Restoration Hardware Goes Small

It's been a little over a year since I was critical of Restoration Hardware's move to sending a 600+ page "sourcebook" to every customer (or, as I found out in the comments, non-costumer) in whatever contact database they maintain.  The responses were a little mixed in my comments, but among design bloggers overall, the response to a number of things Restoration Hardware did last year wasn't all that positive. Designer Joni Webb of Cote de Texas wrote a hilarious entry back in March that summed up what many bloggers were thinking (and revealed that the catalog she had gotten was online, which is a nice change).

The phone book-sized catalogs have hit mail boxes again*, but something has changed.  Or maybe someone has changed.

Restoration Hardware has finally heard the chorus of people saying the scale of their furniture has gotten absurd and is offering a catalog showcasing scaled-down pieces.  Those of us who chose to live small or who don't live in neighborhoods full of McMansions can flip through a collection of items offering "Big Style for Small Spaces."

The new catalog highlights a number of locations where people tend to live small. They staged their smaller pieces in spaces that are meant to evoke those locations.  Some of them, like the image above, are pretty believable.  Some are a little funny...

Those are some pretty big sofas for a small apartment, aren't they?  I don't think they would fit through the door of an apartment in a pre-war building.  Still, I appreciate the effort.

Did you get the "Big Style for Small Spaces" catalog?  What did you think? 


*Restoration Hardware gets some points for actually taking me off their mailing list when I asked to be removed last year. While I've made some RH Outlet purchases in Leesburg, VA in recent years, I can't remember the last time I ordered directly from the catalog.