A few years ago, my friends Kim and Paige worked with me at an office near Thanksgiving Point. Kim soon decided to move on to better things and started working from her home in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley. After Paige and I got over the shock, we decided that we needed to meet up often and found that Tai Pan Trading Company in Sandy was the perfect place. It was half way between our two locations; and the store is huge, so it takes us at least an hour to walk through it. We have plenty of time to talk, all while looking through the fun, fun merchandise. (What can I say, I’m a fabulous multitasker.)

Right now their annual blowout tent sale is going on, and my friends and I are going to meet up! This is the first time in many months, so I’m excited to see what’s new at TP. Tai Pan is yet another store that was born and bred here in Utah. The store in Sandy was the first location that is wholesale to the public, though there are two more now. And what does wholesale mean? Good prices and fabulous deals. I’ve bought a lot from TP: picture frames, wall hangings, fun seasonal garlands and ornaments, candle stands, and there is so much more I want to buy. (I do have a little restraint. My husband is so impressed.)

Tai Pan in Sandy is located at 555 W. 9000 S. (just west of I-15). They are open from 8:30 am to 8:30 pm. To see their other locations (Clearfield and St. George) visit their website at taipantrading.com.

Tags: Utah Home Decor Stores by Tricia
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I’m so excited that Design Company Fabrics is now a chain! My mom heard of the fabulous fabric store a few years ago and I love going in to drool over the beautiful bolts of cloth. It is good quality stuff. To be honest, until I went to Design Company the only fabric stores I had ever been to were the usual chains, like Joann (which I still love), and so going and seeing the rows and rows of beautiful, beautiful designer cloth was an eye opener. The fabrics aren’t cheap, but they do have great sales every now and then. Today, tomorrow and Saturday they are having a grand opening sale where everything in the store is 40% off. Sounds great! I haven’t been able to make it in to the store since I moved from Salt Lake to PG, so the Draper location is super appealing. If you are in the market for curtains or want to reupholster some chairs, or want to get super crazy and make your own bedding, then you should go and take advantage of this super sale.

Old location:  2253 S. 500 E., Salt Lake City. Open 9-5 weekdays and Saturday 12-4

New location: 196 W. 12300 S., Draper. Open 10-6 weekdays and Saturday 11-4

Tags: To Do, Utah Home Decor Stores by Tricia
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(Editors Note: Since I first wrote this post I have received some comments from customers that suggests FindCouch.com isn’t a good business to work with. Although the couches I saw in their show room looked nice it seems that the work doesn’t live up to the hype and that their customer service is nothing to brag about. I would suggest going to another store to purchase a couch. It seems like a good business model, but it isn’t worth the low prices if your couch falls apart.)

I got a flier a few weeks ago for FindCouch.com and have been interested in the idea behind the store ever since. I went into the store today and am super excited about it now! Here is the lowdown–they have a ton of couch/chair/love seat styles to choose from and hundreds of colors and mediums including the super nice leather, a leather match (which means nice leather on the most used parts and vinyl on the rest) and micro fiber. So if you are in the market for some new seating, you can go in and pick out EXACTLY what you want. It is like ordering custom furniture, but without the sky high prices. Their manufacturer is in China, so it comes literally on “the slow boat from China” (8-10 weeks) but you don’t have to worry about shopping in a ton of stores to find what you want. Their site shows some prices (that look really good) but for some of their more modern pieces you have to go in to see what is available. I’m kinda proud of this little store that started right here in Utah. It is now expanding to other markets, so California, Idaho and Nevada get excited.

I personally am interested in this one. He said is is $680 for microfiber and $760 for leather match. Not bad!

Their Preston Collection, that has three pieces starting at $900, isn’t too bad though!

Tags: Utah Home Decor Stores by Tricia
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I’ve just recently started getting the Martha Stewart Living magazine. I had never actually read the magazine before, but had heard so much (maybe too much?) about it. I have seen some great ideas from her website and just expected her magazine to be chuck full of things I would want to do. I was way off! So far I have received three magazines and have yet to find something inspirational. And the article Martha writes is ridiculous. In the past two magazines she gives pointers on how to grow acres of flowers likes she does on her farm. I’m pretty sure that most the people reading her magazines will never grow a single acre of daffodils, let alone many. However, (to end on a positive note) the magazine is beautiful; the photography and design is awesome. I’m hoping that I will learn to love the magazine as much as the rest of the world seems to. I think that maybe my expectations were just a bit unrealistic.

If you want to start a magazine subscription I would whole heartedly suggest Better Homes and Gardens. There is something in every issue that I love. I completely devour each issue and then go back and read it more slowly later. It gives great interior design ideas and seems to be more on the level of “average American” rather than “east-coast yuppie.”

Tags: Advice by Tricia
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I’m excited about this long weekend! I’ll be attending a parade down in Ephraim on Saturday and a 5K in American Fork on Monday…all in the name of work! We are promoting Lavender Days, June 27 and 28.

I’m sure many of you are planning on working around the house this weekend. It seems like long weekends either equal camping or home improvement, and since this weekend calls for rain many of you are probably staying home. Good luck no matter what you are doing! I’ll be back Tuesday.

Tags: Uncategorized by Tricia
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I’m in major need of a new kitchen table. I told myself that I can’t buy anything until my kitchen is actually completed, (see previous post about my kitchen remodeling project) but I can’t help looking. I really like this kitchen set I found on KSL.com. I love the idea of a bench and the color of the wood. And I love the clean lines of this table. However, the chairs do look a little hard and the blocky table legs aren’t my favorite. Maybe it’s ok that I’m not officially in the market yet.

$300 smackers and the table could be yours. Found here on KSL.com.

Tags: Interior Design Ideas by Tricia
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I’m in love with this little store called Finders Keepers on American Fork’s Main Street. The first time I walked into the store I just knew there was a story behind it. I asked the employee behind the counter what the story was, and I quickly found out that he was the proud husband of Tammi, the shop’s owner.

He said Tammi has always found great deals on unique home decor and furniture–sometimes she even revamped old furniture to sell–and used her garage as the show room. She would hold just a few garage sales a year and make a lot of money, and got really good feedback from her customers. Pretty soon the city she lived in found out and said she was making too much money, so she needed to buy a store front or shut up shop. She promptly found a great old building in AF and business has been booming ever since. The store is now open from 10-6 Monday though Friday.

Every time I go into the store I find something to love. My best find so far is a sink/vanity. We bought it at Finders Keepers for not too many hundreds of dollars and the next week I got a product catalog in the mail that had the EXACT same vanity for $300 more–plus shipping! How does Finder’s Keepers keep their prices so low? It is a mystery. I am just glad they do it! They have a website online for those who want to brows prices and merchandise. I’m loving this red cabinet right now. Wouldn’t this be a great accent piece?

Picture is from tammisfinderskeepers.com

Tags: Utah Home Decor Stores by Tricia
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I’ve been thinking about getting some type of personal card for a little while. I just think it would be fun to hand them out to cool people I meet or staple them on to a form instead of having to fill the whole thing out. (I think it is a really great idea to have some printed just after a move to give out to all your friends and family with your new address on them.) I have some business cards, but I don’t want to use them for personal things.

Moo.com has some really great mini cards where you can print pictures from your Flickr stream or Facebook page on the back of the card and include any information you want on the front. For $19.99 you get 100 cards, and you can choose 100 different pictures if you want! However, since I have yet to learn how to take beautiful pictures, I would choose some of the designs they have ready made. My favorite series of cards is the Rachel Cave mini cards. I love the patterns.

Tags: Very Interesting by Tricia
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I love the idea of having silhouettes of my family above a fireplace or a series of them going up the stairs. Design Sponge posted a great tutorial on how to make your own silhouette.

There really aren’t too many steps. And, as you can see, the results are darling! Seth and I got some silhouettes done at Disneyland. It was actually pretty cool to see the lady just look at your profile and snip, snip, snip–one minute later your silhouette is done. The little shop is on Disneyland’s main street and opened just a few months after the park opened. The lady who cut our silhouettes out told us it was a lingerie shop for those first few months! I guess it didn’t go over too well.

Picture from Design Sponge

Tags: DIY, Interior Design Ideas by Tricia
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I stopped by Pier 1 yesterday and promptly fell in love with this desk. Unfortunately it is $300. I’m thinking I can make something similar for much less, I just need to find the right components.

Tags: Interior Design Ideas by Tricia
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