The year was 2001. We were working in sales for one of those high-tech software companies in Silicon Valley. This was the year of the dot-com boom. The Internet was taking off and people were making money left and right.
We had a little money to play with and decided to decorate our own house. Mind you, we knew nothing about decorating then. We proceeded to waste a lot of money from overpaying for furniture, hiring worthless interiors designers (note: not all interiors designers are worthless, just ours) and whatever else. It was a complete disaster.
So we proceeded to find our own sources for decorating, and in the process, found some amazing places where you can get good stuff for cheap.
It was in one of those boring ass, trying-to-make-some-sales trips that we decided that maybe we could turn what we learned into a viable business. We quit our jobs.
Little did we know, it's a hard, hard business. Especially if you try to run a retail store. Especially after 9/11. Especially if you don't have any clue on how to run a business.
We started out as an online store only; then had this brilliant idea of opening a retail store, which we had no business doing. It almost undid us. Physically. Mentally. Financially.
So we got back to our core business a few years ago, which is to create an e-commerce site for home furnishing products that are pretty and affordable.
This turns out to be the best business decision we ever made.
We now operate two online stores. Inside Avenue is our main store and carries mostly furniture and accessories. Inside Fabric is our first niche store, carrying only upholstery fabrics and wallpapers. We plan to add more niche stores in the future- time and money permitting.
This blog is born out of our love for decorating. We love finding new things and tell you about it.
We love discovering new vendors, especially the small and emerging ones, and write about them.
As we find new resources that are interesting or useful, we share them with you. They are not all neccessarily about decorating. Sometimes we write about food,travel and fashion too.
We hope you enjoy our blog. Thank you for reading.
P.S. Your thoughtful comments are always appreciated (note we said "thoughtful"-read into that as it was intended).
Our stacker security doors went in today for the downstairs kitchen area. We have 5 sets of these doors throughout the house and will be getting the rest after Christmas. What a joy they are...we can just keep the doors open throughout the day keeping flies out as well as offering security. At first I was concerned they would ruin the look of the home both from inside and out but they just blend so easily you don't even notice them. The photos below show how they look both from the interior and exterior.
This picture is from the outside with the stacker wire doors open....
Same view but with them shut. As you can see they just neatly slide out of the way if not needed. I love these wire doors...it has made living in and outdoors a breeze now as I hate the flies!
