This week’s store spotlight takes us to Portland, Oregon! Canoe opened in downtown Portland in 2005 by Craig Olson and Sean Igo. While I’ve never had the chance to grace the brick and mortar store, I can say that I’m obsessed with all the items that Canoe’s online store has to offer! It’s right up my aesthetic alley. How awesome is this Tivoli Model One radio!??

Q: Please describe your store aesthetic:
A: Simple, everyday modernism with an emphasis on natural materials and functionality.

Q: Fun or interesting store fact:
A: The building we’re in is about 100 years old.  The store space itself is bright and modern and was profiled in Remodelista (design blog), but the basement looks like the set of the “Saw” films.  It is quite a contrast.

Q: Tell us about your neighborhood. Why do you love it?:
A: We are in the West End district of downtown Portland.  It was definitely off the beaten path when we first opened, but the neighborhood has filled in around us and now has a lot of great local stores and restaurants.

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?:
A: The Oregon Coast.

Q: Favorite restaurant in your city/neighborhood:
A: Grüner restaurant right across the street—they serve Alpine cuisine in a modern setting.

Q: If there is 1 thing someone “must do” when they visit your area, what would you recommend?:
A: Walk up to the Portland Japanese Garden high in the hills above Portland–it’s considered one of the most authentic outside of Japan. On clear days you get a view of the Cascades (with Mount Hood filling in as Fujiyama), but the mood is deeper on cloudy, misty days.

Q: What was your inspiration/motivation to open your store?
A: Small shops in Northern Europe and Japan that take an everyday–rather than rarified–approach to design.

Q: How did you come up with your store name?
A: A canoe is an object with a form that looks beautiful and is perfectly suited for its function.  It is essentially unchanged for hundreds of years because it can’t really be improved upon.  It reflects our approach as we put a high value on function and don’t really follow fast trends.

Q: What’s next for you/your store…. any upcoming sales/events?:
A: We will celebrate our sixth anniversary with a party in October.

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: Monocle, Inventory, Remodelista, From the Desk Of, The Brick House

Q: Where do you find all of your products?
A: We go to a couple of trade shows in the US and Europe but most of products are found while traveling around.  It’s a pretty organic process which is fun but no small amount of work.

Check out Canoe at 1136 SW Adler in Portland, OR or at their online site.

We’ve been showing lots of West Coast love in the past few installments of Store Spotlight, so this week we journey back to our neck of the woods on the East Coast. Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store was opened in 2007 by Ann Cantrell and is located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill. Today marks four years to the day that Annie’s Blue Ribbon opened its doors and we can’t be anymore excited for them!

Q: Please describe your store aesthetic:
A: A fun & functional modern general store with a whimsical touch.

Q: Any fun or interesting store fact(s):
A: Usher just was in and bought some funny mustaches (he’s also ordered online from us).

Q: Tell us about your ‘hood.  Why do you love it?:
A: Brooklyn rocks. Our neighborhood, Boerum Hill, is a wonderful community – lots of creative, cool and caring customers/friends.

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?:
A: All over the place! At home with my new babe and wonderful husband…

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in your ‘hood:
A: Oh, that is tough. There are soo many good ones! Fisherman’s Dawta for jerk chicken for lunch (or Bedouin Tent’s chicken platter). And for dinner – Bacchus for French-y food or Building on Bond for macaroni & cheese.

Q: If there is 1 thing someone “must do” when they visit your area, what would you recommend?:
A: Besides visiting the shop? Check out Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Q: What was your inspiration/motivation to open your store?:
A: I dreamed about opening an urban general store for years. I used to love visiting old timey general stores in Vermont/New England, and wanted to bring that same idea to modern city living.

Q: How did you come up with your store name?
A: Blue ribbons symbolize “best in show;” our shop’s vision is to provide the best that life has to offer, all under one roof

Q: Whats next for you/your store…. any upcoming sales/events?:
A: We are very excited for the amazing holiday items we have coming in! Join our mailing list to learn more.

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: I wish I could say I read tons of blogs, but I rarely have time to read them in depth (love checking out all the cool photos though!) I love writing my own – Annie’s Treasure Trove. As far as mags, I love New York Magazine, Real Simple, House Beautiful, etc. and MANY MORE!!!

Q: Where do you find all of your products?
A: We look everywhere for cool new products. Friends, customers, travels – you name it – we find inspiration everywhere.

Visit Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store in person at 365 State St. in Brooklyn, NY or at their online store.

The summer trade shows have been keeping us busy, but Store Spotlight is back! We left off last time in San Diego, so now we’re heading up the west coast to Picnic in San Francisco! For the last seven years, owners Jasmine Tan and Pei Sze Ng have been providing the bay area with their favorite items ranging from clothing to home decor (more on this below!) Here’s the Q&A session we had with Pei:

Q: How would you describe your store aesthetic?
A: An eclectic mix of vintage and modern.

Q: Any fun or interesting store facts?
A: We are an urban, neighborhood department store! We stock everything from clothes, gifts, candles, soaps and small furniture.

Q: Why do you love your city/neighborhood?
A: The weather!

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?
A: Home

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in your city/neighborhood?
A: Cordon Bleu Vietnamese Restaurant

Q: If there is 1 thing someone “must do” when they visit your area, what would you recommend?
A: Check out the local neighborhoods; each have their own vibe.

Q: Any recent news about the store we should know about?
A: Last November, we opened a next-door store, Picnic Home

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: Living, Lucky, San Francisco

Q: Where do you find all of your products?
A: Everywhere and anywhere !

Picnic can be found at 1808 Polk St [map] or on their website…and even on Facebook!

For our next Store Spotlight, we head to Noon Designs in San Diego, California! Since opening in 2009, Noon Designs has been crafting its own beautiful array of hand-made jewelry and paper goods while also carrying other amazing products. Owners Nora Alexander and Maie Webb serve as Noon’s jewelry designer and graphic designer, respectively. We first met Nora and Maie at a big trade show in Las Vegas.  Their booth was across from ours and we quickly became friends. To our delight, they even purchased our items for their store.

A big thanks to Jessica Madore for taking the time to answer our questionnaire!

Q: How would you describe your store’s aesthetic?
A: Whimsical, hand-made, DIY, nature inspired with an east coast vibe.

Q: Any fun or interesting facts?
A: A lot of our in-store customers don’t realize that we wholesale our jewels to over 75 shops across the country!

Q: What’s your neighborhood like? Why do you love it?
A: Being east coast natives, we just love the weather here in Southern California. San Diego’s laid back Ocean Beach neighborhood is unlike any other place in the states, plus working hard isn’t so bad when you live in such a beautiful place!

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?
A: Beach, Bar, or Bed.

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in the area?
A: Sessions Public, Point Loma/Ocean Beach.

Q: What’s the one thing someone “must do” when they visit your area?
A: Watch the sunset at Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach.

Q: Whats next for you/your store…. any upcoming sales/events?
A: We try to have a party every other month or so – catered, cocktails, discounts…the whole deal. We just had a soiree at both our Ocean Beach and Solana Beach locations so nothing is planned at this time, but you can join our email list to learn about any in store or online promotions.

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: Design*Sponge, Real Simple, Green Wedding Shoes, San Diego Magazine.

Q: Where do you find all of your products?
A: We make a lot of our products (jewelry, paper goods, glassware, perfumes, pillows) and try to carry mostly local artist, friends, friends-of-friends. We stick to all hand-made goods. We also use Etsy to find help find new products we love.

You can visit one of Noon Designs’ retail stores in San Diego or SoLa. Also, find them online at their website, Facebook, and Twitter!

Photos courtesy of John McCauley

Our next Store Spotlight takes us to the sunny West Coast in Venice, CA! Owned by couple Audrey and Joshua Woollen, Urbanic Paper Boutique specializes in all things stationary and then some. If you’re in need of some gorgeous and unique invitations, this is definitely where you need to go. Also, their story is quite possibly the cutest I’ve ever heard…

Q: When did Urbanic open?
A: August 2006.

Q: What’s your store’s aesthetic?
A: Curated, charming and modern with a classic vintage twist.

Q: Any fun or interesting store facts we should know about?
A: Before we got married we had a long distance letter writing relationship for quite a while. We loved crafting artistic notes to each other and the surprise it brought us to receive them in our mailbox. We’re total believers in fun mail and this was a huge part of the inspiration that led us to open Urbanic. [Read more about their story here]

Q:Tell us about your neighborhood.  Why do you love it?
A: The architecture is amazing, and although it’s by the beach it still has a city vibe. Venice is pretty consolidated and within it is a ridiculously creative and eclectic community. We have the best customers.  They are seriously some of the most interesting people in existence so there are very few dull moments.

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?
A: Immersed in some kind of adventure with our 2 little ones.

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in your hood?
A: Gjelina…without a doubt.

Q: If there is 1 thing someone “must do” when they visit your area, what would you recommend?
A: We would recommend exploring the Venice canals. Our town is called Venice because it was built on the water canals to resemble Venice, Italy in the early 1900′s. It was a resort town and termed “The Coney Island of the Pacific.” Today the canals are full of beautiful homes and modern garden landscaping. There are little boats everywhere, it is charming and a mini-escape from the city.

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: Lots of blogs, lots of mags, but not a whole lot of time to really delve into all of that honestly. Our radar is always on though, so if we see a good find for the shop we nab it.

Q: Where do you find all of your products?
A: We search high and low to find the most unique things for our shop, so it’s a combination of many places. A few to name would  be the NY trade shows, Etsy, blog scouring, and seeking out local indie designers.

Q: Whats next for you/your store…. any upcoming sales/events?
A: We love hosting store events. Definitely one of our favorite parts of the job. You can see a few of them here. We recently just finished our summer social and a pinterest event, and will be gearing up to host some exciting workshops this fall.

You can find Urbanic at 1644 Abbott Kinney Blvd or online at their website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Photos courtesy of  Brandon Kidd, Stephanie Williams, Paul Esposito.

Up next in our Spotlight Project is Amelia in Oxford, Mississippi. Owned by Erin Abbott, Amelia is quite the gem in this small town in northern Mississippi. Amelia is also the sole purveyor of Oxford’s very own Maptote (see image below)! Hailing from a small town in the South myself – Arkansas, represent! – I was thrilled that we got to work with Erin on the Oxford design; we definitely learned a lot about the area and even more so after the following Q&A session:

Q: When did Amelia open?
A: 2 years ago this coming August.

Q: Please describe your store aesthetic.
A: The store is part vintage, part handmade. I aim to use vintage as my store fixtures as much as possible. For example, I have vintage books that I use to display all the handmade jewelry at Amelia.

Q: Any fun or interesting store facts?
A: The store is 187 square feet. It’s also connected to a wonderful music venue called The Lyric Theatre, which use to be a movie theatre. Intruder in The Dust had its world premiere here, in this building.

Q: Tell us about Oxford.  Why do you love it?
A: Oxford is one of those wonderful small Southern towns where everything revolves around the town square, and Amelia is one of the stores on the Square. Oxford is also a college town, home to The University of Mississippi [aka Ole Miss]. You walk down the street and you see friends. You know your neighbors. I grew up here, but moved when I was nine. After living all over the country, in many large cities, Oxford was still pulling me back. I moved back in 2005 and don’t see ever leaving again. It’s a small town of 22K, with the students, yet there is something interesting going on almost every night of the week. Never boring. I actually live in Water Valley, which is more or less an extension of Oxford. Best of both worlds…work here, live there.

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?
A: Home. I love my house so much. It was built in 1890. 15′ ceilings. Hard wood floors. It has the most wonderful porch. Wide and cool in the summer. And quiet. At night, all I hear sometimes is the owl that lives in my tree. I love to cook, so I’m usually home, making up some new recipe. The next place I might be is Square Books on the Square. I like to go there and read on their porch, drink a coffee from their cafe. Or drop in to a yoga class at Southern Star Yoga.

Q: Your favorite restaurant in Oxford?
A: The Taco Shop. It’s this great little hole in the wall place, off the Square, on University Ave. Very authentic cantina style tacos.

Q: If there is 1 thing someone “must do” when they visit your area, what would you recommend?
A: Visit William Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak. Or eat catfish at Taylor Grocery. I know that’s two…

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: I follow a lot of blogs. It’s better than going to market! I’m in the middle of a Google Reader overhaul. Many have just stopped posting for whatever reason, so it’s time to clean house.  A few that stand out:

Design Sponge
Black Eiffel
The Jealous Curator
Unruly Things
Holly Mathis Interiors
Sweet Iced Tea
Shop Bower Bird
Miss Moss
Design Love Fest
Aesthetic Outburst
Sycamore Street Press
Scout’s Honor
Blissful Blog
Ritzy Bee Blog
Pennyweight

Q: What’s next for you/your store…. any upcoming sales/events?
A: In the fall, I’m going to start The Little Lyric concert series. A concert series for kids here at The Lyric/Amelia. I also curate an art show every year called The One Night Stand at The Ole Miss Motel. It’s a one night only art show, where the motel room becomes the gallery for the night, for 10 artists. I have that coming up again on October 29th. It will be the 5th year I’ve been doing it. I’m branching out to Brooklyn, NY in May of 2012 and Nashville in September of next yearl. I did one in Los Angeles two years ago that was a great success. I am also a photographer, so I have a few projects I’m working on in that department, such as a two person show at Yalo Studios, in Water Valley, MS in December. With the store and all these other things, that should keep me pretty busy through the year.

Amelia is located at 1006 Van Buren Ave. in Oxford, MS [map]. If you’re not in the Oxford area, be sure to check out Ameila’s online site!

-Meredith

At Maptote we love all the stores that carry our products. Throughout the years we’ve gotten to know several of the store owners who sell our goods. Without them Maptote wouldn’t be where it is today!

Beginning today we’re going to be giving the love back. We’ll be periodically showcasing a store on our blog so you can get to know them, their awesome stores, and their neighborhoods.

On a personal note, SITE holds a very special place in my heart since it’s the reason I’m employed at Maptote! So, a special shout-out to Mackenzi for re-tweeting about the position on SITE’s Twitter page. 

Without further ado, I present the first installment of the Store Spotlight on SITE NYC located in Astoria, New York. SITE opened its doors in 2007 and, as owner Mackenzi Farquer describes, SITE is a store full of “colorful, cleverly designed housewares, gifts, and kid’s things.”

Q: What’s a fun and/or interesting fact about SITE?
A: Much to my dismay, SITE has no storage or stockroom. What you see is what you get!

Q: Tell us about your ‘hood.  Why do you love it?
A: Astoria is amazing. We’re nestled in “South Astoria,” an up and coming part of Western Queens, known for its involvement in the arts and movie making. Our neighbors include Kaufman Astoria Studios (home to Men In Black III, Sesame Street, Nurse Jackie and more), Museum of the Moving Image, and the Frank Sinatra School of the Performing Arts!

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?
A: The Astor Room/Pachanga Patterson/Queens Kickshaw

Q: Favorite restaurant in your ‘hood?
A: See above!

Q: If there is one thing someone must-do when they visit your area, what would you recommend?
A: The newly re-opened Museum of the Moving Image is mind blowing. Coming up in July they have a Jim Henson retrospective that I cannot wait for!

Q: What’s next for you/your store? Any upcoming sales/events?
A: On June 21st we’re participating in Make Music New York with the lads from Astoria Boulevard. They’re doing an amazing acoustic set and we’ll be serving up classic cocktails and running a great sale all night.

You can find SITE at 35-11 34th Ave. in Astoria, NY.  Map

Be sure to follow SITE on Twitter and Facebook, and check out the newly launched re-vamped website: http://sitenyc.com

-Meredith @MAPTOTE

We recently came across Noon Designs at the Pool Tradeshow in Las Vegas and we loved their booth! They make beautiful stationary as well has hand-crafted jewelry. They also have a store in San Diego, so if you are ever in town you should definitely drop by!

One of our newest stores is a great store in Hong Kong called Kapok.  We are excited that they are our first store in Hong Kong.  We’re loving everything on their website and hope to one day visit in person!