If you’re in the mood to be getting the house ready for holiday festivities, there are a couple of great new spots. The first of these is a furniture warehouse that is a major resource for upscale home furnishings stores on the Island. During the week, Brandon of New York is a no-frills football-field-sized operation that sells wholesale to the crème de la crème retailers. On Sundays only, it opens its doors to the retail customer. The place has a motley assortment of goods, in container-lot volume, all priced at about half of what you could expect to pay elsewhere. There are huge oil paintings in the manner of contemporary masters—I saw one Tamara Lempicka with an ornate gold frame ticketed at $225. Another one, of a dog wearing a straw hat, would look good on Jimmy Buffett’s wall. There was a huge mahogany library table with carved side pieces depicting a seahorse. The owner tells me this one is going to offered in the Ralph Lauren collection next year—seemingly a bargain here at $495.
There was a wonderful painted Chinese cabinet with four doors and two drawers, purported to be more than 100 years old. It’s similar to ones that I’ve seen at ABC Home—this one was $450. There were ladies’ desks priced at $295. There were huge and primitive Mexican-pine armoires ticketed at $400 to $750. I loved the wrought-iron onion-dome birdcages for $399. Among the small pieces were lovely majolica lamps and jardinières. A cute little yellow-and-green lamp with a bunny and matching ivy-sprigged shade was well-priced at $29. Pretty needlepoint pillows were $29-$48.
Another entry in the burgeoning household-goods is Home Goods in Rockville Centre, where purple velvet buckwheat-filled pillows ($9.99) vie with “2000” embroidered cocktail napkins ($7.99), jalapeño jelly beans and a $149.99 Waterford serious crystal whiskey decanter. The best thing I saw on the floor was a lush purple washable velvet duvet cover for $39.99.
This place has been open only a couple of weeks, and it’s already filled with annoying South Shore matrons yakking into cell phones. The service is sincere, but sketchy. Lots of things do not have price tags. Still, it’s worth checking out.
Brandon of New York 123 Frost St, Westbury, 516-997-8650. Home Goods 150 N Village Ave, Rockville Centre, 516-255-1951.