Lichen — Local services in New York

TL;DR Spent ~$2,000 on a dining room table at Lichen. Initial delivery was careless. Less than a year later and with very minimal use, the table is showing clear defects and Lichen will not provide any kind of support.

At face value, the story of Lichen and its two founders reads very positively. Great PR and a not insignificant amount of positive community reviews cannot be completely written off. At the end of the day though, my personal experiences with the company have been very poor and I cannot recommend that anyone purchase from them.

To start with some background, I purchased a home in September of 2021. Given this, I was excited to begin investing in higher quality home furnishings than I had in the past. Ultimately, I settled on an understated but elegant round birch dining room table.

All in, the table was approximately ~$2,000, and I mention the price because while it may not be entirely on the high end, I do feel I should be able to get a quality, durable piece at this price point.

Ordering was fairly seamless / uneventful, which is a plus. However, as soon as we took delivery, the problems started.

To paint a picture, the table I ordered is perfectly round and there are four identical legs which are drilled into the top piece. During the build, the legs should have been drilled into the top piece with even spacing/angling (not just for aesthetics but for stability).

This isn’t an overly difficult process. A few extra minutes using a straight edge/ruler before drilling would have sufficed but instead, the installers clearly eyeballed the drilling of the legs, which lead to each leg being installed at a slightly different angle and unevenly spaced from each other.

When we called this out, to be fair, the installers (who I believe may have been the owners) did come back to fix the issue. I was annoyed that the top piece now had more holes drilled in it than necessary, but I was trying to be reasonable, so I let it slide and even offered a tip as a sign of appreciation for fixing the issue (which was refused).

Now the larger problem, 10-11 months into owning the table, it’s become evident that the wood was not properly treated/sealed/finished.

I am extremely careful with my furniture and frankly also do not use the table in question that often. It’s rare that my partner and I use the table more than once or twice a week. We’ve also only hosted one gathering (given the pandemic) and have more placemats, corkboard, and coasters than anyone else I know. Anything that is spilled on the table is cleaned up within minutes. Anything that is very hot/cold is placed on cork.

Regardless, there are now two large patches of the table where the formerly smooth surface of the wood has been damaged. You can both see and feel cracks which frankly, make the table feel ugly and look cheap.

I understand that furniture is meant to be used and will age and develop its own patina over time but frankly speaking, that’s clearly not the design/vibe of this table, so for this wear to happen so quickly and visibly under minimal use is unacceptable.

To address this, we again (privately) reached out to Lichen and asked what support they could provide. Their answer? We should relacquer the table on our own. I’m a handy guy but honestly, I have no interest in spending my own time/effort/money fixing what is clearly a defective product that I spent a fair amount of money on.

Ultimately, this response from Lichen felt very dismissive. This is particularly disappointing given how much of their brand seems to be built on promises of building strong relationships with their customers and communities (search for/read the founders' Vogue piece). Actions speak louder than words though and in the end, when it came down to it, Lichen was unwilling to address the fact that they sold me a defective dining room table.

For that reason, unfortunately, I cannot recommend that anyone...

Love this shop! I've been going to Lichen for years and somehow I'm just writing this! (oops)

They are only open a couple days a week, but the way they curate the shop makes it so it's worth pulling up every weekend! The store is different even Saturday to Sunday, but the crew is always giving the same great service and the vibes are always immaculate! Everytime I go it just feels so relaxing.. I'm like.. I should work here.. But I already have a job... and I'm not qualified.

Gotta shout out the owners Ed & Jared cause the staff aren't really "salespeople", they all create and are a part of the overall vision so it never feels like high pressure sales (even though it could cause stuff gets snatched up fast so if you love something you'll want to hop on it). Instead the vibe is welcoming and interactions with staff are bigger than just making a sale. Over the years I've built relationships with them, not just bought beautiful things.

They have several in-house designs / brands like Fragile Glass by Eric (

Lichen is a beautiful store specialized in thoughtful design and furniture, at reasonable prices and with exceptional curation. We love visiting the studio for browsing/inspiration and have purchased several pieces (both vintage and made by Lichen) that we’re super happy with!

However, last week I bought a cabinet on the Lichen website and was in touch with the team about pick-up — when I came out to Ridgewood, they had just sold the piece (for which I had paid) to someone else. Oof. Mistakes can obviously happen, but this was just super disappointing. Much of Lichen’s inventory is one-of-a-kind or not easily substitutable, so you can’t simply walk into another store instead. The team acknowledged the oversight, reimbursed me, and then gave us 20 bucks off of our purchase, but overall it felt pretty nonchalant given how much of a letdown this was.

We still love Lichen, will continue visiting the studio, and want to continue supporting the team. I’m just a bit wary of buying things on their site now, if I can’t be confident that the items will be there when I...