Brompton leather is a pure aniline wax pull up with very little protection. It will show a wear story as it is used VS a protected leather that will not show that story. The waxes move over the surface of the hides as they are rubbed across or scratched. As your body oils work, back into the hide the waxes then again shift around and the color darkens once again. It is a story of the use of the sofa. There are many other companies that offer the same styles that are made in America if that is a concern. Brompton is a very stiff leather. There are other leathers out there with the same type characteristics that have a softer more supple hand just FYI! I hope you don’t mind me getting in on this conversation as I don’t have any of their sofas but I do know leather and hope I have helped some on the wear ability of the leather itself. Leather is tough and can take very active households but everyone just needs to understand that Brompton is not always the best choice for that application unless you don’t mind the difference in colors through the years. Be advised that Brompton should never be placed in direct or indirect sunlight it will fade fast. Understand that Brompton does vary from dye-lot to dye-lot. What you see in a swatch can be several shades different than what you will get. Be sure to request a current cutting for approval before placing your order so you understand and can see the true color of what is available at the time you order. Brompton is not only available at RH. Many other manufactures offer this same leather on their products.

I have the Cambridge sofa in vintage black. After 3 years it was saggy on one side and had lost quite a bit of leather on the seating area so I contacted them and they replaced it. The new one looks better but they went from a 98" sofa to an 8ft one but when measuring it, it actually measures smaller than 8 ft. I also have noticed that when someone gets off it, the other person can feel it, almost like it's not level or build strong enough, it goes up and down. Hard to explain but we're small people. I actually preferred the saggy, missing leather to the new version. If you can find anywhere else to get what you want in a sofa, do it. Restoration Hardware may look pretty but it's not well made unfortunately.

I'd like to reiterate, I said the quality of RH's pulls seemed fine. I don't like being told they're made in America and then find out they're made in Taiwan. Taiwan is not exactly synonymous with high quality products. Many of their products are made in Taiwan, but they source their parts from China (this happens in the US as well, so vigilance is necessary). The crux of my rant was that Rh used to be a store that you could count on for having products that were not made in China. I hate that a company known for that has changed their business model, yet hides behind the word "Imported" so that the change is not widely noted by their clients. The fact that they're hiding it means that they know that american consumers avoid goods made in countries known for shoddy products, so they don't display the country of origin as proudly as they used to. This wreaks of dishonesty to me. I don't care how good Rh's Quality Assurance is (I actually have no reason in recent years to believe that it's good at all). If they openly said, our products are mainly made in China now, but our QA is unfaltering, that would be one thing. But that's not what they do. Instead they make it very difficult for you to find where it comes from before purchasing. FYI, the reason that the pet food recall shocked so many pet owners was because some of the highest quality dog food was recalled. Owners thought that since they were paying a premium that they didn't have to worry about low quality food. They assumed a high level of Quality Assurance. Unfortunately, the pet food companies were sourcing grains from China. When grains are bought, the price increases if the crop has a high protein level. So some unscrupulous people in China, who only cared about their own bottom line, added melamine and cyanuric acid to their grains so that when they were tested for protein, it could cheat the test and have a high protein level. Unfortunately, melamine and cyanuric acid can be fatal to animals. In this case it was, to over 13000 pets that we know of and who knows how many pets lives were shortened. Now lets apply this case to hardware. Lets say, a company decides to degrade their hardware and move it from being made and sourced in the USA to being made in Taiwan. What happens if Taiwan can get really cheap nickel plating from China? What happens if the nickel plating from China has lead in it? What happens if said company was a highly regarded company that hasn't reduced any prices so their customers still think they're a high quality company. What if that leads their customers to assume (as did the pet owners) a high level of Quality Assurance? Then what if those customers buy the hardware, touch them every day, have their children touch them every day, lick their hands after touching, etc, etc, etc. It didn't take that long for the pets to develop issues that were noticed.....lead poisoning can be a slower process. Keeping both your consumers best interest and your bottom line in mind must be a difficult balancing act. It seems that Rh's greed has made them fall off the tightrope. I did say that MY White Chapel knobs and pulls were made in the USA. I didn't say all of White Chapel's hardware is made in the USA. However, NONE of them are made in China or Taiwan. They're made in the USA, Great Britain, France, etc. They search out artisans who take pride in their craft. Then they sell it at a reasonable price to consumers. This is a business model that I can support. Here is a link that might be useful: Pet food scandal

It took me forever to decide on bedroom furniture and once I saw the smythson shagreen collection from RH I felt in love. I ordered 2 of the nightstands larger size and the 8 drawer tall dresser. They look amazing, but the drawers dont close. They barely line up. RH sent me three different sets and put the final one through inspection only to have the same thing happen again. They ended up taking all pieces back and gave me my money back, but just be aware. It looks like they really need to work on the manufacturing these items better. For the money you pay you would think the quality would truly be first quality but they were anything but that. I'm hoping they can get it right but it may take some time. :-(