IKEA, RH Gallery bring more furniture options to Las Vegas

One site is designed to resemble a massive 70,000-square-foot mansion at the posh, sophisticated Tivoli Village on Rampart Boulevard. There, you can take in high-end bedroom, office and other home displays highlighting a furniture offering built with a sense of rustic charm. Enjoy a glass of cabernet from the wine bar as you contemplate your next purchase for your home.

The other site — in the southwest valley at Durango Drive and the 215 Beltway — brings a 351,000-square-foot furniture megastore, a mix of showrooms built to highlight practical living and do-it-yourself warehouse-style shopping. You can enjoy Swedish meatballs and the kids can use the play area, too. Oh, and you can probably score a queen-size bed frame for only a few hundred bucks.

The tale of Las Vegas’ two new major furniture stores — Ikea and Restoration Hardware’s RH Gallery — continues as both retailers build out their super-sized offerings in the valley. Ikea is due to open next summer while RH Gallery should open in the spring.

And while they sit at opposite ends of the furniture shopping spectrum when it comes to both price and style, they both, in their own unique ways, bring added sophistication to the Las Vegas furniture market.

Mix it up

Lisa Escobar, founder of Lisa Escobar Design, isn’t afraid to mix and match higher- and lower-end offerings from Ikea and Restoration Hardware in the right situations.

Escobar loves Ikea’s throws and pillows and other textiles as well as its planters and picture frames.

“I do sometimes like to mix high- and low-end when accessorizing the space just to give it something interesting. … Ikea always has such good textures, quality and it’s inexpensive,” the design pro said.

However, Escobar recently had clients specifically request Restoration Hardware products and nothing else in their home. It was a younger couple looking for a sophisticated look, she said, and Restoration Hardware certainly delivers on that front.

“People equate it with quality. They do such a great job styling their stores. I see a bed in there and I want to lay down in it. It really helps you picture what it would look like in your home,” she added.

Escobar describes Restoration Hardware as “traditional” or “rustic,” but still flexible. Its offerings can be accented nicely with contemporary touches and even some of its hardwood tables and cabinet designs will take on modern straight lines as well.

Where Ikea and Restoration Hardware separate is in the size of pieces, Escobar explained. Restoration Hardware’s styles are clearly geared toward larger spaces, where Ikea is tailored toward the smaller.

“(Ikea’s) great for that apartment rental. They’re also great for that startup environment too, retail spaces, lots of shelving and storage offerings too,” Escobar said.

Escobar also finds warmth and charm in many Restoration Hardware pieces.

“All their furnishings seem to have a detail to it. … The foot of a chair may have a lion carved into it. It brings personality, like there’s a story to tell. … And I can always count on them for a unique

statement chair,” she added.

Ready for IKEA

Escobar also says there’s no denying Ikea’s role when it comes to utility and value. The Las Vegas store comes after years of speculation and rumors, and the local market is ready for it, she says.

Ikea has amassed a following of 101,000 Las Vegas shoppers who have purchased online, through its catalog or at stores in California, Utah or Arizona. Company executives were candid about avoiding markets with fewer than 2 million people, and the Las Vegas location needed to be perfect, Ikea spokesman Joseph Roth said. The furniture manufacturer and retailer has only 42 stores in the United States, a testament to how slowly and meticulously it expands.

DIY mindset

At Ikea, customers can visit showrooms, but ultimately enter a warehouse area to pick out furniture pieces to assemble at home.

“We have a saying: ‘You do a little, together we save a lot,’ ” Roth said.

William Crozer, owner of Modern LV, an Ikea personal shopping service, says Ikea’s simple, utilitarian designs that require assembly bring a strong sense of satisfaction for the owner after they are assembled and a pride in ownership.

The Ikea enthusiast cites a 2011 Harvard Business School study titled: “The Ikea Effect: When Labor Leads to Love,” which discusses the connection humans make with objects they construct themselves. They ultimately value them as highly as a custom-built product and demand others view the item that way as well, the study noted.

“Ikea lets you build a sense of accomplishment and emotional connection with your furniture,” Crozer said. “This is for people who aren’t afraid to use light power tools to assemble things if they have to. … It really appeals to that DIY (do it yourself) crowd.”

Crozer added that Ikea’s popularity speaks to a shift in perspectives on furniture, as consumers see it more as a commodity for today’s use and not a lifelong investment.

“You’re not going to pass down an Ikea bed. It’s a utility item you’re going to have for five or 10 years and get rid of it as your life changes,” he said.

For the past seven years, Crozer and his wife have been making trips to the Covina, Calif., Ikea store to pick up orders for locals for a fee. The Modern LV business is effectively shutting down with the arrival of the Las Vegas Ikea store, but it’s something he and his wife have been anticipating for some time.

“Even though our business is ending, we’re happy it’s here. It brings a sense of civic pride like a sports team or an attraction opening up,” he added.

What’s hot

Beds and bedroom furniture have been Modern LV’s most requested Ikea items for years. New modular kitchen concepts, where Ikea supplies the frame for the cabinets and the customer picks the cabinet doors, are hot, Roth said.

The retailer also is seeing a need for multipurpose options in living rooms. People are turning formal living rooms into TV rooms, lounging areas and gathering places, something other than a place “you just walk by,” Roth said.

Storage and shelving systems have always been, and continue to be, popular for Ikea followers, Escobar said.

The designer also said Restoration Hardware, like Ikea, works to accommodate every detail in a home. There, too, you can find towels, linens, drawers, accent pieces and furniture for a variety of situations. She will likely shop both locations to spur ideas for her clients, whether they’re on a tight budget or not.

“Honestly, I go everywhere for inspiration,” she said.