Design Store(y)

Take a trip to the West Coast and visit Poketo, more than just a retail shop, but also a place for community art and gatherings.

Visit a highly-curated shop of design discoveries in Italy, where shop owner Daniela Bettoni displays gorgeous items from all over the globe.

We head to Berlin, Germany to visit Original in Berlin a store that features the best original, vintage mid-century modern furniture and accessories in town.

Back in February we started a regular column that goes inside design-focused shops from around the world featuring interviews with shop owners called Design Store(y). It seems that many of you are enjoying it, so we hope to continue next year, but let's take a look back at the great stores we toured in 2012.

Design Store(y) heads to the East Village this holiday season to tour Still House, owned by Pratt graduate Urte Tylaite. The 300-square-foot sliver of a space was designed by Brooklyn-based firm Silva/Bradshaw, and features wood plank floors, a dropped wood plank ceiling, narrow wood plank shelving along the walls, and plywood display cases down the middle. Tylaite features items from local designers, plus pieces from Scandinavia and Japan. Still House opened its doors a bit over 18 months ago; we've been dying to get inside.

Holly Wick opened her eponymous shop, Holly's House exactly one year ago, motivated by the desire to bring fresh, new design to West London. Wick, who also runs an interior design consultancy, stocks heaps of fantastic items from established brands, including Moooi and Diamantini & Dominiconi, alongside indie talent from the likes of Phoebe Richardson and Andy Macgregor. Let's celebrate Wick's first year of success with a Design Store(y) so we can learn (and see) more.

Although this month's Design Store(y) subject has a distinctly French name, it's actually located in the Veneto region of Italy. Maison 203, is a glass-fronted, white slice of a shop on a quaint brick street that opened in June 2010. The owners, husband-and-wife designers, curate covetable items from a respectable roster of established international designers and emerging brands. We've long been fans of their sleek web shop, and were thrilled to discover they exist IRL (that's "in real life" for those of you not versed in txting) as well. Let's step inside and find out more about the business.

This month's Design Store(y) is a tale of how a design-minded woman, Sakiko Ichihara, who originally moved to Toronto to attend university, translated her love of her native culture into a business. Her boutique, Cubeshops, tucked away amid restaurants in downtown Toronto, carries Japanese design objects, gifts, stationary, pens, and the like. It's a great blend of daily use, practical products and fun, design-y stuff you just want.