Shopping on Black Friday, especially in the USA, has become an event of Olympic proportions. Here is one retailers “shout out ” to all you Holiday shoppers to please support your local businesses – the small, unique stores that make our neighborhoods special and are an integral part of every thriving community. In these trying economic times small retailers depend on your support and for the most part we all work extremely hard to offer you products and services  not available at the big box stores which are slowly taking over neighborhoods as independent retailers find it harder and harder to compete. Imagine your “hood” without all the small retailers, service providers and purveyors of the “finer things in life”…

So whether you love shopping in Yaletown, Gastown, Granville Street or Ambleside, please give your local stores a chance to win over your business, not just this holiday season but each and every day.

Let us help you find the perfect gift

Still looking for the perfect carpet? Cow hides in a natural, graphic B/W faux zebra or hot new metallic finishes add visual interest to any room, especially small spaces. Look around – most everything in your room is most likely at right angles – walls, sofas, artwork and even the cushions. Adding a natural organic shape to the floor,  breaks up the “monotony”. Take a hide carpet home from us on approval or your favorite home store and watch the room instantly transform – it might just be the missing link that pulls your space together.

Most good quality hides come from Brazil, Argentina and Columbia – countries that have a flourishing beef and cattle industry. When buying a hide, price is often reflective of the quality of the tanning process. An improperly tanned hide often has a ”gamey” odor it, is harder and not as flexible and will lose its hair much faster in high traffic areas.

Faux Zebra Hide - House and Home

Candy Apple Red Hide - available at Da Vinci's Home

Natural Hide - House and Home

House Beautiful - Classic Black and White Hide

Metallic Hide - available at Da Vinci's Home

So versatile and effective, mirrors can transform a space. When placed in key positions they not only become great focal points in a roomscape, they magnify light, reflect a beautiful view and add a little glamour to any space. Long gone are the days where the mirror was placed in predictable spaces like over a mantle or a dresser. Today mirrors come in so many different shapes that many consider them to be wall art. Starbursts, round mirrors with convex lenses that give you 180 degree reflection of the room, baroque-style guilded frames, laquered exotic harwoods…. the selection is endless and the results are so effective

Huntley and Company

octagonal mirror - Celerie Kemble

Source: Pinterest - Decorating with mirrors

Reflecting Design available through Da Vinci's Home