apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Hi there,
Has anyone ever bought anything from Visiondecor.com? Obviously you get what you pay for and this stuff is cheap, but they have some nice sofas... just curious

Can anyone reccomend a good place to buy glass vases? I've been all over - Bloomingdale's, Tiffany, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, and no luck. I want a really classic simple crystal or better glass vase. Any ideas would be SOOO appreciated.

Thanks!
-Ryan

Hi everyone!
I'm doing Scavenger every once in a while (in a perfect world, 3x a week) and would love to hear your Apartment Therapy Scavenger success stories. Have you found something you love through our featured links? Click on my name and send me an e-mail. I'd also like to hear about great street find you might have had, as well as experiences you've had by going through craigslist directly. Mostly, I'm just trying to find out if Scavenger is something people use for its implied purpose -- to actually buy the featured items, or if it's more of something people look at to ooh and ahh over burled wood waterfall armoires, etc. But I might also want to do a little write up for the site. Thanks!

I did buy a small persian rug from a guy whose posts are often linked here. Paul DeBeer, I think his name is. Can't remember. Anyway, it's a beautiful rug, and he even shipped it to me to try it out before I bought it. success!

If you want to spend a little more, there's always Steuben Glass on 5th Ave & 56th.

http://steuben.com/acb/ss.cfm?section=5&subsection=0&group=17&start=1&maxresults=31&thispage=31&fp=0&sa=1

Ryan -
Usually (and it's been a while), when I'm actually in the Restoration Harware bricks-and-mortar store, I see glass vases that look very classic and simple. I just looked at their website and saw no such thing.

Ryan L--
I love the Bosphorus line at Pottery Barn, but you nixed them already. Perhaps the Calvin Klein flagship, if you are in NYC? But you may end up with a $200 version of a PB $40 vase!

What are you finding you don't like at the places you've been?... knowing that may help propose better alternatives.

(Diane-- Steuben was a great suggestion! Made me wonder if the Corning Glass Museum has a gift shop.)

For vases in the classic wedding gift registry line, there's also Mikasa (http://www.mikasa.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductSearchCmd?searchStr=vase&imageField.x=0&imageField.y=0) and Nambe (http://www.nambe.com/Shop/SearchResults.aspx?category=Vases&page=1).

I like Simon Pearce for vases. I think they have a shop in soho and on line.

Thanks all for the suggestions - stuben is great, but a bit out of my price range. Well, kind of exponentially out there, but purty nonetheless. The low/mid range stoes (PB & C&)B seem crammed full of summer stuff, at the expense of what I'm looking for... and high end stores are full of gramma-style cut glass.

Simon Pearce looks spot on - any other suggestions along that line around 5th ave? I tried the moma design store and fotuneoff (gag) over lunch.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Hi

I just discovered this site a few weeks ago and it's been incredibly helpful in planning my move to my new apartment in the financial district of NYC.

I desperately need advice about buying a new sofa. I need one that is cat friendly because my cat has scratched the arms of my upholstered sofa. I was thinking about a mission style sofa, because they have wooden arms. Is there anywhere in NY that sells attractive, quality mission sofas for reasonable prices. I don't really want to spend more than $2000.

Thanks!

Change of topic. How many sets of bath towels and bed linens do you keep on hand for yourself assuming they're changed at least weekly? (Exclusive of large families). With storage a problem in a small apartment I'm finding I need to pair down on towels and bed linens. Also I have some that are still in good condition, but I want a new look and color. Do you simply toss perfectly usable stuff?

Stacey-

The Simon Pearch store in soho is closed apparantly, but there is another store at 500 park that's around the corner from my office. Thanks!

Lawgirl-
I just happened to see this on craigslist -- http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fur/80500002.html. It's not necessarily mission style, but it has a wood frame and is not expensive.

Gumps has some great glass vases from time to time. I keep an eye on their web site.

Michael C Fina on 5th near 44th (43rd?) carries Simon Pearce. Go inside and downstairs -- the downstairs is huge. You can't tell how large the store is from street level.

jimkk -
i technically have 2 sets each of bed sheets & towels, but for all practical purposes it's more like 1 set that gets used all the time & 1 backup. now that we've moved into a place w/ washer & dryer, we no longer have to wait to do multiple loads of laundry all at once like we did in the laundromat days. so basically as soon as the sheets & towels get washed (on the weekends) they go right back again.

re perfectly usable sheets & towels, why not donate them to goodwill instead of just tossing them? (or if that's what you meant, then sorry, just making sure!)

jimkk, i'm single, also have storage problems, and keep two sets of vintage french linen bedding and really good quality white bath sheets. i never really get bored of those, but i do sometimes change the color of the hand towels and washcloths and blankets, and then, depending on the condition, i take the old ones to an animal shelter or to a local charity that helps out low-income people in need of household items.

(oops, i wasn't awake -- patrick's the other one, i'm the first one. is it friday yet?)

jimkk, i'm single, also have storage problems, and keep two sets of vintage french linen bedding and really good quality white bath sheets. i never really get bored of those, but i do sometimes change the color of the hand towels and washcloths and blankets, and then, depending on the condition, i take the old ones to an animal shelter or to a local charity that helps out low-income people in need of household items.

Hi Molly
Thanks for the tip. Target sells that sofa for about $300 new, so I would probably just get it there if I go that route. I agree it looks pretty good in the picture, although I am not crazy about the cushion color. And am I a snob to want something a little more upscale than a $300 Target sofa? :)

I stand by my Pottery Barn-as-vase resource. Yep, they do introduce seasonal items (and their Summer foucs is definitely not their most vase-related), but they have a fairly extensive line of "basics"-- modern and traditional-- that they carry year-round in their "permanent collection."

oh yeah, i remember hearing somewhere that animal shelters are always in need of old towels. so even if they're too old/ragged for goodwill & you don't need them for housecleaning purposes, don't throw them away--a local animal shelter will likely be glad to take them!

arghh, i keep getting the "wrong/missing code" thing too! but as far as i can tell, i haven't been double-posting, right?

Lawgirl--
It's not so much about snobbery as it is the maxim, that when it comes to furniture, you generally get what you pay for, especially since you had already mentally budgetted a figure closer to $2000...

sooj--
I think perhaps there is a time-element involved.. if too much time elapses since you start your comment, it asks you to reenter the code (seems like it to me).

So, TYPE FASTER!!! :)

I thik it also may have something to do with using the keypad on the right of the keyboard or the keys at the top... maybe. At least, I never had the problem until I started entering numbers from over on the right.

OK, I just proved myself wrong. It must not be a numbers lock thing.

So, TYPE FASTER, ALREADY!!!

aughh, okay! OKAY!!! *typing madly*

(actually, i think it's more b/c sometimes i spend too long reading the other posts & then thinking about them as i write...)

there are many posts on sofas on here if you do a search- one on small sofas as well. i'm fairly certain room and board has mission style furniture- try online (they delivered ours in 2 weeks), or i think there's a store in the city too.

Hi. Im in Boston, moving to an even smaller space and looking for a small dining set (2 chairs and a table) and desk. Cherry/teak of mature quality preferred for both pieces have checked the usual suspects: hold everything, crate and barrell, city schemes, design within reach, pier 1, target and cant find anything relatively small. Any recomendations? Thank you for your time.

CMW--
If only I had the answer to that!

I really like a lot of Simon Pearce's stuff but have found much of it too expensive for my budget, HOWEVER, the Soho store used to sell seconds and they were lovely and within reach. The wine glasses, esp, were very pretty. I hope the Park Ave store carries seconds...

Aarrgh. I feel so decadent! I've somehow amassed 7 sets of sheets and 8 sets of towels (though some of the latter no longer have coordinating wash cloths). More than my closet space can bear. Thanks for the suggestion on donation to animal shelters. I wasn't sure about the Goodwill, etc. for some reason. While those places take used clothing I never thought about used bed linens (sort of like most wouldn't take used undergarments). I'll have to see if there is a convenient location I can drop off.

cmw -
In my place, I decided that I needed a round table that's 36" for my dining area, because any smaller, and 4 chairs wouldn't fit around it, and any larger and I couldn't move around it.

And I looked everywhere, including Ethan Allen, and I finally took a Saturday and basically stalked that table like a dog in the street.

And I found it at an antique store on 84th between Broadway and Amsterdam called Koch and McErlain. I'm not saying they'll have it, but now I'm looking at your post, and you're in Boston, right?

Isn't that town just chock full of antiques? Even if you're not necesaarily looking for antiques, it might be a good idea, because people used to be smaller, so I'm thinking that it might not be too hard to find things that are scaled smaller among older things.

Thank you Curtis, unfortunately I havent seen anything of the proper design in any of the antique/used furniture stores around here so far. The only things I see are glass tables and chair sets that look cheap to me...