apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I read this this morning!! I love her place! The colors are very comforting.

I want her dog.

I want her (Louboutin?) shoes.

I don't want to live in a world as white, white, white as the Room & Board mini-catalog. I do, however, love living in a home with one of their great sofas. Go figure.

Seriously, I didn't notice it until my sister said something, but the stories portray an incredibly non-diverse clientele for R&B. What's up with that?

well, keeeks, they're originally from minnesota. hard to get much whiter than that!

i, for one, was glad to see them feature a small living space for once.

hi

kelton, I live in Indianapolis and the midwest is maybe not as lacking in diversity as it might seem to coast-ers. R&B is headquartered in the Minneapolis area, which is more than 30% minority (including large incoming immigrant populations of Hmong, Liberian, and Somali folks). Plus, from what I could see, the catalog wasn't shot in Minnesota.

But I was excited about the small space, too.

This is actually a compliment: as a platinum, emerald (or whatever) traveler I stay in a lot of hotel suites that look like this. Clean, crisp and to the point. When I saw the catalog I was trying to figure out where I'd plug in my laptop.

I like R&B, they're shipping policy/pricing smokes DWR's and they have have some great foundation pieces.

You can have her dog and the shoes. I'd like to take her to dinner :)

whoops! "their"

I don't have the catalog yet, so I can't say anything to the diversity within its pages, but R&B is soliciting stories on their site, so the responsibility is not only in their hands. I'm going to give them a little more time before making any judgments.

Don't have the catalog yet. Did you get it in the mail, or pick up at the store? Is it at the store?

Just to clarify, I don't think this is *the* R&B catalog... they have started to send out periodic mini-feature catalogs like this... it does not show the full product line, and a previous one showed only finishing touches (no customer stories). The back of the catalog does solict more customer stories, so perhaps that will encourage and create a broader spectrum of stories (if they continue this profile trend).

The main catalog (with entire product line) does indeed show more ethnic diversity (via employee profiles).

and keeeks, I was just happy that all the features did *not* feature 30-something married couples with kids...

i know, keeeks. just being cheeky!!!

I love Room & Board.

Just got this mini-catalog this morning. Really well done. It's nice to see the customer stories/photos. Although I'm sure the rooms and families are styled to the nth degree, it does lend a quality of warmth to the company.

Those Louboutins ARE nice.

I don't know. I saw this and all I could think was: how did they really make this catalog? The homes featured are full of brand-new furniture and accessories that show zero wear and tear and that (more to the point) are ENTIRELY by Room & Board. Did the people get the brand-new furniture for free in exchange for appearing in the catalog? Are they even real people? It's clear that there's at least some level of artifice in how this is being portrayed, and that is distracting enough to me that I can't really just browse through it and enjoy it as I would a standard catalog.

My second thought was -- magazines have become catalogs (hello, Domino); now catalogs want to be magazines.

i found the 'real people' concept contrived and off-putting. let the furniture/photography/styling speak for themselves. maybe it's the jaded new yorker in me... does this approach work for a different audience?

and i agree with curlygirl -- what 60-something person would have entirely new furniture?

Um, if you read the story about the older couple, you'd know why.

What I love about Room & Board is that you can buy EVERYTHING there, and it does not look like it came from the same place.

Btw, I'm finishing up a living room for a couple and, egads, they are buying all new furniture, all at once. Some people just do that.

Oooh the Louboutins were the first thing i noticed too! Yum!

I'm totally clueless about Louboutins (never heard of them) or their appeal.

When I saw the photo of such high heels, all I can think of is:
1) Ouch! It must be torture on your feet to wear something like that.
2) Do real people walk their dog in heels that high?

No, usually the dog falls off.

P2, you're a riot. : )

Now I can't get the image of a dog in high heels out of my head.

The biggest problem with the catalog: it needs an editor who understands basic English grammar and punctuation. Adding an apostrophe or an apostrophe-s to a word or name does not make it plural, people! It's starting to become an epidemic, and I may go insane before it's all over.

Otherwise, the dog, the heels, and the white people were just great.

your rite, shawn. it drive's me crazy when people make mistake's like that.

Shawn--
What error(s) did you find?

And, diversity issues aside, this "cross section" was much more about life stage than anything else, and selling the idea that R&B "does" Sm, Med and Large.

This is just too juicy to not comment. My friend Lauren sent this to me. I'm Lanie...the girl with the fab Louboutins and the dog (who hates wearing heels). As a matter of fact, this is a totally real story and I LOVE R&B. I agree with Patrick that you can get like 75% of your furniture at the one store and no one knows it came from the same place (unlike Crate, PB, etc). I am in this book b/c the creative director literally decided to 'hop' on the delivery truck one day to see how new yorkers live. We hit it off, we kept in touch and the rest is history. So all in all a good story...except the typos I guess. Bad grammar makes me [sic].

So cool to hear from you! Congrats on the coverage. You should enter this year's Smallest Coolest Contest!

Ooh, great heels and a slick editing joke.