For those with weddings on the horizon, here’s one reason to get excited (aside from your impending marriage!): West Elm have introduced a wedding and gift registry.
With online access, you can manage your registry from wherever and whenever you want. Plus guests can purchase gifts for delivery anywhere in Australia. You can also enjoy the exclusive benefit of having an extended return date for exchanges, meaning there’s no need to rush back to the shops after you’ve tied the knot.
More so, and I think this is the most exciting part, West Elm’s free home stylist can meet you at your home or in the store, and help you pick items for your registry and to style your space.
You can also register with the rest of the Williams-Sonoma family: Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and Williams-Sonoma, with all of them having their own wedding and gift registries as well.
It’s been on the rumour mill for ages but now it’s official. Williams Somoma Inc is opening its four super brands north of the bridge in Sydney’s Chatswood Chase this August, following on from the Bondi stores last year. Hooray!
All four stores will also open in Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre in late 2014/early 2015.
“We are excited to continue our global expansion in Australia,” said Laura Alber, President and Chief Executive Officer, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. “When we opened our stores in Bondi Junction last year, it was the first time we had showcased all four brands together side-by-side. We plan to replicate this in Chadstone shopping centre, where all four stores will also be inter-connected, the first time we have done this anywhere in the world.
“All four brands will also have stores in Chatswood Chase, making it easier for our customers to shop and mix and match products to create a complete home.
“We look forward to sharing our exceptional home furnishings along with unique in-store experiences and outstanding customer service with more Australian customers who want to decorate, entertain and live well.”
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. opened its first Australian stores for Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, and West Elm in Oxford Street Mall, Bondi Junction in May 2013 and another West Elm store at 464 Chapel Street, South Yarra in September 2013. All four brands ship across Australia via their e-commerce sites.
If you haven’t already, you need to know about Comfort Works. They sell slip covers in a huge variety of textiles, colours and patterns, to get your tired sofa looking like new again for a fraction of the cost of replacing it. It’s not only cheap, but great for the environment. And it all happens online (you can order up to eight free swatches).
They supply handmade covers for almost all the IKEA sofas and armchairs as well as a few Pottery Barn ones. Before too long, they promise to offer a custom service too, to suit pretty much any sofa. This appeals to me for so many reasons. I’m fickle, so I love the idea of being able to change up my couch for a few hundreds dollars every couple of years (yes, I know you should buy big items like sofas in neutrals, but we don’t always make the wise decisions). I’m currently loving the trend for velvet lounges and Comfort Works offer a variety of velvets as an option.
It’s also a great solution for those on a budget who might pick up a pre-loved couch on eBay and want to give it an easy makeover before they put it in their home. If you have kids and want to protect your sofa from spills and burp-ups for the next 12 months, here’s your answer! And then there’s the people with a ridiculously lived-in couch that has seen better days but they can’t bear to part with it because it is so comfy, even if it does look sorry for itself.
Last year, I partnered with Comfort Works, which is an Aussie business, to help my friend Amanda make over her sofa (I like to be able to vouch for quality before writing about things like this). She hated the colour of her IKEA lounge but, in the middle of saving for her wedding to Scott (incidentally, I was the MC and it was a stunning day!), couldn’t justify a new one. They were really happy with the result (shown below).
You can see many other people’s transformations on their flickr.
Amanda’s new look lounge
“We had bought the IKEA couch during a short period overseas with the intention of selling before we left. We ended up leaving earlier than planned for Scott’s work purposes so the company helped ship everything back to Sydney,” Amanda said. “The blue wasn’t a colour that was going to work with what I planned for the room, and the couch itself was absolutely fine so it seemed a waste to buy a new one when all I had wanted was to change the colour to grey!
“The option to have a cover which was going to fit perfectly was a winner. I was so happy when we got it. The material was strong and durable and the pieces fit each part of the couch like a glove! I couldn’t believe how they had worked out exactly the best way to have the piece fit; elastic in the right spot, velcro here and there. It looked like a professional upholstery job when we were done with it.
“I got to keep the couch but upgrade it. When this one wears out down the track or we change colour schemes, we have the option to replace it again! Brilliant.”
If you’re feeling brave, you might want to try their new addition, a DIY tufting kit which also works on upholstered headboards. You could use this on an existing sofa or in conjunction with a new slip cover.
You probably want to know what the catch is? Hard to say, as international shipping is free (well, refunded in full when you post a photo of your sofa transformation on their Facebook Page, which is smart marketing!), they recently won a Houzz award for great customer service, and you can expect to wait just four to six weeks for your sofa covers (a lot quicker than waiting for a brand new sofa these days!).
Meet interiors heavyweights Sibella Court, Megan Morton, Robyn Holt, Cameron Kimber and Marco Meneguzzi and learn their secrets to seasonal styling and entertaining at a free event in Bondi Junction this Saturday 29 March.
Megan Morton
You can ask your favourite expert stylemakers for their secrets to creating the perfect Easter table or seasonal vignette! The top Australian designers and stylists will use their unique flair to transform a corner of Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Williams-Sonoma and West Elm.
3pm to 3.30pm: Megan Morton styles Pottery Barn Kids
Each session will be hosted by the wonderful Robyn Holt.
Enjoy light refreshments and Easter-themed treats in store and view the Easter and new-season Autumn collections. All four stores are next to each other in The Exchange Building, Bondi Junction.
I haven’t done much for Easter since I was a young child, when egg hunts and chocolate food comas were the activities of the day. Yet after seeing these Easter collections, I’m pretty keen for an Easter tea party (adults can do them too, right?) and if you have a child with a birthday coming up, please make this their party theme!
The collections aren’t just full of Easter goodies; West Elm in particular has some beautiful Autumn pieces ready to brighten up your home in preparation for the impending winter season. Timber furniture, chunky knit throws, wool rugs and plush cushions are very much a theme and one must not forget my all time favourite West Elm piece, the rose gold cutlery set. So good.
Congratulations, Heidi O’Rourke (otherwise known — on Instagram — as @mozsas)! Her vignettes were judged as the best by Williams Sonoma Inc’s director of visual merchandising, Paul Giannangeli.
Day 7: hearts
He said: “I really enjoyed the vignettes by @mozsas – each photo was able to stand on its own and was strongly tied in to each day’s theme, and yet they all evoked the same warmth.”
My personal favourite of hers was the day 7 entry for ‘hearts’ (above) which looks like it belongs on the pages of a recipe book, don’t you think?
It’s 7 Vignettes time again this Saturday and here’s the themes list. Our prize is a basket of Valentines-themed treats from Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn and Pottery Kids to spoil yourself or the special person in your life!
The themes (above) are love (for obvious, valentines, reasons!), purple (because February’s birthstone is amethyst and birth flower is violet), water (for February’s water signs Pisces and Aquarius), handwritten (like a love letter perhaps), American (like our prize sponsor), local (at the suggestion of a 7 Vignettes fan, Bonnie, in the UK) and heart (need I say more?).
I think we all know the Americans know a thing or two about Christmas and holiday decorating in general!
Letters to Santa chairbacker $24
This year, thanks to having Pottery Barn Kids on our shores, there are now some great things for children to give them their very own piece of seasonal style in your home. And it’ll look good too.
As a homewares shopping starting point, no trip to NYC is complete without visiting the legendary American stores Anthropologie and Jonathan Adler! I would usually add West Elm and Pottery Barn to this list but, luckily for us, they’re now open in Australia (just Sydney for now but West Elm opens in Melbourne too, later this month).
Design lovers cannot go past the Jonathan Adler stores to pick up a quirky piece or a signature colourful, patterned cushion or throw. Friends of Interiors Addict Kate and Lu, from The Ooh Blog, were lucky enough to go on a trip earlier this year. “I developed a devastating idol crush on this uber fun designer a few years ago and it felt a little bit stupid really that I had never physically stepped foot inside one of his stores,” says Lu, an interior designer in Sydney. “I had a moment on the front steps then delved into a happy-chic paradise full of colour and pattern and retro, regency gorgeousness. It was a little overwhelming to see the pieces I’ve been frothing over online for years in the flesh but I was so thrilled to find that Jonathan, who began his career as a potter, is one seriously talented individual and his product is of an incredible standard and well worth the slightly heftier price tag. His tongue-in-cheek approach to decorating is evident in many pieces like the hilarious Delirium Coasters while others like the Desmond Screen are effortlessly chic.”
The new West Elm Melbourne store, the second in Australia, opens its doors a fortnight today. Who is excited?!
Here’s an exclusive first look at the artwork for a special West Elm Melbourne tote bag which has been designed by the brilliant Bonnie and Neil. What a coup for this great Australian homewares brand!
Last year I was given the opportunity to check out the new Shipporter service and share the results with you. If you’ve ever lusted after homewares and furniture from American brands like Jonathan Adler and Restoration Hardware (and, until recently Pottery Barn and West Elm, but we have them here in Sydney now!), you may have considered using a service like this. Maybe the shipping cost was too high or they didn’t actually offer shipping to Australia. I’ve often fallen in love with rugs from American stores that they won’t ship here, even though they’ll ship smaller, lighter items.
Shipporter claims to offer you the opportunity to buy almost anything, any size, from any USA, China or UK/Europe website, even if they say they don’t ship to Australia. Tempting, right? Especially when our dollar is strong. You just need a little patience while you wait for your item to arrive by sea. I decided to try it out for myself by ordering this Jonathan Adler chair (US$650) for my bedroom back in December. The shipping cost through Shipporter was $191.
You place your order and Shipporter take care of the rest. So, here’s what happened in my experience.
Following on from my top West Elm picks, today I give you my top 8 Pottery Barn buys, available in store at Bondi or online if you live interstate. This was really hard but you have to edit somewhere! As I’ve said before, Pottery Barn is my idea of “when I grow up” classic but that’s not to say there aren’t a lot of things I couldn’t incorporate into my decidedly not grown up apartment already.
So, for several months now I’ve been banging on about the Williams-Sonoma Inc big four coming to Sydney. For the uninitiated, I’m talking about Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma. I’ll be straight with you, as a non-mummy blogger, I have little interest in Pottery Barn Kids and as a less than enthusiastic cook (I’m going to make a rubbish wife!) I had minimal interest in Williams-Sonoma. Pottery Barn and West Elm however, bring that on! I know you’re fans too because posts about these stores have been consistently in my most popular for months! And at yesterday’s much anticipated preview, I was definitely not disappointed.
West Elm is SO COOL. I have to admit it’s my favourite. Who better than creative director Vanessa Holden, a Sydney girl who made the move to NYC (who I interviewed recently) to show us round? She talked about West Elm’s trademark eclectic, global mix of pieces which you’re encouraged to mix up as you wish with your existing pieces or family heirlooms to create your own, confident style at home, with the help of their friendly and knowledgable staff.
West Elm is young and cool but not too hipster. It’s mix and match, laidback but not too casual. I just love it. Its pieces are more apartment-appropriate than Pottery Barn’s larger furniture and well, they just look look like they belong in a warm and comfortable, trendy, young space. You do feel like your parents could equally walk in and find something which worked perfectly with their much loved pieces. It’s just that kind of range, and the range will change frequently.
This morning I was very lucky to join a group of extremely overexcited bloggers to have a look around the four new Williams Sonoma Inc stores before they open tomorrow in Bondi Junction.
For those who can’t wait until tomorrow or who aren’t in Sydney, the great news is that the local .com.au versions of their websites launched this morning. They are as follows:
My excitement levels are getting a little bit OFF THE CHART now! And today I’m lucky enough to be going for a look around Pottery Barn, West Elm, Pottery Barn Kids and Williams-Sonoma before they officially open their doors to the public tomorrow. Squeal!
All four stores are in Bondi’s Exchange Building. Melbourne stores will follow before the year is out and the brand is expected to expand across Australia quite quickly. Good news is you’ll be able to order online from anywhere in the country.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc today officially announced that its iconic brands Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, and West Elm will open to the public on Thursday 2 May 2013 at the newly constructed Exchange Building in Bondi Junction. I may have mentioned the news of these stores coming to Australia a ‘few’ times already…
An artist’s impression of how the stores will look when they open in just 17 days’ time
“We are excited to announce we will open our first Australian retail stores on May 2nd,” said Laura Alber, president and chief executive officer, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. “The location at Bondi Junction gives us the opportunity to showcase all four brands together in a truly unique way. We look forward to sharing our exceptional home furnishings along with unique in-store experiences and outstanding customer service with Australian customers who want to decorate, entertain and live well.”
Pottery Barn and West Elm are not the only American furniture brands coming to Australia. Blu Dot has just opened its first showroom in Sydney, its first outside the States.
With a background in architecture and 10 years of logistics experience, Brett Conroy is the man responsible for bringing the popular brand to these shores. Following a trip to America, Brett discovered Blu Dot and decided to combine his appreciation for design and knowledge of logistics to open here. After several months of negotiations with the Blu Dot team, he launched the Australian Blu Dot website in October 2012 and then went on to open the showroom in Sydney’s design district of Alexandria.
Blu Dot’s colourful collection of furniture for the home and office features contemporary and playful pieces. The brand was the brainchild of three designers in college who found they couldn’t afford much of the furniture they liked. Realising that there was likely to be a whole market of people out there in the same position, Blu Dot was born, providing a range of beautifully designed products that were also useful and affordable.
