I popped into the new CB2 store in San Francisco last weekend. It’s Crate & Barrel’s new little brother, and it was really interesting. It was kind of a combination of Ikea, Crate & Barrel, and Design Within Reach. It had amazingly low prices, lots of very colorful homewares and accessories, and furniture. There was a lot of contemporary pieces, some pop art influenced pieces, Marimekko prints, and quite a bit of mid-century design sprinkled in there. If you are in Chicago, NY, or SF it would be worth checking out. They also have a website.
I only was in the store for a minute, but I found a few interesting things. They had these bowls that were almost exactly like Krenit bowls, with a few key differences. First of all, they are huge – the largest one is 19″ across. More importantly, they have a “hand hammered” look to them – they aren’t totally smooth like Krenit bowls are. They feel like they are a very similar material and finish as the originals, though. Colors are somewhat similar as well.
They also had a really nice selection of wool rugs. They were almost all in the sub $500 range for nice, large, design rugs. Think Angela Adams or other cool contemporary designs. I don’t need a rug or I would have serisouly considered getting one on the spot. I don’t know how long they would last, but they were very soft and felt nice. The ones in the store were much better than what is online.
