Room & Board

If you need to furnish an apartment, don’t have time to spend endless hours seeking furniture then you can do a whole lot worse than here.
Makes a big play on ‘made in America’ which whilst not American, I get the sentiment and support the ethos.
I’ve dealt with all levels of staff from showroom to call centre to delivery staff… all been pretty good in my experience.
A few months in the quality of the furniture is proving durable — I don’t get massively excited about furnishings generally (I’m a man)…but this really is about as easy as it gets.
Recommended.

Prior to getting into the furniture business, I always thought no one store could have it all. Compared to my work place, Room & Board is heaven. The Chelsea location is a dream in itself. All three levels offer a clean approach to a modern NYC life making it easy to style any space no matter how updated, large or small.
Compared to RH (which I also love), Room & Board has those items that are a bit more timeless, still on trend but not trendy (if that makes sense). Room and Board gives you options and are clear when it comes to Pricing, consistent on Shipping Leads and Excellent on Quality!
Room & Board is the Holy Grail of true American Craftsmanship and I hope they keep giving us (the consumer) even more product with excellent quality and design!

The summary: The products are 5-​star, the service is 2-​star and comes with hassle. If you are ordering an item that they have in stock in their warehouse, you will be fine and get your furniture in a timely manner — although they will tell you what time they’re coming, you have no say in it. If you ordered custom-​made furniture, it will be delayed and custom furniture comes with Sears-​like customer service post-​sales.
The story: We’re repeat customers, having ordered four pieces of living room furniture previously. We ordered our custom bed on October 14, with attentive customer service from our design associate. The order email stated the bed would be ready «around December 1.» This matched the timeframe our design associate shared with us. We then received an email on October 29, stating that the bed would arrive at their warehouse on December 16. We were disappointed, but had no recourse.
We received a call to choose our delivery day late last week, and chose a Saturday. Our building told us late Tuesday morning they don’t allow Saturday deliveries. We called and left a message to inquire about a new date Tuesday afternoon. Their distribution center called the wrong number back, delaying the process further. I called the distribution center, and asked for other dates. I explained our Saturday dilemma to Marie, the phone rep, and gave her the dates that we were out of town for Christmas. The next alternative date she offered were during days we were not in town, as well as another Saturday. It was like she didn’t hear anything I said. I began to mention how our order had been delayed, and she dismissively cut me off and said she can’t schedule a day that she doesn’t have. Her tone frustrated me, so I said I would keep the schedule delivery and try to get an exception from my building.
After ending our call, I called the SoHo store, where we placed our order. I spoke with the manager on duty, Nicole. I may have done a poor job explaining my frustration, which was connected to the delayed arrival of our furniture, and our inability to get it delivered because their delay created delivery options that did not work for us. I was hoping that the store would work with us to find a delivery option that met our schedule, given they caused the delay in arrival of our furniture. If you order custom furniture, you’d think there might be custom customer service. Not a chance. Although Room and Board owns their distribution center and can control the schedule of deliveries, they offered no alternative to help get our bed before the holidays. Nicole did a poor job listening, because she also offered me available times for delivery when we weren’t available, and verbally pointed her finger at me, stating that we chose the time for delivery in the first place. Great customer service skills, blaming your customer when they had already explained they were unaware there was a restriction. This one-​sided approach to customer service made me feel worse. It also confirmed that Room and Boars is no different than Sears or any mid-​level big box retailer.
Lesson learned: Only order furniture in stock in their warehouse in the future. That is, of course, if I can excuse the questionable customer service I received with my ordering process. I don’t think I will. Based on the other 2015 review, it seems that many other New Yorkers feel the same.

Room and board is a great furniture store. I have spent about $ 20k+ in stuff from this place (both NYC and SF) over the past 8 or so years and everything is still in incredible condition. Their designs are sleek and fairly simple, but the quality is above average and yes they are pricey (no sales) but you do get what you pay for! Timeless pieces, solid wood furniture constructed mostly in the US and good customer service. When i had any problems with any furniture, they came to repair or replace the items at no cost. Note — they do have some floor sample sales or clearance items end of the year, starting December 26, so you can score some decent deals as I have in the past.

Exquisite high-​end furniture in a beautiful and clean setting…

The furniture gets 5 stars. Delivery get 2 stars. The bed I bought still looks great after a year and a move. I specifically asked how to disassemble it because I knew I would be moving.
This year I bought a sectional and it is solid. Again there are no instructions on how to disassemble.
The delivery guys connected without asking how I wanted it to be placed. I thought it would be easy to disassemble. It’s not. Delivery get 2 stars for being inconsiderate. To save themselves a little bit of work I created a lot of work for me.

Furniture gets moved and rearranged. Diagram showing how to do disassemble/​assemble these pieces should be part of the delivery.

Very tasteful, modern furniture. Some of the synthetic pieces aren’t really to my taste, but they have a great approach to leather and everything feels well-​built.
It’s substantially more expensive than, say, Ikea, but it’s worlds better.
I also was very impressed with the sales staff. Alex in particular had fantastic attention to detail, and he spent a tremendous amount of time ensuring that I was getting a sofa that would work well with my space.
Here’s some examples of things he did:
* Looked over a floor plan and helped me figure out how to best arrange the rest of my furniture to accommodate the couch
* Got a great selection of fabric samples and encouraged me to take them home, see how they looked in the natural light
* Printed my order out and triple-​checked it line by line
* Offered to email me periodically as the piece is being built
Maybe this sounds standard to you, but I was really impressed — it’s rare to find someone who is *that* thorough while still feeling efficient and personable.
I can’t comment on the issues other reviewers have raised with delivery, but I’ll update when I get there.
The only negative thing I can say is that if you don’t take the stock options for fabric, it will take quite some time to ship… but it’s worth it if that’s the piece you want.

So this is amazing… you buy your furniture, their delivery folks call you a few days before the product is available, and then they ask you which day you want delivery. Ok fine. But then THEY tell you what time they will deliver the furniture. You have no say in the matter. Its entirely what’s convenient for them so they can deliver as cheaply as possible. It doesn’t matter that you can’t be there between 11:00 and 1:00 because you work for a living. These people are on another planet. And they excuse this practice by saying it is «sustainable and environmentally friendly.» Really? They think we are that stupid.
It gets even better… they deliver a mirror at the time they know I can’t be home, and the plan is for them to leave it with the doorman/​package room. BUT… the mirror comes wrapped solely in a blanket that they are taking back with them, so the mirror cannot be left safely with the doorman. Let me guess… they only cover it with a blanket and not proper packing material so they can save the planet! Right!
Next time I’ll take my chances with good olé’ Bob’s furniture, or Macy’s, or Jensen Lewis.

We purchased a fabric platform bed, including a headboard. The good news is they have lovely furniture, but in my case the lack of service more than outweighs the quality of the furniture so that I would not return. It was not worth the aggravation. Here are the difficulties I encountered. First the delivery date was supposed to be six to eight weeks and it was three months. Plus I only learned of the delay when I called them. They did give us a small discount for their lack of service but not sufficient since we would not have purchased the bed if we had known about the three months.
Secondly, I would have expected them to alert us that we would need to replace our current box spring and mattress to accommodate the new bed.

We have had good experiences with Room & Board. We have been to this location and also other stores outside of NY. They have all been pleasant. R&B staff know how not to be overbearing, yet never too far if you need assistance.
The furniture we got was great, it really pained me to see the numbers charged to plastic but I sighted happily when it was delivered to our apartment. I’m still very happy with the purchase, it is still one of the best furniture we own. *sniff.* I feel like a grown up.
My husband and I are on the hunt again, perhaps R&B will be another hit.

I have been a long time Room & Board Customer for years until I ordered custom drapery. I now know, many others have done this with poor results.
The drape fabric was poor quality and lengthened when it was hung. As a result, a new set was ordered and the second pair was worse. Room & Board is NOT good with drapery and was unable to resolve the issue.
I highly recommend you do not use them.

I purchased a sofa-​bed last week from this place, so far I’m happy with it, so happy that I decided to bring my friends that were looking to buy a sofa to this store in Soho.
While one of my friends was checking some metal frames that were resting on a shelve, the whole thing came down hitting him in the head, a man was standing near by and came to help him with the frames, after that an employee (young man short brown hair and beard) silently came by and started to put the frames back in the same shelve, but he didn’t even apologize to my friend let alone offer alcohol and cotton to wipe off the blood from his forehead. My friend had to go to the w.c. to wash off the blood and get some t.p. for his forehead. And even though the young man that sold me the sofa a week ago was very nice and courteous, I’m giving them 1 star only. I can’t imagine what would have happen had the metal frame had hit him in an eye… Somebody has to train this employee to have more empathy and to help customers when something like this happens. I’m going to have to stop by later on when I return from my trip to ask for a supervisor or the manager and tell him-​her in person what happen. GUESS WHAT. SOFABED FALLING APART, AND WASN’T THAT CHEAP TO BEGIN WITH, NOW I’M STOCKED BUT I WILL NEVER PURCHASE, RECOMMEND OR GO BACK TO THIS PLACE. CHEAP MADE FURNITURE!!!

I actually hate to downgrade my rating for Room & Board. It’s totally unfair to the great experiences I’ve had with their furniture (and the staff who helped me choose it).
But after those great experiences, I made the mistake of ordering window treatments for my master bedroom from R&B. The store staff are not familiar with the window treatments the way they are with the furniture, and they couldn’t offer me much in the way of an informed perspective on the advantages and disadvantages of different products given my room setup and what I was looking to do.
But far worse, the product quality was not what I had come to expect from R&B. The cords are so long they dangle and pool on the floor and get tangled all the time. And the plastic gathers that ensure the three cords for each of the Roman Shade panels work together come apart once at least once a week.
For $ 2000+, I expected a lot more — especially given my positive experiences with other R&B purchases.

Had a fantastic experience at R&B. Made several trips there, and dealt with several sales people who were all extremely nice and helpful. They truly work together as a team, and there is ZERO pressure. Rod Cuellar was especially fantastic, and helped us select the right sofa for our home, and followed through until it was delivered. We are very satisfied, have since ordered a couple of other things from their website, and plan to shop there again

The 2 beds are fabulous, as is the sectional, but very disappointed in the cherry maple night stands and dresser. Expensive, look beautiful, but they stain extremely easily, impossible to remove even water stains, and they also scratch very easily. For the amount of money spent, very upsetting.

I was a big fan of room and board’s concept — a furniture store with well made products that focused on service. But, i would NEVER do business with them again after this last experience.
After placing your order, their service completely disappears. Our furniture date for delivery changed 3 times and, at one point, they had no idea where it was for almost a week saying it was unloaded from the truck, but they couldn’t find it. Calling in to them only gave me more conflicting and confusing information about where the items were.
But, the final piece of terrible service came when they made a small nick on the wall of my building’s hallway during the delivery of my furniture. A simple thing to get someone in to fix and patch for under $ 100. I sent them a picture of it when i noticed the issue (I am the only one who uses that hall, so i know it was them). They give me the runaround for 2 weeks and then reply that, because i did not report it the same day, they can’t be responsible. As if i am spending $ 10,000 on furniture with them so i can secretly get a $ 50 repair done to the wall of my building?!?
This came after they insisted that the damage was too low to be from them and was likely from a handcart (I had to measure it for them to show it was 2.5 ft in the air and a handcart would not do damage that high up, but a couch being carried by 2 people would). Then, they tried to insist that their people are trained to report things right away, so there is no chance they did it.
«Unfortunately, due to the length of time between the delivery and the report of damages, we will not be able to support your claim.» This is what they replied.
The service was very nice right up until I placed the order, but don’t expect them to provide any kind of support afterwards. There are cheaper ways to get furniture with crappy service than these guys.
I will never order from them again.

Once again– what would I do without Manuela Zissert? Hope the spelling is correct. Emailed her last night at 11PM about a building needing an insurance certificate and woke up this morning to an email about every detail and what more can she do. As long as she is at this company, I will continue to order everything I can from them.
If I could hire her away I would. True customer service. She should give clinics to all in the service industry. The furniture is fabulous as well of course. The entire enterprise is flawless.
Thank you Room and Board once again. And Manuela Zissert you are amazing!

I used to LOVE Room and Board and even told a lot of my friends about it who also have kids in the city. However, my last experience at the store has completely ruined my love for Room and Board.
I went there 2 weeks ago and was hoping by now my experience there wouldn’t bother me, but when I think about how I was treated my blood boils. I wanted to build a portfolio for a dresser and a night stand for my little girl’s room. So I met with a lady who «works there» named Paula. I’m not really sure if she works there though because it seemed to me she just put on a name tag and started walking around. This lady couldn’t sell an ice cube in hell. She had ZERO knowledge on any of the dressers and looked at me like I was speaking a different language.
At one point when I asked her if I could add a drawer to the dresser she sat at the computer and froze for 3 minutes and did nothing. It didn’t take me long to realize she had no idea what she was doing not to mention she was rude and lazy. I finally found someone who knew the products to talk with and got myself situated, but I wish I didn’t spend 30 minutes of a busy weekend with someone who didn’t know what they were doing.
Frustrating! After my dresser arrives that will be the end of my Room and Board experience.

Randomly popped in Room & Board while in SoHo. I love the furniture style and quality, though it’a a little pricey for my budget. (My home is decorated primarily with West Elm and IKEA.) We were greeted by an associate who didn’t act very interested in helping us, but then she could probably tell that we weren’t very serious shoppers. The best part of our visit? Spotting comedian Reggie Watts who appeared to be shopping for a sofa.

After buying a couch from here a couple years ago (Jasper) I keep going back to pursue more furniture options. The selection is really great and they carry a variety of styles from midcentury modern to traditional American. The staff is always very friendly and helpful as well especially if you need a swatch of fabric to bring home or you want to see the features of a piece of furniture like a folding dining room table.
Also, if you need a moment to rest its a great place to sit down and relax as well as there are many different couches in the three floor giant showroom.

I had a very negative experience with Room & Board custom drapery, which must be a new service with lots of kinks. First off, they outsource the actual measurement and installation to another company, but there’s no coordination or instructions on how to do this. The onus is on the customer to do all the work. I was told the installers would call me, which they never did. After a few emails to the store, I was told to go online and book. I was also misquoted that the installation price as $ 150, when it was actually more than twice this price.
My entire experience was disjointed, and ended up being a lot of coordination on my end between the two companies. For a $ 3,500 purchase, I would expect a better level of customer service. I’ve called several times and unfortunately the manager is always «in meetings».
Anyone have suggestions on a better place to go for drapes in the rest of my house?

It doesn’t matter which Room and Board store you shop at; they are all excellent. You get top notch quality, variety, and service. They really stand behind what they sell and will work diligently to resolve any problem you may experience whether you caused the problem or not and no matter how long ago you purchased your furniture. That has real value in today’s world.
I can understand that some of the salespeople in some cities may not knock your socks off (especially in NYC as indicated) but as a whole they are responsive and professional. Did you know you can shop by phone and not be annoyed by other crazy shoppers? That would be good news in any city! Just call their toll-​free number and arrange everything easily. Also, in some areas when you shop by phone you pay only the state sales tax, instead of the additional city/​county sales tax, which can save you $$.

The best place to shop for contemporary/​modern American furniture. The three floors of well designed showrooms contain many permutations of furniture arrangements. Expensive but you get what you pay for (don’t give a rodent’s butt for ending sentence in a preposition). Cool store indeed. The following is a ranking of furniture stores from worst to best, imo:
— Bob’s discount
— Ashley/​RaymourFlanagan/​Ikea (tie)
— CB2
— Berkeley Jensen (good for Italian furniture)
— Room & Board
— (unknown store/​interior designer for the independently wealthy– ie not me)
Check them out if you’re ever down in Soho.