Heather G. Young: No Pottery Barn Allowed!

I must admit, I've never been a huge fan of Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel or even Restoration Hardware. I think it has something to do with my inner need to be ever so slightly different. Don't get me wrong--their stuff is beautiful and quite high quality, but it's just not for me.

However, Jeff and I did give Restoration Hardware a try--two weeks ago, actually. Yeah, we bought a huge chaise longue in a silver sage suede fabric, thinking it would work sorta eclectically with the French shabby-chic feeling we've got going on in our current living room.

Well, when this custom chair arrived, I cried. It was truly horrifying. It didn't mix well with our existing furniture, not even in a mod-traditional kind of way. Instead of looking sleek and quirky like we expected, it just stood out as bright-colored and junky. Of course, it's a beautiful piece on its own or with similarly styled pieces, but not with our stuff. Definitely not with our stuff.

So now we've got to sell this beast of a chair on craigslist or ebay, which won't be easy, especially since we want to get back exactly what we paid for it. Now that we've been burned, I want to only buy large furniture I've seen in person from here on out. (I'm sure I'll eat my words later.)

All of that to say, I'd like to be free of the cookie-cutter stores for a bit. Give me antiques, obscure creative bits, delicate handmade goodies. Or at the very least, I want my eyes opened to lesser-known online stores.

If anyone has any great ideas for creative online home-decor boutiques, please direct me! Until then, here are some non-Pottery Barn items I've got pretty high on my Christmas decor wish-list:

Wisteria--Sparkly Reindeer