This is simply a brilliant store. Other than the impressive discounts associated with the goods (a great bargain especially when you are hankering for an interior makeover in time for Christmas!), I just think the unique merchandise on sale makes your home stand out among the rest. I used to be slightly frustrated with the common furniture featured at established stores that will bound to make my house look like its showroom. But at HomeGoods, with just a set of unique oriental screen doors, cupboard and traditional wicker chair, it completely changes the look of my living room.
Comments (0) BEST OFF-THE-WALL INTERIOR DESIGNS - 2009
HomeGoods
Need a Liberace-style wall sconce? HomeGoods probably has it. This chain's stores exude the weird, unexpected randomness of a great thrift shop, but everything inside is new. The deeply discounted (20 to 60 percent off retail) merchandise changes with the tides — one weekend might find you swimming in Jonathan Adler knockoff bowls and leather desk sets, and the next in Tibetan elephant sculpture bookends. Peruse such decorative accessories and household basics as benches, lamps, ottomans, stools, rugs, kitchen supplies, tableware and bedding. You could furnish an entire home with the goods here, though it's anyone's guess what that home would look like afterward. Tuscan modern? Parisian neo-Egyptian? Items are arranged thematically. At the Walnut branch, there's a garden faux topiary, birdhouse and statuette section; a nautical "things scavenged from the bottom of the sea and/or that fell off a boat" section; a flying pig section (you can never have too many!). And a section devoted to marble world globes whose landmasses bear no relation to those of the actual Earth. The HomeGoods people don't bother putting together a coherent décor scheme — that's your job. They just bring it to you cheap and eclectic. 8621 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. (310) 670-7098. Also at Torrance Crossroads, 24663 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance. (310) 257-8196. And at Glendale Marketplace, 142 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. (818) 507-9001. Locations citywide; homegoods.com.
—Gendy Alimurung


























