Room & Board
Category: Furniture Stores [Edit]
Neighborhood: Manhattan/SoHo105 Wooster Street
(between Prince St & Spring St)
New York, NY 10012 (212) 334-4343
- Nearest Transit:
Spring St-6th Ave (C, E)
Prince St (R, W)
Spring St-Lafayette St (6)
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Sun 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
20 Reviews for Room & Board
One of Room & Board's Favorite Reviews
To quote the wise Ferris Bueller "If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."
Ferris wasn't talking about a car. No, he was talking about a bed, bedroom set, media center, dining room set, and custom made couch by Room & Board. Each individually of course. I should know. I furnished a swanky Tribeca apartment with all said items. The store is located in Soho and it's perfect for that modern downtown style you might imagine.
It's pricey here, so having the means is key. But if you want your dream couch (doesn't every girl have one?) bad enough then Room & Board will happily offer you water, coffee, and cookies - obviously important to me - with a smile while you wait a few months for them to build it.
And when it comes, it will be the comfiest sectional in all the land. This is most important to me when I'm sprawled out watching 30 Rock on DVD on my ex-boyfriend's couch. I was supposed to give the key back?
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I like Room & Board a lot. I like their furniture. It's pricey, yes. But it's worth it. I got my couch and a bookshelf from there a couple years ago and both are still looking awesome - and that's with a pug who loves to hang on the couch.
The only reason the store doesn't get five stars is that the sales people are, well...mean. They were really rude to me. I ended up calling in my order from the catalog instead of going to the store. And when I called, I did tell them about the poor customer service. So maybe it's improved since then.
I thought of getting a "First" by posting at the correct address (the zip code should be 10012) but I decided to go with the flow.
I found a chair online that was simple, stylish, and pretty cheap. So I went into the store and thought I could pick one up. The only problem was that they needed $70 in shipping fees in order to send me a $90 chair.
Needless to say I passed. I do realize this is to be expected when furniture shopping, but there weren't many red flags thrown at me until they were ready to hand me the bill. At least I was only there about 10 minutes since I already know what I wanted.
When the time comes for me to buy an entire room or home worth of furniture I would consider coming back, but based on my current lot in life it is doubtful I will need that much furniture all at once for quite awhile.
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Great selection of modern & clean look furniture. A 4 stories building offer everything to decor & furnish your place. They are a bit pricey & offer similar products as Design Within Reach.
We were here shopping for a coffee table for my friend. We found many but nothing quite work for his sofa. All the sales people were nice & helpful to walk us through and advice us what we need to buy & what not. Well, my friend didn't get a coffee table, but he managed to score a big wall 7' tall mirror for his living room, nicely done $995!
He won't get it deliver to him till 3 weeks from now! Wow, they were that booked up!
I like what I see, even though they are not necessary my style ;-)
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I've got mixed feelings about this store.
Shopped here for a couch and the 2 occassions I was wandering around their Soho store, not one of the sales people asked if they could help me out.
Guess they had sized me up as not having the means or something.
Anyway, without their lousy help, I did end up buying a couch here.
In stock items take about 2 weeks. Any changes to fabrics could take 10-12 weeks. I didn't have the patience for that, so went with one of the stocked items.
You pick a day for delivery, they give you a 3 hour window for the delivery. No choice on the time window, they'll tell you a couple days in advance on that. $70 flat delivery fee, not bad.
I got assigned the most inconvenient time window, smack dab in the middle of the day. So, I leave work early and wait. And wait. 4 hours later, 2 kids who grunt some barely understandable words to me drop off my couch. Wouldn't describe it as "white glove service" at all.
But the couch is a lovely and comfy addition to my apartment.
I have spent the last three months of my life searching for a new couch. I thought , "Hey, I'm (whatever age I look), why not have some 'This is not a hand-me-down' furniture"? I started saving my overtime cha-ching and going to several different furniture store websites for my studies. I wanted something classic, neat and modern yet not reeking with eau de designer pretensieuse. And of course, my budget was, well, modest. After a while longer than I should have taken, I consulted Yelp and found Room and Board.
Room and Board offers a great variety. Modern and hip furniture alongside more classic shapes, for those who like to kick it old-school, like myself. The pieces are easy to match and can fit in any decor. The showroom is in a quiet spot in SoHo, sharing Wooster street with places like Betsey Johnson, Stussy and Adidas. The space is big and loft-like, and I wish it were my home. I wouldn't even mind sharing the space with a furniture patrons, just as long as I could use their desks, couches and beds, and as long as shoppers wouldn't mind seeing me traipse around in my underbeneaths......In any case, with every turn I found some desk or bookcase or coffee table that I just had to have. And of course, I calculated just how long it would take me to save more OT cha-ching to get it.
I really liked that I was not accosted by any "greeters" upon entering. but when I was ready, there was someone there to help me. A very hot and charismatic someone, David, and while I may be old school, that doesn't mean I don't talk a lot. I flirted and made jokes and was my charming self, and in between all that, we made a deal on a great couch, exactly what I wanted: the Cameron in Chamomile, a couch with smaller, lower armrests and a neat back with slight upward curves to it, in a deep beige. Yup, old-school. David was very helpful, making suggestions on color and what have you. It was clear to me that even if the deal had taken two hours, he would have had the utmost patience with me. How sweet. I was even able to put a down payment on the couch, making my Visa breathe a bit easier and buying me a bit more time. Since I ordered a color which was not readily available, the couch would not be ready for delivery until June. I was willing to wait. And they do deliveries on Saturdays. That's it. I'm in love.
Screw Crate and Barrel. Screw Ikea. Definitely screw even the high-end places like Roche Bobois. I got a 2008 catalog while I was at the showroom, and I'm saving it as a coffee table book. The stuff is that cool.
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Searching for a sleeper sofa I went to R&B. Wow, was I impressed with the space of Room and Board, but made me think... how do they pay for this space? Then it sunk in, or at least the sofa I was sitting on did. The furniture is stylish, but not the best of quality, prices can be reasonable or super high especially for what it is. I have shopped a ton for a sleep sofa, Room and Boards in nicer much nicer than what I saw at bloomingdales, or macy's, but the one that trumps is Natrona's by Dileto. The dileto is higher in price, but the quality of the mechanism and the cushions makes it superb. Trust me, I've done tons of research, for those who can, the dileto is the clear choice. I am saving up for mine.
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We just bought a bed and bedding from Room & Board. For only $65 and within a week, they delivered it to our sixth floor walk-up. Without complaining, without asking for more money, without even any eye-rolling. They set up the bed. When they didn't have our shams in stock, they shipped them - for free - from another Room & Board.
This was markedly different from our experience with Design Within Reach, where shipping was OVER $300, where the delivery men complained numerous times about the stairs, where they asked for more money because of all those steps.
With service like that? I'll certainly be back to Room & Board.
Now if only that magic elevator could appear, and I could find a way into the secret room I KNOW is behind the closet...
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We've been searching for a new couch for a few weeks now with no luck. We tried Domain (too stuffy and old), Natrona (too few options), Room Store (not quite our style...), Design within Reach (YIKES! way not our style). Finally, while flipping through a design magazine at one of the above stores I saw an ad for Room & Board. We checked out their website (and the yelp reviews, of course!) and decided it was worth a look. We high-tailed it over there after work (they close at 7! Boo!) to have a look around. As mentioned by previous reviewers, there were no pushy sales people... in fact, we had to search to even find someone to help us. Once we found her (Nicole) though, she was very helpful. She knew quite a bit about the items they sell, and if she didn't know something, she found out for us. She let us take a bunch of fabric samples with us when we left as well.
Pros: Huge show room, lots of variety. No up-charge to change the fabric/color on a piece. Helpful staff. Plenty of reasonably priced items. Environmentally conscious, a number of (highly renewable) bamboo items and a catalog that's only published once a year.
Cons: 8-10 week wait for delivery (standard yes, but annoying nonetheless...), they close so early and there was a real sense of "get out of here" the moment the clock struck 7...
Overall, pros outweigh the cons. We'll be ordering a sofa, and possibly some other items from Room and Board!
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Great selection (though the layout didn't make much sense to me). Good prices. Staff didn't bug me at all during the 45m I was in the store, which is great.
I will most likely get a couch and maybe a desk here. The stuff isn't quite as cool as DWR, but, nobody's perfect.
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Comfortable sofas that pass the Ass Test: you can comfortably lounge for hours.
Better quality than Crate & Barrel.
More accessible/affordable than Design within Reach.
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Great place for custom desks / tables, but I bought a (fantastic) sofa here after spending almost a week debating between their version of the ubiquitous Overstuffed Slipcovered Square-cornered design and Crate & Barrel's.
When I come to a high-stress decision like this I tend to put a lot of stock in omens, magical portents and so forth, and what made up my mind in this case was that right I as I was about to leave, Whoopi Goldberg came in and asked one of the security guards if they knew why the electricity had gone out (I guess she had an office or something nearby). I'm not a particularly big fan of Ms. Goldberg, and not much of one for celebrity sightings in general (though I run into Sam Waterston enough to suspect that he's actually stalking me), but lacking any other cogent reason to pick one over the other I went with the Whoopi-approved sofa and I'm glad I did.
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Beautiful showroom - 4 or 5 floors with well designed rooms that offer great ideas, or just buy the whole room! More up$cale than Crate & Barell, it's worth it in terms of design and quality and it's way cheaper than designer alternatives (such as Design Out of Reach). Great inexpensive lamps especially.
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A nice showroom with a friendly staff that doesn't hover over you. You can even find some inexpensive furniture here if you look hard enough (well, inexpensive for SoHo). I purchased a sofa and duvet cover; both are excellent quality without killing my checking account.
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Solid range of classics (Eames, le Corbusier, etc.) plus a really wide selction of mid-range furniture that can be easily customized. Not particularly expensive by Manhattan standards and a logical place to start to slowly upgrade from the IKEA phase. Non-aggressive but helpful sales people are a plus.
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Just bought a great couch here. The 86" Eugene, to be exact. Great piece. The 3-floor showroom is really nice too--puts the SoHo DWR to shame. The only problem was that the 3rd floor and half of the 2nd floor smelled like cat piss. What can ya do?
Anyway, overall good stuff with fair prices. But watch out: Like any home furnishings store, they have a few fugly items, so make sure you bring a design-conscious friend with you if you're style-blind.
i liked the catalogue but i never got around to going to the store. So as amazingly this sounds fate intervened and i went to the store (due to unamed circumstances) . i like this store a lot. the furniture was tastful and sophistcated and the arrangements were very nice. Also the books they had one desplay were quite fascintating such as the bio of Yves Saint Laurent and THe fashion book (this part was crucial to me cause i wasnt shopping the person i was with and after a couple rounds of the store i had sat in every chair and the books were a good escape from my furniture frenzied friend)
Everything was to my liking except for the fact that i felt like if one wanted to buy just one piece of furniture and they did then they brought it home and compared it (mentally ) to set up it was in previously in they would get a little depressed and wind up buying all the other pieces in the display
then the poor soul would be stuck with two sets of furniture for one room
its these kind of things that make me wwonder if the god of furniture (if there is one) likes screwing with people
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Have you ever pictured a perfect furniture shopping experience?
I have, and besides finding my sofa stuffed with $100 bills and that magically I would find Keira Knightley and Luci Lu perched on my sofa sipping a cold Pilsner beer with just enough room for me to squeeze between to watch a rerun of "Saved By the Bell" my experience with Room and Board was just like I had in-visioned it.
Recently purchased a condo. My SO, after several years living together on the west coast got everything during our split. I needed everything. I purchased a bed frame, leather chair and Henry Miller office chair from Room & Board. Their selection is amazing and they only produce one catalog a year which saves a lot of trees! I ordered everything on-line and before they process the order one of their "consultants" calls you to review the order. At first I was bothered by this (my thoughts were JUST SHIP IT) but after talking with the lovely person I realized that I wanted to change my order. They were friendly and extremely knowledgeable about decor ( I am clueless). The stuff was delivered when they said it was going to be. Two brawny whipper snappers installed everything and were meticulous about my freshly painted house and new hardwood floors. They took off their shoes and wore booties in the house and even sweep up the mess when they left taking all packaging droppings with them. The quality of the stuff has been great. Highly recommend the company to everyone!
After the delivery guys left I gazed at the chair and asked myself "No ladies let me check the cushions for money"!
PS. My Henry Miller chair was having problems like 2 weeks later. They walked me through trouble shooting it over the phone then just said "We are sending out a new one and some repair men" two weeks later the chair was replaced. SUCH great service!!!!!!
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Sleek furniture for the urban-but-not-psychotically-modern home. The showroom is huge by New York standards. Large variety.
A huge showroom for the SoHo area - several floors to browse, and the salespeople let you try out the furniture without trying to chat you up.
At first glance, the furniture appears to be more stylish than can be found at Crate and Barrel, and also much cheaper.
On closer inspection, the construction of the furniture is not of such great quality. For instance, instead of using solid wood for cabinet sides, the front edges have a small strip of solid wood and the rest of the cabinets are a thin veneer over some kind of artificial core. (Real solid wood has the same grain pattern on both sides.) The sofas aren't really that comfortable to sit on. It's a step up from Ikea furniture for sure, but don't expect the stuff to last too long. Don't think that you are getting a great deal on designer furniture, either.
The trick is that the store sells "real" designer furniture such as Herman Miller and Eames alongside of their in-house designs. The in-house stuff tends to be kind of bland and are imitations of classic designs.
The stuff at Crate and Barrel may not be as "modern", but the construction is much better, and you are getting what you pay for. Go down to Design Within Reach to check out some real high quality and well designed furniture (but be ready for some serious sticker shock!)
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