Comments (2) Best New Furniture Store - 2007

West Elm

If chintz makes you cringe and fringe makes you break out in a sweat, the clean lines of affordable furniture at West Elm will make you jump with joy. The first West Elm in the Dallas area—and only the second in Texas—the airy Mockingbird Station store makes furniture shops offering the overstuffed and multipillowed sofas that are so popular in Dallas seem fusty and old-fashioned. West Elm's upholstered furniture comes in leather and solid fabrics to provide a backdrop for sculptural tables, bookshelves and storage pieces in wood, steel and laminate. The look is mid-century modern meets second-millennium luxury. Sofas and modular seating range from $749 to $2,000. West Elm also specializes in practical but cool home office furniture—never easy to find. Then there's that behind-the-scene stuff: closet organization, office storage and "spa storage" in solid teak. Spa storage...who knew that was a category of case goods? The translation: "a place to keep your towels and soap in the bathroom." All that simplicity can get a tad boring, so West Elm also has a spattering of what might be called '50s Follies, such as cascading capiz shell lamps, sunburst wall mirrors and clocks, and hanging squares of stainless steel which can be linked as a room divider. Even though she might have looked prim and proper, June Cleaver wasn't boring.