Holiday Hours!

I've decided to close the store for a few days after Christmas and New Year's in order to give my staff (and myself!) a chance to enjoy a bit more time with our families than retailers might otherwise get. Also, the break after New Years should help us all come back bright eyed and ready for the big job of getting the White Sale ready to start in February.

The following are the 2011/2012 Holiday Hours:
Thu December 22 10-8
Fri December 23 10-8
Sat December 24 10-6 ***
Sun December 25 Closed
Mon December 26 Closed
Tue December 27 Closed
Wed December 28 12-4
Thu December 29 10-8
Fri December 30 10-8
Sat December 31 10-4
Sun January 1 Closed
Mon January 2 Closed
Tue January 3 Closed

Regular hours resume on Wednesday January 4 at 10am. Those ***'s on Christmas Eve mean that the close time might be a little flexible. If it's really quiet in the Market and the girls haven't had anyone in for hours they'll close at 4. If it's really busy and the store is full of last minute shoppers they'll stay late. When in doubt give us a call. You can find the store number on the website at www.oleanderforhome.com.

We hope to see you over the Holidays and wish you a very relaxing, restful and merry Christmas!

It's a Heat Wave Sale!

Like many places across North America, it is very, very hot in Ottawa right now. So I've been inspired to run a little sale in the hopes that we can help keep you cool. If you're a regular blog reader you know how I generally feel about sales so you can guess that this one is a little special. Here are the deets:

Heat Wave Sale!
One of the best ways to stay cool is to surround yourself with linen. Its amazing feel and extreme breathability make it the ideal fabric to sleep, lounge and live in when it's firey hot and crazy humid out. Oleander is going to help you keep your cool by putting our 100% linen items on sale! Save 30% on Bella Notte linen sheets, Dawson & Homespun duvet covers and shams, Eve & Milo lounge wear by Alexandre Turpault, LinenMe linen towels and all table linens! The sale is on until it cools down or while supplies last.

It wouldn't be a blog post without some sneak peaks to tempt you!

See you soon!

Inspiration: The Empress's Bedroom

Picking up where I left off in Part one of the Bedroom Inspiration series I'm going to look at how something so fantastic and grand as the Empress's Bedroom in the Grand Trianon at Versailles can be the inspirational starting point for a gorgeous and liveable bedroom in anyone's home.

I had the pleasure of visiting Versailles last year while in France for Maison&Objet and one of the many and fabulous bedrooms in the Grand Trianon has stayed with me ever since.

So today I've put together a little story board with some pieces that can be used not to re-create the Empress's Bedroom, but that can bring the feel and style of it into your home. I'm going to keep the colour scheme of the original but change the placement of the colours into something a little easier to live with. Re-gilding the bed after denting it with the vacuum cleaner would be a total pain so I'll stick to accents for the gold, make ivory the main focus and keep the gorgeous hot pink to a few pieces on the bed.



Starting with the top centre photo I've used the Alyce head board in Loft Alps. It's a modified wing back freestanding headboard with a slight curve at the top and very light button tufting. The Alyce has a softness from it's curvy lines yet is still clean and contemporary so it fits in any room. The soft chenille fabric has a slight shine that gives it a bit of luxury.

The gold tone sunburst mirror is a design classic and gives the room a bit of the glitter that is requisite for a room inspired by Versailles.

I've gone with Bella Notte's Colette Floral in Champagne for the duvet cover and shams. It's a gorgeous soft and shiny jacquard that is as comfy to sleep with as it is beautiful. Bella makes it using both sides of the fabric so one side shows more gold and the other more white, which means that you can add or subtract a bit of the glam gold depending on your mood!

I've gone with Scramble Fuchsia by Pine Cone Hill for the hot, hot pink. I love the pink so I'd go with three (for a queen) or four (for a king) Euro's and the coverlet. I would layer the coverlet over a sheet set done in a soft ivory, but under the duvet. That way the pink can be covered or revealed depending on how little or much pop was required.

Next up I've added some real glam in the form of a mirrored dresser. This one has slightly antiqued mirroring that shows slightly gold. It's a great piece to add the gold tone sparkle required without going overboard. Mirrored furniture is also great for adding light and the impression of space to a smaller room.

Lastly I've got the gold and crystal chandelier. This is one of the pieces in the room that you can save on by buying a petite and restrained version or go big on with a gold and crystal extravaganza. In the background of the chandelier image I've put in a lovely pale aqua green with a touch of grey in it. It's a great choice for the wall colour as it will cool the whole palette and give the room a nice modern edge.

For more information about the Empress's Bedroom please visit the official Chateau de Versailles website.

Bedroom Inspiration Part 1

I've had a fairly large number of clients in lately who were having a hard time finding a place to start when decorating their bedrooms. So I'm going to share some of the websites and blogs that I visit when I need to start a project or just have the desire to look at some pretty.

Often when beginning the process of putting a room together we do have a place to start. It can be a painting, some drapery or upholstered furniture that needs to stay, an antique vase or even a favourite scarf. Any of those can give you a colour palette or dictate the requirements of the rest of the room. For instance, a bold, multicoloured abstract painting can require that the walls and bed linens be white, the furniture be minimal and low profile in order to best show the drama of the work and from it an accent colour can be chosen for a throw blanket and toss cushions, a vase or candles and an area rug that pulls the room into the painting and softens the starkness of an otherwise white room. There are many, many ways to draw an entire room around a single object.

There are however times when we are presented with a truly blank slate, a completely fresh start. And sometimes the hardest room to decorate is the blank slate. At the store I keep six beds fully made up along with lots of other options that we can pull together but what I have on the floors won't necessarily appeal to everyone. I have literally hundreds of fabric samples to look through and play with, but there are many people who are unable to visualize the finished room from small samples. And there is nothing wrong with that at all! So when frustration starts to set in I tell people that taking the time to find inspiration is a good thing. Whether it's from magazines, blogs, tv shows or catalogues, take it where you can find it, bring it in to me and we can create something perfect for you.

The following are some of the places I love to browse through to get inspired and to drool over.

Design*Sponge is a fantastic site full of design and decor how-tos, before & afters and sneak peaks as well as great city guides, drool worthy recipes and up and coming trend spotting.

Apartment Therapy is a huge, huge, site packed full of fantastic interiors. It can be a little difficult to navigate but if you use their search bar and the term "roundup+bedroom" you'll end up with links to countless articles.

DesignTripper is one of my newly found favourites. The photography is stunning and the locations they feature are extremely worthy of your daily daydream allotment.

Houzz is a massive collection of photos. You can use their filters to select room style (ie eclectic, traditional) to help narrow it down a bit. There isn't any content so you can see a lot of images in a short time.

I Want That Bedroom is a similar site with many photos of gorgeous rooms. Again you can filter the results using the tags, but it is a smaller site than some of the others so go ahead and scroll though. You'll enjoy it!

Okay, that's good for now. I'll be back with Part 2 of this post early next week. There will be more links and a couple of bedrooms based on a single object starting point.

Have a great weekend!

What's on the beds?

So I've been promising this post for ages on Twitter and it's finally ready. Almost everything that I've ordered for the spring/summer seasons has arrived so it's time to get the photos up. Starting at the front of the store and working back here is what we're showing for the season.

Bella in Sea Glass. This bed combines a Peony duvet cover, Homespun coverlet & shams, Whisper bed scarf & cases, Linen gathered bed skirt and Celeste toss cushions in Sea Glass with Linen sheets and Whisper bed scarf in White all by Bella Notte.









My current favourite is Wax by Alexandre Turpault. The vibrant pattern makes me smile every time I look at it. Even better is the fact that it can fit into rooms of many different colours as there are two shades of green, two aquas, two purples and three reds on the white ground. I'm showing it on the sky blue Frankie bed combined with our Lara sheets in white. Did I mention that it comes in a second colour as well? It's a more subtle version with tones of green, aqua and yellow on a pale aqua background.








Also by Alexandre Turpault is Mae in Silver. I've paired it with St.Geneve's Capri sheets and euro shams in Dusky Violet. It's a very soft modern floral in dusty tones of silver, mauve and taupe with some white highlights. It does really well on the deep charcoal fabric of the Franco bed and would look just as good on dark woods or leather.










On the cream coloured Alyce bed is Ophelia by Revelle paired with our light blue Lara sheets. I really like the flexibility of this pattern. It's a floral, but one that isn't overly feminine and it certainly isn't fussy. Pairing this pattern with the pale blue sheets gives it softness and a bit of warmth but it can just as easily be done with a pure white sheet for a bit of extra punch. I also really like the idea of doing this pattern on a dark chocolate or even black framed bed and adding some super vibrant accents (acid green!) to give it a fun, modern feel.






Tokyo plum is an abstract plum and dusty violet print on a background that fades from a very pale pink to a soft lilac. I've paired it with a dove grey sheet to tone down the pink a little bit. For a higher drama factor it can be combined with dark purple or aubergine sheets.

Last but not least is Melisande by Manuel Canovas.
Canovas is a new company to us and I couldn't resist this print combination. In a couple of ways it's not the norm for Oleander, the floral is a pretty traditional one and the colour combination is a little louder than I usually go for, but like I said, I just couldn't resist this one. I think that it's the three tone tent stripe in combination with the floral that's a little unexpected. The colour combination is also pretty much unbeatable.

So that's it for what I'm showing on the beds. Additionally we have Anne de Solenne Duetto in Topaz & Cumulus, some Homespun in Sea Glass and Dawson in Sand by Bella Notte on the shelves along with lots of other bits and pieces. We've Also got some really great new accessories, bath products and pj's in but I think that's going to have to wait for another post. Have a great long weekend and we hope to see you if you're going to be in the Market.

The Dreaded Price Increase

One of the hardest things that I deal with as a retailer is price fluctuation at wholesale and retail levels. There are many things that I can do in store to try and hold the line on prices and I do try my hardest to hold prices but there does come a time when there aren't any options left and my prices go up. I'm going to try and explain what's been happening with my manufacturers and why you'll, unfortunately, be seeing increases on my floor in the coming weeks. I'm by no means an expert on this stuff though, so this post is the best of my understanding of the issues. I get most of my information from my manufacturers representatives and trade publications.

Due to the fact that I deal primarily with goods made from natural fibers like cotton, silk and linen there are a huge number of factors that can affect the prices that you'll see in my store. The most basic of those factors is the weather. Last summer the terrible flooding that killed thousands and left so many people homeless is Pakistan also wiped out the country's entire cotton crop. As the world's fourth largest exporter of cotton this represented a massive hit to the cotton market. This shortage to the supply started to affect the manufacturers that I deal with in the fall of last year. At that time most of them were able to absorb the increases with only a few passing on increases to me, which I absorbed rather than raising the prices you see.

Now, here's where it gets tricky. As we all know the developing world is changing very quickly. Demand for consumer goods in places like China and India is growing very rapidly. Countries that used to export almost all of the textile goods produced there are now keeping much of the production for internal consumption. While I don't purchase textiles from Asian manufacturers it still affects my suppliers. Because the demand for cotton is starting to outpace the supply, the cost of all cotton goes up. The same goes for down, silk and wool. The mid to higher end goods that I deal with are being purchased in vast quantities by companies who used to buy only the cheap stuff. Furthermore, my manufacturers are placing orders one day and being told a week or a month later that the price has doubled, or that the order was canceled due to unavailability of raw goods. The result of all this is that I receive price lists that are only good for one or two months, I frequently get notices that cotton velvet or some other fabric is unavailable for the foreseeable future and that my costs are going up.

The following are a couple of links to articles I've found useful and informative: Home Textiles, Blogging Stocks, Home Textiles

So what does that all mean? Well, it means that I've had to raise some prices. Bella Notte hit us with a 20% - 25% percent increase earlier this year. I've been able to offset that a bit by tightening up the way I order Bella, which decreases my import and shipping costs. The high Canadian dollar helps as well. So with Bella, I've been able to keep it to approximately a 10% increase. CuddleDown also gave us 15% + increases this February on everything from towels and sheets to duvets. I can't absorb the increase on the towels but I've not yet raised the prices on the cotton bedding. I'd also purchased a rather lot of their Brome Lake duvets in January so I have those at the lower price. The new St.Geneve catalouge arrived this morning and pretty much everything has gone up from duvets and pillows to bedding, protectors and towels. The good news there is that I currently have a lot of stock of their Lajord and Zeigler duvets so the old prices are good until I have to re-order. I also have a fair amount of Heirloom, Hutterite and Chateau pillows so they will also stay at the lower price while supplies last. Additionally, I am always looking for ways to fine tune my buying and shipping expenditures so I'll keep doing my best in order to keep prices fair.

It's not totally bleak though, while doing a bit of reading this morning there were a couple of articles that noted that India is on track to see fairly dramatic increases in crop harvests this year and cotton production and milling in the US appears to be on the rise as well. So I'll stay hopeful that the dramatic fluctuations we've been seeing lately will even out soon rather than later.

This Twitter Thing

So I've started Tweeting. Is that the right word for it? Well, whatever it's called, I'm doing it. I know that I have difficulty finding the time to sit down and write an interesting and informative blog post with any degree of regularity. I also know that I am really quite neglectful about getting the official website updated with product changes. I'm hoping that I'll find it easy to tweet a sentence or two about what's going on in the store at any given time.

Today, for instance, I tweeted that the spring arrivals from LinenMe have arrived. As it turns out I have more than enough time to do a blog post due to unbelievably nasty weather conditions, but hey, the more info you get the better right?

One of the biggest complaints I hear in store is how difficult it can be to get into the Byward Market and how hard it is to find parking so I'm hoping that I can use Twitter to do the occasional parking update. I can see quite a bit of the York Street street parking lot from my back window as well as Clarence Street and a bit of Murray Street from the front so I thought it might be helpful to people coming in to see us if they know in advance what the parking situation is like. Sounds good?

Like with the LinenMe (@linen_luxury in case you were curious) tweet today, I'll try to do product arrivals as they come in as well as the parking thing, announcements about sales and events and, if I get really good at this stuff, tweets about shopping the trade shows, inspiration and general things I love.

Are you with me? You can find me on Twitter @OleanderforHome.

But just for you blog reader, a couple of photos of the new arrivals.

It's time for the White Sale!

It's that time of year again. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but I have a feeling that you are. Tuesday February 15th marks the start of our annual White Sale. I feel the need to capitalize in the middle of a sentence because it's kind of a big deal. If you're a regular at Oleander for Home, you'll know that Sales are a very rare thing for me. Sure, I discount floor model bedding or pj's if there are some left at the end of the season. Every now and then I'll even have to clear product that wasn't a good fit for the store. But a store wide sale? It happens only twice a year. One is Oleander's Anniversary Party, held in the last week of November each year, when I extend a discount of 15% on all purchases made at the event. It's a three hour invitation only party that doubles as a fund raiser for the Ottawa Food Bank. And you heard that right: it's a store wide sale that lasts for a mere three hours. I do it every year as a thank you to my clients and because it's fun. The big deal, or real deal I guess, is the White Sale. It runs from February 15th to March 15th every year. Almost, and I do mean almost, everything in the store goes on sale. And let me tell you - the discounts are, for the most part, much bigger than that 15% you'll get at the Anniversary Party.

So what's the deal with the White Sale? Why is it so special? It's like this: I don't like the idea of using sales and discounts to sell products. I believe that merchants should strive to offer great products at fair prices and provide excellent service to back it up. Stores that are constantly offering sales, promotions and massive discounts simply can't survive and still offer great products at fair prices with excellent service. Something has to give. You're going to end up with inferior products, overinflated "regular" prices or poor to non-existent customer service. There's no real way that I could offer the products I have at the prices I do if I was discounting and offering sales every time someone asked "is that on sale now?" So again, why a big sale if it's impossible to have big sales? It's because I only do it once a year and I work hard to get it right. I'm able to go to my suppliers and buy the beautifully made linens that they need to clear in order to make room for the next year's fabrics. I bring in carefully selected duvet cover sets and sheets sets in fabrics that, for one reason or another, are being phased out or that the manufacturer simply overstocked. I buy locally made duvets and pillows in very large quantities (well, very large for a small independent store!) and pass on the volume discounts to my clients. The same goes with towels, robes and bath products. The timing of the White Sale is also very important. I go to trade shows at the end of January and take advantage of the show specials that my manufacturers use to entice me to spend more at a time of year that I might otherwise hold the purse strings tight. So there you have it. That's the deal with the Oleander for Home White Sale.

This year I have Revelle duvet cover & sheet sets, Brome Lake duvets & pillows, Bella Notte bedspreads & linen sheet sets, Peacock Alley coverlets, Amenity duvet covers, cushions and wall prints, throws, blankets, Alexandre Turpault bedding and loungewear, Royal Apothic fragrances, Portofino, LinenMe & Talesma towels, BedHead pj's and robes, Bath Matters locally made bath products, LinenWay table linens, Caldrea home care products and lighting too. It's all on sale while supplies last or until March 15th.

But I'm not really done yet . . .

In a slightly shocking turn of events a lot of my White Sale goods have shown up early. So you, beloved blog reader, get to take advantage of the deals a little early. The official notices won't go out for a couple of days yet but there are lots of great deals to be had right now. Come in and see me, you definitely won't regret it.