Blu Dot puts red dots on everything
"After we left college and began to furnish our first homes, we didn't like the stuff we could afford and we couldn't afford the stuff we liked."
That's the founders of Blu Dot explaining their mission, and it pretty much nails what I love about Blu Dot. When my husband and I moved back to California as new parents after 10 years in the Twin Cities, we vowed that we'd try to outfit our home like grown-ups instead of college students. But we were disappointed to learn that Design Within Reach wasn't quite as within reach as we'd have liked, and Room and Board was a bit of a stretch too.
So we were delighted to discover a little Blu Dot outlet at H.D. Buttercup in Culver City outside Los Angeles. (Blu Dot has since moved to a bigger space on Melrose Avenue in L.A., and it's also on Wooster Street in Soho, plus other retailers carry it.) Its Modu-licious cabinets were still a splurge for us, but they were well made, clean-lined and versatile.
All this is by way of saying that I can personally attest to Blu Dot's value -- and through November 8, everything it offers is 20 percent off as part of its annual sale. I see more than a dozen things I'm coveting already, so I've put together a slideshow of some of Yahoo! Homes' Blu Dot favorites. I hope you like Blu Dot as much as I do.
You can also find loads more Blu Dot items, including some fabulous discontinued pieces, on Yahoo! Shopping.
P.S. If you're into absurdity, you'll like how delightfully weird their product photos and videos are. Here's "Mr. Squirrel," shown here assembling Blu Dot's wonderful Real Good Chair:
