Window shop whistle stop…
With my day job I often end up in London once a week but with late trains and trying to fit a couple of meetings into one day I rarely get a chance to visit some of the wonderful shops. Today was different. Today my train arrived early, the sun was out, I felt like I’d had plenty of time to prepare (for a change) and I found I have an hour to spare before my meeting, which just happened to be near Tottenham Court Road. I had a feeling this detour could be expensive, but turning up to a meeting with shopping bags is generally frowned upon, so that focussed my mind on window-shopping a browsing – a store assistant’s worst nightmare!
Where else would I find myself heading than towards the top end of the road and home of Heals, Habitat and West Elm… but which to visit? I made it into all of the them, but one spent enough time in West Elm, so here’s a write up of my first ever visit.
Wonderful West Elm
I’ve never been in a West Elm shop before but I’ve admired them online for a while now. The store certainly has impact. When I first walked in I was really struck by the first display which was a gorgeous leather sofa with beautiful printed pillows and some throws casually thrown across it (if I did it it would look awful!).
The display was full of greenery which made it feel really fresh. I tried to take a few pictures but I was getting some very funny looks from the staff 🙂
Chair love
Then I spotted this chair. It was love at first sight and my husband is so lucky I couldn’t carry it home. He’s also lucky that having to order it and wait 4 weeks for it to arrive isn’t something I’m a big fan of as I’m not the most patient! Since getting back on the train I’ve found its name s I can stalk it further from home, its called the Luna Chair and it comes in three colours; feather grey, yellow and teal (I like the simple colour naming!). At £499 its certainly a style investment that I might not be making.. but it is beautiful none the less.
Luna Chair – West Elm, £499
Shiny things
Further down the store I found another area which, like a magpie, caught my attention with the shiny things and metal work which I really like at the moment. West Elm has some lovely mirrors at the moment and although everyone has the Mongolian cushions at the moment, theirs were really stunning. They’re £129 each but well worth it for the quality of them.
Pink Mongolian Lambs Cushions – £129
Beautiful bedding
I was interested to see West Elm’s bedding collection, having spotted a pink bedspread online. I went downstairs and instantly spotted it in the distance. It was as beautiful as I had hoped. I’m aware how sad I sound by the way! The best bit was that it had 20% off too. It would have been rude not to wouldn’t it. Oh well, shopping bags here I come! The lady was kind enough to hold onto my purchase until I finished my meeting.
Lustre Velvet Duvet in Dusty Blush
I went for the grey one in the end as well, as my husband has already warned me about the pink, not that I took that much notice, but it will probably stick around longer and get less resistance if it isn’t pink. To compliment I picked up some dusky pink linen bed sheets and pillows from good old Primark for less than £20 in total. Love Primark.
Mongolian Madness
On my way out I noticed a beautiful stool too. Its a dusky pink mongolian lamb stool with gold atomic legs – stunning! I recently found an eBay gem for £30 which, although it looks lovely, isn’t the most stable of stools. This one in West Elm is really lovely, and if you have the budget, go for it!
It’s £399 and available online Buy Now
All in all I was really impressed with the West Elm store and I’d highly recommend a visit. Some lovely items to take away and some extra special ones to save up for too!
