Review: The Room & Board Emerson Bed Frame, Dresser, and Night Stand

After looking for a long time, my wife and I decided to purchase the Emerson bedroom set from Room & Board in sumptuous walnut wood.

After a few weeks with it, we’re still thrilled, with one big caveat that I’ll mention below.

Purchase and Delivery

The walnut version of the Emerson bedroom set was not on display at our local Room & Board store, so we bought it based on photos from the website.

We purchased the Emerson Ten-Drawer Dresser, the Emerson Queen Bed, two Emerson 26″ Wide One-Drawer Nightstands, and one Queen Two-Piece Platform Board.

A few weeks later, it was all delivered and assembled at our home by Room & Board. It looked great!

Unfortunately, right after assembly, we noticed scratches on the upper right drawer of our dresser:

I showed it to one of the delivery men and he scheduled one of their repair folks to come out and fix it in two weeks. I was glad they had such a service!

The Repair

About two weeks later, on a Saturday morning, the repair man called to say he would be arriving, right on time.

He took out the drawer and filled the pits, the re-stained the section. After his repairs, it was virtually impossible to tell where the damage had been. I was impressed! And of course, there was no charge for the fix.

The Knobs

From the day we bought the set, there was one thing that bothered us: the drawer knobs. The look was fine, but they were really hard to grip. When pushed all the way in, the drawers did have a point at which they “clicked” and required significant force to open. In daily use, the cylindrical knobs were simply unacceptable.

But, we liked the everything else about this furniture, so we went across the street to Rejuvenation and found some oil-rubbed cast brass knobs that we did like, with the intention of retrofitting them after purchase. They were quite expensive, but happily, they were on sale that day.

The knobs were really easy to swap out because the replacements used the same size screw.

After the swap, the drawers are a joy to use and we’re thrilled with the finished product! We actually think the dresser looks better with the larger Rejuvenation knobs. There’s definitely more to grab!

The Bed Frame

The Emerson bed frame has metal slats, so they won’t bend over time. Our mattress felt like it had a little better support with this frame compared to our old box spring.

We also opted for the Two-Piece Platform Board which sits on top of the slats, adding extra support for the mattress.

Several on-line reviewers complained of a strong chemical or adhesive smell after unpacking the platform board. We didn’t notice anything like that. If anything, there was a mild “new furniture” smell, not objectionable at all. It seems that Room & Board solved the odor issue after the original complaints.

So far, we’ve been very happy with the bed frame. It’s so nice not to need a bed skirt. The frame is really solid and doesn’t squeak at all.

Conclusion

Overall, we really like our new Emerson bed, dresser, and nightstands, especially after swapping the drawer knobs. We also appreciate the excellent service we got from Room & Board, from the delivery to the amazing repair. – Brian