secrets of a dubai designer

For one of my last Dubai posts, I am going to divulge some of my best sources and secrets so listen up! Sorry to the rest of you who don't live in Dubai but maybe it will intice you to take a trip!

FURNITURE: 

1. The ONE outlet- The best deals on gorgeous yet slightly damaged furniture... Everytime I went, I wanted to buy 20 things! 

love this demilune console 

fabulous outdoor table

and of course some gorg lucite

lots of pretty mirrored pieces

2. Objekts of Design (Sheikh Zayed Road) - AMAZING copies of classic modern pieces and really nice upholstery at pretty good prices. Great quality!

3. Home Centre- This store never ceases to amaze me... at first glance you wouldn't think that HC would have anything tasteful but if you search the store you'll find some incredible deals! The best of them all is the Aryclic Ghost chair copy for 495 dirhams ($130). I also found the fabulous Barcelona chair copy in the top image for 800 dirhams ($220)!

4. INDEX LIVING MALL- Perhaps my favorite store which I've mentioned many times where I bought much of the furniture in my home in Dubai. It's a Thai version of IKEA but much more stylized. 

                                                 

5. Q home decor- Love the glamorous feel of the store, lots of lacquer and mirrored modern furniture!

6. Luckys & Pinkys- you can get tons of indian wood furniture for a steal plus if you peek around the warehouse you'll find some awesome accesories and handpainted porcelain knobs. 

RUGS: 

1. Global village- from Nov to Feb you can get great rugs from all over the world at Global Village. 

2. Pride of Kashmir- During non-global village months you can find great wool rugs from Kashmir at the  on Umm Suquiem East and also at the Blue Souk in Sharjah. 

3. Indigo in Al Quoz sells great quality rugs and the upstairs is all sale so during the summer sales you feel like you are stealing they are so cheap!

Pride of Kashmir

Blue Souk

Blue Souk 

Indigo (I almost bought this for myself because it looks so much like a DVF for The Rug Company!)

Blue Souk 

Blue Souk

Blue Souk

 WALLPAPER:

1. ID Design- (Mall of Emirates) has a great selection of modern wallpapers at decent prices, plus they only take a few days to get in stock!

2. ACE HARDWARE- carries some pretty florals and Indian inspired motifs, they also only take a few days to get in. 

3. Dragonmart- LOADS of cheap wallpapers to be found and even cheaper labor to have it hung. Keep your eye out for simple geometrics and florals and beware of all the glitter. GLITTER WALLPAPER IS A NO-NO! 

4. Satwa- There are also some shops in Satwa, one near the Philipino super market where you can find lots of wallpaper selection. 

LAMPS: 

*let me preface this by saying that lamp shopping has dramatically improved since we got Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel but they aren't cheap!*

1. Indigo- definitely has the best selection but their prices can be pretty high unless you get them in the upstairs sale section. 

2. The White Company- again, these are pricey but they are gorgeous! I bought most of mine there and they are really good quality!

3. Ace hardware- random I know, but they occasionally have cute smaller lamps for super cheap!

4. ID Design- got some great lamps for a client there and spruced it up by recovering the shade!

5. Q Home Decor- love the whole store and the lamps are really affordable!

MIRRORS:

1. Dragonmart- I got my sunburst mirror at dragonmart for 100 dhs ($30) amongst the walls of other hideous ornate mirrors. You can also get custom mirrors made there and a variety of large readymade mirrors. 

*You can also get these amazing geometric screens for 150 dhs to use for walls or headboards ( I used this one recently and just had it painted white!)

2. The ONE outlet- seriously amazing mirrors there, most of them have big cuts in the glass so you could look into having it replaced if it's a framed mirror. 

                                                   

3. Luckys & Pinkys- alot of people like to buy old Indian doors and put mirrors behind them, it's a really neat way to do something that's eastern inspired. 

ACCESORIES:

1. ZARA HOME...of course my favorite store in all of Dubai is ZARA home so I always go there first for accessories! 

                           

2. Index- great accesories for really cheap!

3. Indigo- not as cheap but really cool stuff!

MISCELLANEOUS: 

*Custom curtains, upholstery, pillow covers- Mohamed from WHITE PALACE CURTAINS 050.705.3444 or wpcurtain@yahoo.com

*Fast pillow covers- City land tailors in Satwa

*Fresh flowers and orchids- Garden Gate flowers on Al Wasl road is the only shop in Dubai that will stage your orchids with real moss!

*Down pillow fills- Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, or the ONE (IKEA no longer sells them in the UAE)

* Benjamin Moore paint- it can only be found at ACE Hardware, the Festival City store has both the Classic colors and Color preview.

Wow, now that was alot of information... happy decorating to my Dubai readers!