It’s a new year with new starts, but for many of us, our surroundings still are stuck in an earlier decade. Well, we know of five great places that can help you do something about that. We’ve found some new furniture stores–four that have opened in the last two months and one that’s due to open in late spring. Each is full of fun and stylish surprises.
From Old Town to Schaumburg to Skokie, let us take you on our tour of the area’s top five spots for finding stylish new pieces for your home.
First Stop: Bucktown
The first stop is the A’propos Galleria of Furniture and Design Center in Bucktown.
In the nine years that owner Joseph Tenuta had his own Chicago interior design business, he learned customers really wanted more say in the way their furniture looked.
In November, Tenuta and his partner, Lech Piotrowski, opened a store to give consumers a place to speak up.
In this tight space, you’ll see designs by Tenuta as well as European furniture lines like Partio (Italy), Brico (Germany) and Sonal (Holland), and lighting by San Francisco-based Illumination.
And if you don’t see exactly what you’re looking for, lines like the Los Angeles-based Urbana lend themselves to customization.
“We may have a chair you like and you want it done in the style of a sofa that you don’t see on the floor here. It’s possible,” Tenuta says, “and Urbana can make it happen.”
The intimate nature of the 1,700-square-foot shop means you’ll most likely have one of four people helping you: owners Tenuta or Piotrowski, or two of the store’s design associates.
One of the advantages of shopping in a small store like A’propos is that it has a boutique feel to it. It is far removed from the assembly-line feeling seen at some large furniture retailers.
“We want to appeal to the consumer who is not attracted to the sprawling major furniture retailers. We want to keep it small where the customer feels at ease,” says Tenuta.
Individual pieces reflect a mix of styles–with a Victorian-inspired chaise taking on modern curves and contemporary coverings; a cocktail table featuring maple, glass and brushed steel; and a cozy, tufted-back love seat showing off with gold and animal-print pillows.
“We have a little something for everyone,” says Tenuta, who chose this Bucktown neighborhood because of its artsy reputation.
Prices at A’propos range from $950 for a metal, wood and glass cocktail table to $6,000 for an upholstered sofa that could come in chenille or a cotton-silk blend.
A’propos Galleria of Furniture and Design Center, 1944 N. Damen Ave., is open noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; noon to 9 p.m. Thursday; noon to 6 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 312-486-9550.
Second stop: Old Town
Intimate is the theme at Exposa Inc. Fine Biedermeier Furniture, and, as its name makes clear, Biedermeier originals and reproductions are the specialties.
Walls painted a deep Granny Smith-apple green envelope this Old Town storefront showroom, owned by Herta and Karol Hlavac. By itself, the color would be a bit much. But behind the honey-colored woods of the Biedermeier furniture, the hue seems to make the pieces pop.
Biedermeier became popular in northern Europe from 1815 through the 1850s and also influenced the furniture of Scandinavia and Russia. The style is associated with simplicity, though modest decoration does grace the wood. This style is recognizable for its broad range of pale-colored veneer and its contrasting dark inlays of ebony or ebonized wood.
“I think this is what people are looking for today,” says Karol Hlavac, noting that this business is more Herta’s than his, “something that has the form that gives you pleasure when you look at it and meets multipurpose needs in the home.”
The Hlavacs are historians as well as salespeople when it comes to Biedermeier. When you sit or admire a piece, they tell the story behind the piece.
Their original Biedermeier pieces generally range from $2,300 to $15,000. Prices can get lower, though, if you’re looking at original pieces made by Michael Thonet, who mass-produced furniture in 1900. A Thonet beechwood chair sells for $500.
The reproduction round fruitwood dining table in the showroom sells for about $3,500; dining chairs range from $650 to $850.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to make an appointment to get a close look at these beauties. Exposa’s hours are by appointment only.
“We’re not the kind of store that has many mass-produced things lined up for you to see,” says Herta.
Still customers are looking–with many seen pressing their cold noses up against the month-old store’s large windows.
Exposa Inc. Fine Biedermeier Furniture, 230 W. North Ave., is open by appointment only. Call 312-944-8454.
Third stop: The Gold Coast
For those who aren’t familiar with Ligne Roset, Chicago’s soon-to-open showroom, think casual, but classy; think comfortable, but chic; and think colorful and cost-conscious.
And if you still don’t get the picture, wait just a few months and check out the France-based company’s latest U.S. store. The 19th Ligne Roset store in the U.S.–other stores are in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Miami and Atlanta–is scheduled to open at 56 E. Walton St. in late spring.
The Chicago showroom is still a work in progress. The building is designed by Pascal Mourgue, who also is one of Ligne Roset’s featured furniture designers.)
The four-story building going up in the Gold Coast is the Paris-based artist, writer, architect and designer’s first Lignet Roset building in the United States.
“What we want to do is to have a place where furniture is placed in a way so that you can imagine it in your own place,” says Herve Laurent, executive vice president. “It’s not our intention to have it all placed neatly in a row.”
As for Mourgue’s furniture designs for Lignet Roset, they hold close to the style roots the designer put in place in 1964 when he started a design group called Essai. Essai specialized in simple and inexpensive furniture.
Though Mourgue moved on to do projects on his own, his designs are still classically simple, such as his Petit Calin, an armless chair that the designer calls a “pillow of infinite possibilities.”
Designs in the Mourgue collection range from $130 for a lamp to $2,500 for a sofa. His Citicorp Vis-a-Vis sofa has a broader range depending on fabric selection. Prices start at $2,325 for cloth to $6,520 for leather.
Other standouts from Ligne Roset: Claude Brisson’s Zen chair, a simple S-curve design, which costs from $1,160 to $2,150, also depending on fabric; and Helix, by Daniele Puppa and Franco Raggi, which has Baroque influences, $3,050 to $6,075.
Ligne Roset is at 56 E. Walton St. It is scheduled to open in late spring. For more information, call Ligne Roset Chicago 312-767-3887.
Fourth stop: Schaumburg
Z Gallerie may be new to the Chicago area, but it is not really new. There already are 25 Z Gallerie stores on the West Coast, with the chain’s heaviest presence in California.
The company’s Chicago-area store, with its hip designs that are rarities in most malls, is a long way from its home base in California. But owner Joseph Zeiden, who started the Z chain 13 years ago, says the Woodfield Shopping Center location is a perfect place for Z to test the Midwestern market.
And though the 10,000-square-foot store in Woodfield is smaller than the chain’s other stores, which are typically 30,000 square feet, “we’re not taking any shortcuts with what we offer,” says Zeiden.
True, you can find everything from poster art to sophisticated sofas.
And an “edge” is seen and felt in the store design, as well as the furniture. There’s the feeling that something is happening or about to happen, much like the adrenaline-rush of a runway fashion show.
“We’re a bit avant-garde, but what you see is fresh and new,” says Zeiden of his first Z store east of the Mississippi which opened in the fall. “About half of what you see are designs by us and the other half are by other designers.”
And prices will meet most budgets. For example, upholstered chairs and sofas range from $800 to $1,200; dining chairs, about $150; framed poster art, which is what Z began with 13 years ago, ranges from $35 to $2,700.
“We try to keep very competitive and we know what the customer who shops with us is willing to pay,” Zeiden says. “We’re not trying to be Barneys (New York) and sell a glass for $72, but we know that our customer wants a glass that looks like it came from Barneys but they want to pay $5.99 for it.”
The Z Gallerie in Schaumburg is just the beginning. Zeiden says he’s bringing three stores to Chicago and two more into the Chicago area.
Z Gallerie is at Woodfield Shopping Center, between Golf and Higgins Roads at Woodfield Drive, Schaumburg. Hours are: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call 847-619-1103.
Last stop: Skokie
The Pottery Barn, known for its handsome home-furnishings catalog, brought its furniture to life last month with its new 10,000-square-foot store at the Old Orchard Shopping Center.
While the San Francisco-based firm established a local presence at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook 2 1/2 years ago, its store there is much smaller than its new Skokie sister and doesn’t display furniture. Now, Chicago area shoppers can see and feel Pottery Barn’s Thomas bedside table instead of trying to imagine it.
The two-story store is geared toward the upscale customer who is young at heart and has disposable income–though prices still are reasonable. It’s sprawling layout is an example of what Pottery Barn stores “to come” in the Chicago area will look like, says store manager Anna Payne.
For example, expect to pay $725 for the queen-size Oak Leaf and Acorn bed in iron and wood, $1,589 for the red and green-painted pine Nottingham cabinet. The prices are the same as those listed in the catalog (about 75 percent to 80 percent of its catalog inventory is carried at the Skokie store) but shopping in the store means savings on shipping and handling costs.
One problem you may encounter is that the staff, even on a not-so busy weekday evening, will let you wander looking for help before offering it. (Yes, we know, some shoppers do consider this a plus.)
As you wander through the store, you’ll come across things you never dreamed of–such as the Colorwash wall treatment, which is displayed like watercolors in an artist’s studio, and imaginative bath products such as the bathtub tea (fragrant flowers and herbs in a large tea bag).
You also may discover the design studio, where a small staff of designers will work with you in trying to achieve some of the creative goals you have for your home.
The meeting is a non-computerized, free, face-to-face session. Here, you and a designer can sit down with graph paper, template, ruler and pencil and “place” furniture in the room the way you want it.
“A lot of people are building a new home,” says Payne, “and this is a way to help them facilitate the design of certain spaces without needing to go to a designer to have it done.”
Pottery Barn is at Old Orchard Shopping Center, Golf Road and Skokie Boulevard, Skokie. Hours are: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Call 847-673-8416.
