ugh...

Aptly described, AT, you called Resto out for their pomposity. They really have changed a lot from their days of fun, 50's inspired kitch.

Pretentious overpriced junk for the nouveau riche
uber class of profiteering conservatives. Perfect for Texas......

I like their bath fixtures and a few of their sofas, but overall it's just too, TOO much of everything - size, scale, "vintagey-ness". Who buys those column lamps?

I ordered a crib and dresser from their baby and child spin off, and it is over a month late, and my baby is due any day. I had heard from others that their customer service was bad and shipping was overpriced. I didn't listen because I really liked the "french grey" finish of the furniture. This is the only time I have ever ordered from them, and it will be my last.

Hey! I live in Texas - and I have to say, you don't see much Restoration Hardware in many homes. I like an item here or there... but come on... the majority of us live in normal sized homes where most of this furniture is way too oversized!

Hilariously overpriced, ugly, and oversold. My mother and I were practically rolling on the floor while reading it aloud to each other. And such ugly furniture to boot!

I think the photographs are mostly lovely, but I can't see real people living with half of the new furniture. And, it's HUGE. Seriously, who needs a couch the size of a baseball field?

Well, personally I think their linen is beautiful, esp on their couches. And their furniture is also extremely soft and comfortable (as I lay typing on my ikea couch). But I agree it's enormous. And it's hard to get excited about a look that is so together. If they had only one store in the world though, I'd probably find more to admire.

Catrin here. I actually have (and love) one of their couches. And love their lighting, linens and towels. And some of the individual items are actually quite lovely, like the Oviedo (?) chaise and the cool tractor stools and lots of the leather and upholstery. It's the crazy UNIFORMITY of style in the catalog and store that kills me!! And the mega-uber-super-sized supersizes of the stuff. Laughable!

I used RH furniture & hardware for years...It seems that the have a new Stylist. The attempt to distance themselves from PB was understandable. But this new approach is just plain AWFUL! I can't believe that it is selling...
I had a client furnish a "man cave" with this stuff (against my advice). I later visited to find grown men sitting on the leather seating and dangling their legs without touching the floor (Like RoseAnn on the early SNL)...Pretty amusing!
I can't use a thing tha they are selling...The scale is INSANE and the quality stinks.

I used to enjoy browsing through the store and the catalog. I just feel depressed when I go in there now. Everything is the same: same colour, same style, same, same, same. I think Resto has put all of their eggs in one basket and in doing so have shot themselves in the foot. The industrial trend is sure to be just that, a trend. What will they do then?

I second much of what has been said above and will add the following: I prefer stuff with real not manufactured character.

Be kind. Don't forget the MacMansion explosion of the last decade. Those houses are huge and regular-sized furniture is dwarfed in those "cathedral vaulted" living rooms. And RH has some v. nice things as well as some horrifyingly pretentious stuff.

I miss the days when they were a good source of Arts and Crafts influenced pieces. THEN I couldn't afford what they had and now that I can afford to buy from them, they have very little that I'd care to own. So sad.

I can't get past all the greige in the collection.

I will add that I had a fabulous customer service experience with RH recently. A picture frame I purchased in December had the front and back pull apart and with the design of it, I couldn't get it to stick back. I sent a note stating my disappointment in the item. I had zero expectations of a refund or exchange (the item was no longer available and it had been purchased 3 months earlier) and the original packaging was long gone. I received a nice note back offering me a postage-paid return and a refund.

we have a chesterfield sofa from their older line, very comfortable and the fabric is amazingly childproof. I enjoy the "unique" gifts in the holiday catalog, but that is about it now.

I can only figure that their ginormous furniture is to compensate for the total lack of color.

I actually wish they hadn't tried to set themselves apart from Pottery Barn more...because I always thought their store was more classic and better quality BUT now...Pottery Barn wins hands down. Sure, RH has some pretty cool pieces, but everything I like would set me back an entire month's salary.

I went to a RH outlet a few months ago and it was ridiculous how much they still wanted for everything - the cheapest thing in the store was probably 500 dollars...

I ordered their Calais bed last week on sale for $899(king size) and it's scheduled to be delivered this thursday for $95. $95 includes setting up in my bedroom and taking away all the garbage. $95 for unlimited furniture delivery sounds like a great shipping policy to me.
So far, I think it was a great purchase but I will see when I actually see the bed.
I have been eyeing on some of their stuff for my 3 year old daughter. I absolutely love some of their kids furniture pieces. They are not cheap but i think Pottery barn and some of crate and barrel stuff are even more over priced for their quality.

The new catalog is really ridiculous! I use to like their stuff (although pretty pricey) and the quality is generally good but the scale and finish of everything in the new catalog is only meant for mcmansion owners looking to fill their boring oversized houses. I do still like some of their bath fixtures. I just specified a very petite bathroom light fixture for a project.

http://www.statelykitsch.com/sarahs-bathroom-renovation-part-6-the-lighting/

RH used to offer smart design. However in their attempt to "distance themselves from other furnitive retailers", they have managed to distance themselves from their traditional customers. I have one of their "studio sofas" (it's still HUGE) and I do like it but this new direction is BORING. It is all the same...the same colour...the same "reclaimed wood"...the same "grand scale".

You can add all the pompous language you want...it's still mass produced reproductions dressed up to sound more than what it is.

I love their stuff. The furnishings and textiles that I have are excellent quality, and gorgeous. There's a huge difference between their styling and the real world. So what if they're trying to appeal to a specific market? Doesn't everyone? I wouldn't dream of furnishing my house the way Design Within Reach is styled because it doesn't work with the architecture, but you bet your bippie there are some pieces that I'd just love to have in my home.

I think the readers above are reacting to the marketing and styling, and not, dare I say it? to the actual peices themselves. Take a gorgeous bed for example, out of it's pompous catalog, and put it in a deconstructed loft. Oooh la la. For that matter, take any single piece and put it in situe, and well, you'd be hard pressed to not think it was some other designer piece and you'd fawn all over it.

RH makes really classic furnishings that will last a lifetime, and some spoiled brat would be happy to inherit them and reupholster and refinish to suit.

Signed,
-Spoiled Brat

I want a job as a copywriter for Restoration Hardware! I bet they had a lot of fun writing those descriptions. Pretentious it may be, but you read it, right?

Weird. Normally I really dig the looks in Restoration Hardware. Not enough to shell out for those prices, but enough to try to figure out how to cobble something similar together. But these pics leave me cold, except for the library, which still doesn't quite do it for me. I may go take a peek in a store this weekend to figure out if the new collection is as dull as I find these pictures, or if it's just poor styling.

The catalogue is hilarious and pompous, just like the furniture! Love the descriptions.

I want to know what AT has against Restoration Hardware?
I wonder how many people have actually looked into the dimensions of the HUGE pieces. Many of the sofas are available in 72" lengths or shorter. The 1970's sofa I'm sitting on right now is 72"...

I think the Dutch Shipyard shelving is gorgeous, as is the Dutch Industrial bookcase (weren't we all just drooling over these a month or two ago?) I live in a small city apartment and either of these pieces would be fantastic in my home.

My entire family is very tall so we LOVE the depth of their sofas. We sat on over a 100 sofas at Furniture Land South in NC and ended up buying the first one we sat on in our local RH (the Maxwell). The quality of their furniture is quite good (much of it made in the US), far better than Pottery Barn, as are their linens. While I agree that 'source book' is a seriously pompous, I'm not going to let that stand in the way of going to them first when I need something.

Good call with the J. Peterman reference! Wow, I can't wait to get my hands on this. LOLness will surely follow.

I live in a Philadelphia rowhome. My front door isn't wide enough to let most of this stuff in. I'm impressed by the quality, dismayed by the size, and bored by the uniform colorlessness of RH's products. I did, however, buy bath fixtures at their annual bath sale for redoing my bathroom.

There are exceptions to every rule. I've been known to like the odd piece from RH every year or so. However! In general, I'd say that Restoration Hardware is for people who a) have tons of money to spend on furniture, b) fancy themselves design-savvy, but actually just think the word "reclaimed" before wood = their friends will like it.

It's just SO OVERDONE, and everything looks the same!! All greys and whites and beiges... makes me think of an overcast day... but not in a "bring on the lightning!" way, because that would be cool. More like that misty rain sort of day.

romateamo- i've been thinking about getting their bath fixtures for my small bathroom. how do you like their fixtures? THey look really nice online but wasn't sure about the quality.
did you compare their price to other sources?

We like their paint. Our master bedroom in Atlanta was their Silver Sage, a wonderful color. When it came time to paint the MBR in our Richmond house, we didn't give it a second thought--Silver Sage it is!

How funny. I haven't seen the catalog, but your descriptions are cracking me up.

I have never felt strongly about RH one way or the other, but the pictures above are definitely not my style. I am sure some people love it, but it makes me think of something that I can't quite put my finger on. A little bit of the 80's, and a little bit hotel decor: bland, "luxurious" and unlikely to offend the eyes with any distinct color or pattern.

alahoop, I was thinking the same thing: a strange combination that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps "Dallas" meets "Pottery Barn"?

Looks like a Vegas hotel...

What fillecoco said.

Last time I entered Restoration Hardware, I realized what a Lilliputian must have felt entering the land of Gulliver. I literally laughed out loud. And then I felt overwhelmed by the gross obnoxiousness of it all and had to leave. Sad to see RH decline so drastically.

i am wondering how they are permitted to knock off the jacobsen egg chair and not get sued?

Thank you AT for finally calling Restoration Hardware out on their ridiculous approach. I used to love RH, but they have become comically absurd. Their furniture just wreaks of false pretention. You know, for people who have more money than brains. Do people realize they can get beautiful legitimate antiques for far less than RH? And what is with their entire collection being beige and antiqued? 10 years from now this furniture is going to look really dated. On the other hand I do still like their classic bathroom fixtures.

I like their velvet curtains, but the same can be done from a discount fabric store for 10% of the cost so I'll be doing that. The cashmere robes. But the fake-industrial shelving and fake-antique everything is so tasteless, so Vegas. So, um, sorry, Loud American who's seen Paris flea markets on TV.

I still like RH, but as individual pieces and not a whole room. Some of it is definitely ridiculous, but then again I think a lot of PB, DWR, etc. can be ridiculous when you look at entire rooms of it as well, though RH is far and away the WORST offender of this. It's way too much themey stuff and it's all too similar to each other in scale, color and finishes. The way they style their rooms and cram every absurd piece all togethe is insane...whoever is styling their catalogs is an idiot.

Having said that, like I said I still like it for finding individual pieces - a few accessories, a chair, a sofa, a table, bath fixtures. But would never buy more than a few things from there at once for a house...way too much. Also, they did a good job remaking themselves to be different from PB. No one's talking about PB and I'd much rather peruse the RH catalog than the other, despite finding a ton of laughable pieces, copywriting, and moments :)

I agree with most everyone here - RH is much of a muchness. Great wares for bathrooms - and I enjoy most of the kitschy items that they sell, but everything else seems a bit homogenous. People can knock PB all they want, but their stylists have created vignettes that you can imagine living in - happily. I'll say this, though - if you're shopping around downtown Manhattan and you just want to sit down and regroup go to RH and plop yourself down on one of their ridiculously large couches. Marvel at the impossible scale of - everything. Rest up, walk out and head to any number of stores with infinitely more interest and character. (Here's what gets me - before, during and after the production of RH's catalogs there are endless meetings. Did no one say, "perhaps a bit of color"? Or "smaller scale might translate to more sales and less-costly production"? Just wondering.)

BEWARE. Much of their stuff is now made in CHINA. Even though the leather might be from Italy or the wood from the USA. They are assembled in CHINA. I bought a Lancaster sofa from them. It was a nightmare experience. The first one we received bottomed out and made a huge thump when you sat on it. They called a furniture insurance guy to come out and assess the damage. He told me that in LA alone he had looked at 3 other RH couches in the last week, all which frames were so poorly assembled that he could only suggest they replace it. So they did and the new one seems fine so far, but what the heck!?! They clearly have a quality problem. 4 couches in 1 week in only a few zip codes?!?! I find it so irresponsible to charge the prices they are charging for stuff that is made so poorly. Their stuff USED to be made in the USA. Most of it is not anymore and based on my conversations with the 7 customer service people I had to talk to in order to resolve my issue...they know it too.

I like about 10% of their products - textiles, bath fixtures and the like - but the rest of their current line is overdone and obnoxious.

I'm sad because I used to love getting their catalog, but now they have alienated a good portion of their former customers with this depressing stuff.

dre.k...you are scaring me..lol, i just ordered one of their beds. hopefully it doesn't collapse on me and my husband 3 in the morning.
it looks like almost everything is made in China these days...almost unavoidable.

I'm enjoying the comments here and agree with many. One can't help but cry for a little color when looking at drab page after drab page. That said, we've purchased a few pieces - namely the Ovieto chaise (awesome) and a "swallow you whole" leather armchair that I look forward to having as my primary reading spot for the next 20 years. The dining table we ordered in OCTOBER should arrive any day. Better be worth the wait. I think the lesson here is that yes, the pomposity of their claims and the borderline garishness of the overall style can't be denied, but even amongst all that there are a few genuinely nice pieces. When they get it right, they really do. Otherwise there's a lot of "what were they thinking?"

^Those column lamps?!?! For real????

I also had a good laugh at the "source book". It's endlessly dreary, but my impression is the hipster CEO wanted a very masculine, cosmopolitan vibe (hence oversized and distressed). They're based out of Marin, and the Berkeley store has been transformed into a dark walled, sparsely decorated dungeon which makes for quite an adjustment when you first walk through it. Hardly any small tickets items left in the store, thank goodness their fantastic towels are still available.

If they're targeting people who neeed to furnish a Belgian castle then they're nailed it. Otherwise, I'll predict we'll be reading about the CEO's departure and/or a bankruptcy filing in the next 18 months.

I'm from Texas (obviously...) and Plano, specifically (raised in a nice little 1960s ranch, thank you).

Sadly, I can see the McMansion set drooling over the pseudo-Belgian-chic furniture.

As for me - in my little apartment, furnished with a mishmash of antiques and mid-century modern - all I have from Restoration Hdwr. is bedding. It's the only thing I'll buy from them, because nowhere else could I find LINEN queen-size fitted sheets that will fit over a 21" thick mattress for under $250 per sheet, nevermind for a whole set ($199 for the set on sale, for mine).

dre.k- you are fooling yourself. Very little furniture is made in the US anymore. Room and Board has cornered the market on that one- and their prices reflect the American Artisans building the pieces and the American lumber that is being used for them.
I think it is ignorant and racist to portray "Made in China" as a bad thing. In this day and age there are many skilled craftsmen/women working in China- What is wrong with a person in China creating a beautiful piece of furniture? If your concern is mass production- welcome to the present.
Ikea doesn't make a damn thing in the US- but because it is cheap- it is ok?

Ugh. I agree that this is the stuff of McMansions, but we are overlooking one other niche market: stuffy, pretentious college administration buildings! I can imagine all of this furniture at my old alma mater.

I just got finished thumbing through this hefty catalog. What struck me most was the complete lack of warmth and color. While the pieces are solid, unique and artistic, I felt depressed after seeing page after page of washed out, colorless rooms. Only dead people live in these houses. These circa WWII inspired pieces are showcased in rooms that are uninspiring and lifeless as if the blood has been drained out of every room. Blah. If I were Restoration Hardware, I would give some balance by highlighting these pieces in settings where someone is actually breathing.

Let's face it, transitional style - Retoration's hallmark for the past decade - has been beaten to death, as evidenced by what is now standard on Home Depot's display endcaps. One certainly can't blame RH for looking to define the next much-needed design trend as they're clearly attempting this season, but I think most agree that the 2011 line is a desperate, absurd meandering in the wrong direction. For years, we have all axiously awaited the arrival of next RH catalog, the style high-water mark, to be inspired for ways to update our McMansions. We shouldn't be ashamed to admit our sheep-like tendancies when it comes to design, as we need to be lead and told what is lovely. But I think its safe to say that few will follow where RH is leading.

I looked back at AT's notes on the re-launch
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/restos-return-chapter-2-or-how-gary-friedman-is-intent-on-building-something-the-world-has-never-seen--149518
and wonder if everything is really loved. I mean, no one loves lamp that much.

Sad! Every room looks the same. They have taken a concept of adding in a cool quirky vintage item to a design, and exploited- COMPLETELY gone overboard in one design direction.
This style is half way out the door, and they are sending out a phone book size catalog trying to keep it going?
Again, love the concept of artisan design, and well crafted. However I hardly ever purchase from them anymore....This look has gotten downright depressing.

Remember color? Do they really think someone in a London flat wants to decorate in the same gloomy colors they experience outside all day long?

They should Look at the Soho hotel in London- they combined vintage and modern into a design which is stylish, hip, authentic, AND colorful!

The J Peterman reference is spot on. The awful, self-conscious "personal" statements by one of the boss men and one of the cloth men were hilarious. Also their aging model good looks...(no uglies allowed in our catalog!) Somewhere there are 'almost' high-society types scrambling to get them to their McMansion party decorated in aging "chic",,,you know the RH furniture AND the guests. The interiors remind me of the perfect haunted house look for Disneyland.