If you want your home store to stand out, consider shopping independent shops instead of big-box chains for stylish homewares. From handmade tabletop accessories to vintage furniture pieces, these stores will help elevate the aesthetics of your space.
Salter House of Brooklyn specializes in “the expression of our domestic space.” You’ll find handmade-in-NY home items with a cottagecore aesthetic, such as this buttery yellow rattan chair.
Salter House
Salter House, Sandeep Salter’s Brooklyn Heights cafe and homewares store that offers sustainable linens and china alongside sister gallery Picture Room, initially caused some interest when she displayed cotton nighties for sale on a rack in her store’s lobby area. Soon enough, though, these gowns became an instantaneous hit and now make up most of Salter House sales; their lightweight cotton composition makes for easy wearing during grocery trips, FaceTime calls, or quick naps!
Salter House is an indie, bourgeois version of Crabtree & Evelyn with a more minimal, Shaker-influenced approach to country interiors that has left its mark locally and beyond. This retailer offers sustainable soap bars, Liberty floral prints, and organic children’s toys – a welcome relief from mass-produced millennial design.
Salter’s store also stocks heirloom-quality tableware and textiles made in New York by her network of female makers, many of whom hail from Salter herself. This season, they introduced their inaugural private label collection of day dresses featuring historical silhouettes: corsets and pantaloons made with linen that features ruffled hems and smocking produced by a small team of women producers.
Ceramiche Rampini’s handmade terra-cotta candleholders, which boast decorative features that perfectly complement Salter House’s aesthetic, remain one of their most popular offerings in the shop. Boasting gray hues with olive and ribbon-inspired details, they make stunning additions to any mantel or shelf.
The shop’s philosophy is closely connected to its physical setting: Salter House was designed in 1922 by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin (proteges of Frank Lloyd Wright) for their family in Woodend, Australia. Featuring seven intersecting room bays connected by tent-like ceilings with low skillions housing service areas and now on Australia’s National Register of Historic Places; however, after moving out in 1934, they remain part of their family but open for tours and events to be enjoyed by visitors today.
The Six Bells
The Six Bells is a country store of homewares from an alternate universe, created by Audrey Gelman – former Chief Executive of women’s co-working space The Wing. Its Brooklyn location feels authentically country store-like with butter yellow walls painted Farrow and Ball’s Cane paint, gingham curtains, and quilted frames; Marie Joh, head of merchandising at The Six Bells, describes entering her favorite character’s home!
Six Bells offer everything from linen bedding and kitchen wares, hand-woven baskets, antiques, and small business products in an English countryside-influenced style – vintage and contemporary. If you’re searching for farmhouse elegance or something more modern, The Six Bells has it all!
They offer even more items for the holidays – glittery Christmas ornaments, dark red ribbons, coniferous garlands, candles, decorations, and decor pieces to bring festiveness into any room.
The Six Bells stand apart from traditional home stores by featuring more than just an assortment of trinkets; instead, it provides an immersive world centered on Barrow’s Green Village with a population of 640 that serves as the backdrop to Gelman’s tale and emporium of trinkets – Barrow’s Green being central to her narrative for giving The Six Bells its sense of place and purpose.
Gelman has exploited a dream fantasy for those who cannot afford actual country houses but have money for handmade tchotchkes. Her brand exemplifies how trends intersect and cross-pollinate in today’s market, drawing from cottage-core, nap-centric design, grand millennial design et cetera for inspiration in creating a cohesive aesthetic. This type of design can make an enormous impactful statement about who you are; plus, it’s easy for others to emulate it in their homes.
John Derian
John Derian is one of America’s premier practitioners of decoupage–the art of adhering cut and pasted paper images onto objects–in this country. His company was established in 1989 and employs a small team. Together they produce decoupage plates, platters, paperweights, and other home accessories sold at upscale home stores, catalogs, and gift shops worldwide. Derian’s retail shops, studios, and homes have been featured in Vogue, The New York Times, World of Interiors, Elle Decor, Bon Appetit GQ W, Air France Madame, and German AD magazines. His ephemera collaborations in ceramic and furniture manufacturing have also been widely covered; beyond his namesake shops in Greenwich Village and Provincetown, his collections can be sold at hundreds of other retailers worldwide.
At this charming knickknack and home decor store, it’s like exploring the attic treasures of an eccentric great aunt or uncle from around the globe. Here you’ll find quilts made from vintage saris, delicate paper flowers by Livia Cetti, Carrara marble fruit from Carrara Italy, batiked linens by John Robshaw and Hugo Guinness linocut prints; you’ll also find Derian’s hand-painted decoupage glassware, vase holders as well as marbled porcelain bowls decorated with decorative incense or matchboxes that look too pretty to hide away in drawers or cabinets!
Derian’s studio and shop, housed in a pre-Civil War Greenwich Village building, exude old-world charm. The walls have been painted multiple times – including by scenic painters for film and theater productions- and are filled with streaks, drips, and blotches from nicotine use over the decades – an aesthetic that appeals to Derian’s many fans.
Derian Store’s exquisite illustrations, etchings, and chromolithographic prints adorning his most sought-after objects are now available in an exquisite gift book that will become the ultimate collectible for his fans. Boasting 350 full-bleed images perfectly encapsulating his shops’ spirit – grab a copy at any of his three NYC locations or online.
Nordstrom
Nordstrom is known for prioritizing customer service above all else, as evidenced by numerous stories of clerks paying parking tickets for customers, sending deliveries directly to customers’ offices, and offering cash back on returns. Furthermore, its staff have been trained to provide a personalized shopping experience. Moreover, Nordstrom operates numerous physical outlets throughout the US where customers can receive special attention from the team.
Home Shop at their NYC flagship store offers customers an immersive two-story retail experience featuring products from both emerging and established brands, ranging from kitchen/tabletop items, textiles, and small appliances (Boll & Branch, Dyson, Staub, and Marimekko being among those represented) as well as local makers like Wooj, Thompson Street Studio and Danielle Yukari – handcrafted pieces are also displayed here!
Nordstrom has recognized that New Yorkers have become increasingly selective about what products they purchase for their homes, with this new Home Shop reflecting this shift. Furniture made of repurposed wood will feature as part of its collection; apartments will find decor solutions and small appliances explicitly designed to fit into small spaces; there will also be local vendors such as MoMA Design Store and Quiet Town in their offerings as part of local small businesses and artisans such as these two boutiques.
Nordstrom’s Home Shop will showcase products from several eco-conscious brands, targeting millennials and Gen Z demographics who favor companies that incorporate environmental sustainability into their business models. Nordstrom is already responding to this consumer trend by collaborating with sustainable brands like Reformation and Everlane.
Nordstrom offers comprehensive customer support online and in its retail outlets, from product information and exchange policies to mobile apps that allow shoppers to browse and purchase items on the go.