen curtains throughout the house and Bistro faucets/showers in all the bathrooms. I do like those items. Two bathrooms have towels purchased 6 years ago (guest rooms). The only other thing I've purchased from RH the last few years were the hand lotion in a jar and two of the antique clay bowls (use as soap dishes in guest baths). Oh, and three vintage yogurt bottles - pretty hand blown glass.

We recently selected a piece from RH...a media cabinet for the basement room. The more traditional wooden pieces from the major manufacturers would not have worked well in the lspace. We selected this piece based upon look and the fact that the av equipment would be hidden behind flip down doors.

For the coffee table we have a barn door from Wisteria. So, the space is looking a little funky with a couple of framed Wilco posters to boot. RH had the only type of furniture that we thought might work in this space. So, even though I am not a fan of the in your face catalog, some the pieces do work well in certain spaces. (I still wouldn't want an entire room of it, but that's how I feel about all decor. Never all of one thing.)

When it's all said and done, I feel a little guilty about throwing away the 2 ton catalog. More fodder for the land fill, although it is bio degradabe. Still it makes me feel a little guilty. On the other hand, maybe the entire endeavor provided some much needed employment from the tree growers, printers, distributors, etc. Since it's all said and done, perhaps this is the most optimistic way to look at it?

Leafy, you are SO right! I laughed out loud when I read your comment.....it's exactly how I see RH.