09 January 2010

New year, new stuff from Room and Board

The gang at Room and Board released a number of new items this week and I like to take a moment to fawn over four of them. Room and Board's furniture, carpets, lighting and accessories have a clean and modern aesthetic I like a great deal. There's a bit of Mid Century Modern in all of these pieces but they never cross the line into camp. Their stuff's exceptionally well made and sold at a price point that makes my head spin sometimes.

If you're in the market for new furniture, please don't buy junk. Buy good quality furniture and buy it once. Do your research and I can't think of a better place to start that research than at Room and Board.



This is the Louis Chair and Ottoman.



The Louis comes in five fabrics or can be customized with any of the hundreds of fabrics in Room and Board's collection. The Louis chair sells for $899 and the ottoman $399.



This is the Ventura table.



The Ventura is available in solid cherry, solid maple, and solid walnut. It comes in four lengths and its prices range from $1399 to $1899.



This is the Spill carpet.



The Spill is made from handmade wool felt and is available in the color and pattern shown. Other colors and patterns have other names. Imagine. Out of all of them though, I like the Spill the best. Nothing like a jolt of orange to start the day, right? Anyhow, the Spill comes in two sizes and ranges in price from $2160 to $3,600.



And finally, this is the Adams table.



In the Adams table, Room and Board managed to inject some Mid Century Modern sensibilities into a traditional Shaker form and I love the effect.

Again, if you're in the market for furniture, don't buy junk. Research like crazy and then buy the best you can afford and buy it once. If you have to buy something on impulse, but a pack of gum at the check out. Furniture purchases should be agonized over for months. Or in my case, years.

10 comments:

  1. Oh I love that chair, especially in the last picture in the navy blue.

    I would love to be able to drop a serious amount of cash on furniture but that's not likely to happen anytime in the near future, especially since we've just adopted a cat before Xmas.

    Thanks for letting me dream a little about it though Paul!

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  2. You and me both sister, I have a wish list and one of these days I'm going to pull the trigger on it.

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  3. I have two degrees worth of student loans between me and any large purchases. And while every now and then I get a little windfall that I'd love to invest in my home, I really have no idea where I could even start. If I bought furniture item by item when I could (over YEARS) wouldn't everything just look funny by the end of it?

    I swear, reading so many decorating and design blogs and websites for work is KILLING me because I don't have the cash to fork out in my own home.

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  4. Buying furniture over time requires a plan and that you avoid getting too trendy with the shapes. Decent furniture can be reupholstered so the fabric choices aren't nearly so important as the shapes of the pieces you buy.

    Decent furniture can be found second hand pretty readily, you just need to know what you're buying. Well-made, second-hand furniture that you love back to its former glory will last longer and cost less than garbage from IKEA.

    Just take your time with it and really, at the end of the day what your home feels like is far more important than how it looks. I'll take a mismatched living room in a harmonious home over a perfectly furnished one in a home where people can't stand each other any day.

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  5. Great advice to "Nim". As to the furniture line featured....maybe. (I know my son would love it.) -Brenda-

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  6. Room and Board sells their stuff in Canada without missing beat.

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  7. I have to say Paul that I do not think Room and Board has long lasting quality. To play devil's advocate, I advise clients to save for a great piece that will work in more than one place in their home and then find gently used pieces that we then can recover with a most exciting fabric. I deal in the lower end products for some pieces but never upholstered items. Most of their products are made overseas. And no customizing really. I just see a lot of it that does not last...and that is when they call me. So I guess in a way, biz like that are good for my business!! LOL

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  8. I appreciate your leaving a comment and I disagree. Most of Room and Board's furniture is made in the US. The Louis Chair above is made in Virginia. It's also available in 240 fabrics. No one will call the Louis chair an heirloom piece, but it is a well-made piece of furniture that will last. For lower end furniture clients, Room and Board is a viable and quality option.

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  9. I'm interested in the disagreement about quality. Here's why:
    Ok, I get what you say about serious furniture being a better investment than Ikea. So, we save up to buy a West Elm couch http://www.westelm.com/products/tillary-modular-seating-f554/ , by-passing the obvious Ikea and Crate & Barrel alterntives. The Tillary looks fabulous in pictures, but falls apart when you sit on it ! Literally, the back-rests are not anchored and can't take any weight. A couch that you can't lean back in, what an idea - for almost $2K. At this rate I'm heading back to Discount Danish ! So, now, we're saving up for the Room and Board Adams Round Table with extension (I wish they made the Bradshaw to seat 6, but the Adams is my 2nd favorite design). Can you tell me if I should expect to find better quality at R&B than I did with my disappointing foray into West Elm?

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  10. West Elm is crap furniture. A visit to a West Elm store ought to convince anybody of that. Buying furniture sight unseen off the internet is a mistake, even if you're buying it from Room and Board. R&B's quality is stellar but don't take my word for it. Take some of the money you're budgeting and go to a city with an R&B location and check it out yourself. You cannot photograph the quality points of a piece of furniture and no colors look anything like life on a computer monitor. Buy furniture in person.

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