Grand Opening: West Elm Vancouver

Hello to you and I am so sorry that I was MIA yesterday! This week has been crazy (to put it mildly) and I’ve been trying hard to stay afloat. I’ve been pulling far too many late nights and think I’ll need a much better under-eye concealer before the shop opens on Saturday morning! Speaking of shops, I was invited some time ago to the grand opening of West Elm Vancouver, a store that has been eagerly anticipated by many! Despite the hectic week at hand, I just couldn’t miss out on yesterday’s afternoon shop tour and even headed back for a wee bit of the evening cocktail party. I sooo needed the little respite and managed to tie in some important pick-ups for Spruce earlier in the day so it was a win-win! The new West Elm store is truly stunning and is filled to the brim with inspiring vignettes but come take a look for yourself…

I don’t think my iPhone pics quite do it justice, but there was eye candy everywhere! Creative director Vanessa Holden guided a small group of us through the store and I left feeling very impressed by the chain’s philosophy of providing pieces that can be layered into existing decor and reach far beyond the “cookie cutter” look of other large retail stores. Their goal isn’t for homeowners to come and buy a certain look, they want to educate and guide customers in the expression of their own personal style. I especially love that West Elm now features a select number of Etsy artisans, like one of my favourites, Heather Dahl (Dahlhaus will be coming soon to Spruce Collective too, by the way!). What an amazing boost of confidence and exposure for small local artisans and entrepreneurs! And the company is thinking of the bigger picture too, supporting many international craftspeople in South Africa, India and worldwide. The global textures and patterns layer so well with the clean lines seen elsewhere in the store, wouldn’t you agree?

I love all of the generous open shelves and how the stylists have colour coded much of the product throughout the store. And Fall really is the best time for merchandising, don’t you think? All of the warm rusts combined with green and blue…well, you’ll see very soon that the Spruce girls have been feeling the same way! And those sea glass coloured bottles…sigh…love them! The store is located at 2947 Granville Street,Vancouver BC and opens tomorrow, Friday, September 13th and regular store hours are 10-9 (Mon – Thu), 10 – 8 (Fri), 10-7 (Sat + Sun).

I so enjoyed getting a sneak peek at the newest West Elm location and felt very thrilled to be included! Although, I didn’t stay nearly long enough to get any shopping done this time, I’ll be a regular visitor from now on! And how is your week going? Any big plans for the weekend? I really would love to hear. I’ve felt somewhat insulated with all of my shop thoughts these days and can’t wait to get our big projects finished so that we can open the doors to the public and I can turn at least a little bit of my focus to other creative projects . Stay tuned 🙂