Restoration Hardware (RH) offers a luxury, statement-making aesthetic with large-scale, heirloom-quality pieces, while Crate & Barrel provides modern, versatile, and accessible furniture with a focus on functional design for everyday life. RH is positioned firmly in the high-end market with premium materials and a grand, neutral style, whereas Crate & Barrel delivers contemporary looks and durable quality at a more approachable price point.
Let's compare everything you need to know to choose the right furniture and decor brand for your home.
Restoration Hardware: The Timeless Luxury Brand
Restoration Hardware (RH) is a luxury brand renowned for its classic-meets-contemporary furnishings that create a sophisticated, dramatic atmosphere. Positioning its expansive showrooms as art galleries, RH targets affluent consumers who seek exclusive, statement pieces built with premium materials. Its brand identity is built on a grand scale, muted color palettes, and a timeless aesthetic.
- Product mix: Extensive collections of high-end furniture for living, dining, and bedroom, plus lighting, textiles, bathware, decor, and a large outdoor line.
- Style/vibe: Traditional, transitional, and rustic blended with modern sensibilities. The overall look is opulent and elegant, defined by neutral tones, natural materials like wood and leather, and classic silhouettes.
- Price point: Premium/luxury. Sofas typically start around $3,000 but can easily exceed $10,000, dining tables are often in the $4,000–$8,000 range, and lighting fixtures regularly surpass $1,000.
- Quality: Heirloom-level construction. RH uses high-quality materials like kiln-dried hardwoods for frames, full-grain leathers, and luxurious textiles designed for durability and a long lifespan.
- Fit & Sizing: Pieces are generally large in scale and designed to make a statement in spacious rooms and open-concept homes. Scale is a key component of the RH aesthetic.
- Shopping Experience: An immersive, high-end experience in gallery-style showrooms. The brand also sells through a premium members program, which provides discounts on full-priced items for an annual fee.
- Delivery & Assembly: Premium white-glove delivery service is standard for most furniture, ensuring items are placed and assembled in your home.
RH is the destination for anyone looking to invest in substantial, long-lasting furniture that defines a room with understated elegance and superior craftsmanship.
Shop Restoration Hardware: www.restorationhardware.com
Crate & Barrel: The Modern & Accessible Choice
Crate & Barrel is a popular home furnishings retailer known for its clean, contemporary designs that are both stylish and functional. It caters to young professionals, new homeowners, and families who want reliable, attractive furniture without the extreme price tag of a luxury brand. With a strong focus on kitchen and dining in addition to furniture, Crate & Barrel offers a complete solution for the modern home.
- Product mix: Complete home furnishings, including a wide array of furniture, but also a famous selection of tableware, kitchenware, flatware, textiles, lighting, and decor.
- Style/vibe: Modern, minimalist, and Scandinavian-inspired. The aesthetic is warm and approachable, using clean lines, quality fabrics, and versatile designs that fit well in many different interior styles.
- Price point: Mid-range to upper-mid-range. Sofas generally run from $1,200 to $3,500, with dining tables in the $1,000–$2,500 range. It offers a strong balance of quality and value.
- Quality: Built for everyday life. Crate & Barrel uses durable materials like solid woods and performance fabrics, focusing on practical construction that stands up to regular use.
- Fit & Sizing: Offers a wide variety of sizing options suited for everything from compact urban apartments to larger suburban homes. Modular and smaller-scale pieces are readily available.
- Customization: Many upholstered items come with a selection of fabric and color choices, allowing for personalization.
- Shopping Experience: A consumer-friendly approach blending well-lit, organized showrooms with an easy-to-use website featuring customer reviews and room-planning tools.
- Return policy: Relatively flexible policy, allowing non-furniture merchandise to be returned within 30 days, while furniture returns must be made within 7 days of delivery.
Crate & Barrel provides well-designed, dependable furniture that brings contemporary style to everyday living spaces, balancing aesthetics with practicality and affordability.
Shop Crate & Barrel: www.crateandbarrel.com
Restoration Hardware vs. Crate & Barrel Comparison
Price Comparison
There is a significant price difference between these two brands. Restoration Hardware operates in the luxury market, where pieces are an investment. A sofa from Crate & Barrel might cost $2,000, while a similar-sized sofa at RH would likely start at $4,000 or more, made with more premium inner materials and upholstery like Belgian linen or full-grain leather. RH’s membership model offers 25% off most full-priced items, but even with this discount, prices are substantially higher than Crate & Barrel’s regular pricing.
Crate & Barrel sits in a much more accessible mid-to-high price range. It offers excellent value for the quality, putting stylish, well-made furniture within reach of a broader audience. While not inexpensive, its prices reflect a balance between good design, durability, and budget-friendliness. Shoppers looking for everyday furniture will find the better value at Crate & Barrel, while those with a large budget for high-end statement pieces should look to RH.
Style & Aesthetic
The brands' styles are worlds apart. RH has a curated, grand aesthetic that feels somewhere between a timeless European estate and a modern industrial loft. Its signature look involves massive, comfortable sofas, raw wood finishes, and a strict color palette of neutrals like greys, beiges, and charcoals. The overall vibe is dramatic, sophisticated, and intentionally impressive.
Crate & Barrel, in contrast, is modern, warm, and approachable. Its design language is centered on clean lines, functional forms, and a brighter color palette. The aesthetic is adaptable, fitting easily into contemporary, Scandinavian, or transitional homes. It focuses on creating inviting and usable spaces rather than purely dramatic ones. If your style icon is Diane Keaton in a Nancy Meyers film, you're likely drawn to RH. If you prefer a brightly lit, neatly organized space with modern touches, Crate & Barrel is a better match.
Quality & Construction
Both brands prioritize quality, but they do so differently. Restoration Hardware focuses on using premium, often natural, materials to create heirloom-quality pieces. Think kiln-dried hardwood frames, down-filled cushions, solid brass hardware, and top-grain leathers. The craftsmanship is meticulous, intended to last for decades.
Crate & Barrel’s quality is anchored in durability and practicality. They use solid woods (like oak and walnut) and dependable engineered woods, alongside a wide range of performance fabrics designed to resist stains and wear from pets and kids. While they may not use the same level of luxury materials as RH, their furniture is well-constructed and designed to withstand the rigors of family life.
Fit & Sizing
Sizing is a key differentiator. Restoration Hardware famously designs on a very large scale. Their sofas are deep and sprawling, their dining tables are long and wide, and their mirrors and lighting fixtures are massive. This works exceptionally well in homes with high ceilings, large rooms, and open floor plans but can easily overwhelm smaller, more traditional spaces.
Crate & Barrel offers furniture for real-world homes of all sizes. They provide a range of scales, from apartment-sized sofas and neat dining sets for four to large, modular sectionals that can fill a family room. Their pieces are designed to be proportional and functional in a variety of layouts, making them a much more versatile choice for most consumers.
Shopping Experience
Shopping at RH is an experience in itself. Their galleries are stunning, multi-story buildings often located in historic buildings, complete with rooftop restaurants and barista bars. It's an aspirational, luxury experience where you explore meticulously staged rooms. Their online presence is equally sleek, though the lack of explicit pricing without adding items to a cart can be a hurdle.
Crate & Barrel provides a more traditional, straightforward retail experience. Their stores are bright, organized, and packed with items you can touch and feel. Their website is one of the best in the industry - it's user-friendly, contains detailed product information, and features thousands of helpful customer reviews with photos that add a layer of social proof.
Sustainability & Ethics
Both brands have made strides in sustainability. Crate & Barrel has a more public-facing commitment, emphasizing responsibly sourced materials like FSC-certified wood and offering sustainable textile options. They aim for greater transparency in their supply chain and packaging.
Restoration Hardware has also integrated sustainability into its practices by sourcing responsibly harvested woods and using eco-friendly materials. However, their focus remains more on luxury and quality, with sustainability being a supporting-level priority rather than a central brand pillar in their marketing.
Which One Should You Choose?
The right brand comes down to your budget, personal style, and the scale of your home. Both retailers offer quality products but cater to distinctly different customers.
Choose Restoration Hardware if:
- You have a healthy budget and view furniture as a long-term investment.
- Your personal style is classic, elegant, and grand with a neutral tone-on-tone color palette.
- You are furnishing a large space with high ceilings and need pieces that won't feel undersized.
- Build quality and premium materials like solid hardwood and top-grain leather are your top priority.
Choose Crate & Barrel if:
- You're looking for clean, modern, and versatile pieces at an attainable price.
- Your home needs functional, durable furniture that can withstand kids, pets, and everyday life.
- You're furnishing an apartment, condo, or normal-sized home and need properly scaled furniture.
- You appreciate a straightforward shopping experience with helpful customer reviews and accessible design help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel more expensive?
Restoration Hardware is significantly more expensive than Crate & Barrel. RH operates in the luxury furniture market with prices that are often two to three times higher than comparable items at Crate & Barrel, which is positioned in the upper-mid-range market.
Which brand has better quality furniture?
Restoration Hardware is generally considered to have higher-end quality due to its focus on premium materials like solid hardwoods, hand-finished metals, and luxury fabrics. However, Crate & Barrel offers excellent quality for its price point, with a focus on durable construction and practical, family-friendly materials like performance fabrics.
What is the style difference between RH and Crate & Barrel?
RH’s style is grand, classic, and neutral, often described as transitional or rustic-modern. It leans into statement pieces with a monochromatic palette. Crate & Barrel's style is contemporary, modern, and approachable, with clean lines and a warmer feel that blends well with many decors.
Which store is better for small spaces?
Crate & Barrel is a much better choice for small spaces. They offer specific apartment-sized collections and modular pieces designed for versatility and functionality in tighter quarters. RH furniture is generally oversized and intended for large, open rooms.
Can you return furniture to both stores?
Yes, both have furniture return policies, but with limitations. Crate & Barrel allows for furniture returns within 7 days of delivery for a fee. Restoration Hardware's policy for stock furniture is also time-sensitive, and custom or special-order items are often not returnable.
How often do RH and Crate & Barrel have sales?
Crate & Barrel has seasonal sales events throughout the year, especially around holidays like Presidents' Day and Memorial Day, with discounts on specific categories. RH does not hold traditional sales, instead, they operate a membership program ($175/year) that gives members a 25% discount on all full-priced items.
Which brand is more family-friendly?
Crate & Barrel is more family-friendly due to its focus on durable materials, performance fabrics that resist stains, versatile designs, and a more accessible price point. Its furniture is built to withstand everyday use by kids and pets.
Does Restoration Hardware have a design service?
Yes, RH offers an interior design service to help customers create cohesive spaces using their products. This service complements their high-end, gallery-focused shopping experience. Crate & Barrel also offers free design services, both online and in-store.
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